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The Music Room => Great Recordings and Reviews => Topic started by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:22:52 AM

Title: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:22:52 AM
[I plan on continuing this for a while - indeed, I got a big ol' stack of new music in my to-hear pile - so I figured I'd bring this thread over too.]


New to me at least.  As my journey through complete cycles of Beethoven's piano sonatas winds down (though it may take months to get everything written, if I go that route), I began to wonder what will become my buying and listening focus.  And no, it (probably) won't be Beethoven's symphonies.  Debussy's piano music would be good, I suppose, but I've been buying and listening to that in rather copious quantities over the last couple years as well, so that wouldn't work.  Then it occurred to me: I must listen to more "new" music, or in other words, music I've not heard before.  While I've listened to a pretty wide variety of music over the decade or so that I've been seriously listening to classical music, I've not listened to anywhere near enough music.  There are thousands upon thousands of works, and I've heard perhaps thousands.  Not enough. 

So I've decided to listen to as much new music as I can over the next year or two or three or whatever.  From time to time I'll write about said new music.  Keep in mind that this is music new to me, and so I may end up covering not only modern (ie, post-war) music, but also music going all the way back to the Baroque, or earlier.  Mostly, though, I expect most of the music to come from my favorite century, musically speaking: the 20th Century.  There's so much variety that it seems the best place to start.

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Or not.  I ended up selecting music from the 21st Century for my inaugural post.  Specifically, I selected Huang Ruo's Chamber Concerto Cycle from 2000-2002 on Naxos, as played by the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Ruo himself.  Ruo is a name completely new to me.  He's a young (born 1976) Chinese born, now American domiciled composer who, according to the liner notes, some of which were written by Ruo, has been influenced by just about everything.  It shows.  The four concertos are brief works for ensembles ranging from five to fifteen players, with a few more instruments than that as some players double (or more) instruments.  They all blend Eastern influences and Western traditions, including jazz and everything avant garde.  One can detect whiffs of Bach, most notably in a cello part in the third concerto; Lutoslawksi, in the more astringent, densely written instrumental parts; and gobs of Stravinsky.  I thought I detected some transformed quotes from a work or two, and many portions sound like lost Stravinsky works from the 60s.  Even the jazz infused elements remind me more of Stravinsky's approach to this idiom than of the idiom itself.  That may be bad or good, depending on one's preferences.

People who like percussion will love this music, because there's a lot of it.  All but the third concerto have parts for percussion, and it's here where Ruo shines.  The writing and playing are vibrant, physical, and visceral.  Drums and cymbals and gongs (including one big old honkin' "bass" gong, if there be such a thing) show up everywhere, in speedy, energetic, and nimble music.  Winds and strings are plentiful too, often exploring their higher registers to good, tangy, dissonant effect.  And there's that whole "exotic" Eastern thing, too, sort of like adrenalized, mandarin Takemitsu.  Ruo and company also include spoken and sung parts in the piece, all of which involve Chinese texts.  Truth to tell, I find the instrumental writing more compelling than the vocal writing, and sometimes it doesn't seem as well integrated as a Mozart aria or a Lutoslawski orchestral song.  But I like it.  Perhaps most promising is the fact that Ruo was only in his mid twenties when he wrote the music, so as he matures he may write something even better.  As it is, this disc will receive multiple spins.

Sound is close and clear and quite good, though some low frequency noise and rumble is audible through most of it. 

(A note: I anticipate many Naxos discs will be covered.  Revisiting the Naxos catalog reveals many enticing titles.  Too many, in fact.) 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:24:02 AM
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It's new to me.  It took me a while to get in to Italian opera, then a little more time to get into Gioacchino Rossini, and then a bit more time until I figured I might want to try his Stabat Mater.  His comic operas, or at least some of them, are wonderful, and even Guillame Tell has some magnificent parts.  But a Stabat Mater?  I decided to try a "safe" conductor in the great Carlo Maria Giulini, well aware of what such a comparatively late recording means in terms of tempo (slow or slowish) and approach (devout).  I selected at least reasonably wisely.

The work very definitely sounds operatic in approach, at least when compared to liturgical works by, say, Haydn or Bach.  Rossini's music works splendidly for the soloists at all times, with just the right accompaniment for each of the members of the quartet.  And the tenor, well, he gets some special music, even if it sounds more buoyant that I would have expected in such a work.  The choral contribution is magnificent as well, never more so than in the last two movements.  Alternatively delicate and enchanting and powerful and driven, it helps the work.

The soloists all sound well, though since I've not heard any other versions, I can't make any comparisons.  Giulini leads the work much the way I though he would, and thus I was very pleased.  I can't really say that this is my favorite such work – not with works by Bach and Haydn and Szymanowski out there – and it certainly doesn't strike me as particularly devout, but I'm glad I heard it, even if I'm not really compelled to collect too many (if any) other versions.

The early digital sound is better than I anticipated – maybe it got a makeover – if it still displays patches of glassiness and congestion at times.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:24:48 AM
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Here's a composer new to me.  To the extent I'd even seen Leonardo Balada's name before it was only in ads.  That's a shame.  I picked up the Naxos disc devoted to his Guernica, Homage to Sarasate, Homage to Casals, Fourth Symphony, and a suite derived from his opera Zapata, appropriately entitled Zapata: Images for Orchestra

In many ways Balada is what I'm looking for in new music, and here that means music from as recent as 1992 (the symphony).  He blends folk music a la Bartok and Ives, intense modernism, and avant garde elements calling to mind Ligeti, among others.  The music on this disc never sounds academic or merely analytical; there's the spark of life to all of it.  Guernica, from 1966, opens the disc, and the piece is inspired by Picasso's work of the same name, and both depict, rather gruesomely, the Spanish Civil War.  The piece does about as good a job translating the image to music as I can imagine, though perhaps others can imagine a better visual-to-aural transcription.  (If so, they should write it down.)  It's chaotic and violent and confused and ugly and vibrant, and has the musical equivalent of an explosion right in the middle.  It's a dense, short work of just over 11 minutes, and while it's not easy listening, it's immensely gripping.

The two homages are more deliberately avant garde, what with spooky high string notes and tremolos and disjointed elements coming and going.  They seem somewhat less focused than the first work, but they are likewise compelling.  The Fourth Symphony is an interesting work in that it was written for Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (hence its title "Lausanne"), and contains, the excellent liner notes report, elements of Swiss folk music.  Again, it's a very modernist piece, but one informed by many moments of levity and textural lightness and even beauty.  In some ways, the two homages and the symphony sound the same – a critique anti-modernists would no doubt level – but there's much more than enough musical food for thought in each piece.

The final work is the suite derived from Zapata.  What a collection!  The first movement, a Waltz, sounds just like a 19th Century waltz and falls beautifully on the ears, with delicate string writing.  The piece slowly transmogrifies into grotesque, almost chaotic music meant to symbolize a firing squad.  It's very effective.  The March starts and stays grotesque in the best Expressionist-cum-trippy-avant-garde fashion, at times sounding like (disturbed) cartoon music.  The wonderful Elegy is apparently lifted straight from the opera, with a solo cello taking Zapata's part and a solo violin his dying brother's part.  The work closes with a Wedding Dance using Jarabe Tapatio (which pretty much everyone knows) as its recurring theme, which Balada then spins out in different directions while weaving in his own music most expertly.  It's sort of like what Ives did, but more sophisticated.

This is one heck of a disc, and I now know I must explore more of Balada's music.  Pronto.

Excellent sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:26:37 AM
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My experience with Alan Rawsthorne has been quite limited thus far.  I've heard a Naxos disc dedicated to various chamber works by the composer, which includes the superb Viola Sonata among other fine works, as well as another Naxos disc of various concertos, which I find rather bland.  Given that, I decided it couldn't hurt to try more of his chamber music, so I opted for the Maggini Quartet's recording of the three String Quartets and Theme and Variations for Two Violins, again on Naxos.  It falls somewhere between the two other discs, though much closer to the prior chamber music disc.

The disc opens with the Theme and Variations for Two Violins, and it's a pretty nice work.  It falls rather easily on the ear overall, though some spicy dissonant passages crop up, and the variations themselves are nicely varied stylistically and in emotional impact.  It's not a towering masterpiece perhaps, but it's not bad.  (Then again, it may be a towering masterpiece.)

The core of the disc starts off with the first quartet, another theme and variations work.  Compact and concise at about 10', it moves along swiftly from idea to idea, never hovering over one idea too long.  Even so, it doesn't pack quite the wallop I'm looking for in music of the era (1939).  Better is the second quartet from 1954.  It's likewise compact and concise at under 18', but from the start it's more intense and thorny and vital.  Stinging and biting while still maintaining some lyricism and vigor, it really works.  Not that it's all that way; Rawsthorne let's silence and extremely quiet playing add to the impact of the music.  The third quartet (1965) goes a bit further down the same path and maintains tension throughout.  I suppose one can detect hints of other great quartet writers, but Rawsthorne is distinctive enough.  No, he can't quite match up to, say, Bartok or Shostakovich, but I'm glad I got this disc nonetheless.  Looks like Rawsthorne's up my alley in smaller scale fare.  Duly noted.

Sound is generally excellent, though it can be just a tad bright at times.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:27:19 AM
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Moving on to the next work finds an opera I've been meaning to hear for a while but have never gotten around to.  I write of Carl Maria von Weber's Oberon.  I rather like Der Freischutz, so it's somewhat surprising to me that it took as long as it did to get to this one.  But it did. 

I was able to pick up a used copy of Marek Janowski's 1996 recording, so no more delays would be tolerated.  First I'll just comment on the SOTA sound: It's glorious.  Everything is clear and warm and presented in realistic perspective.  Special mention must be made of the sound of the choral singing.  The words they sing are usually clear, their placement easy to discern.  That's a bonus. 

The opera itself is pretty good, though not of Freischutz quality.  The elf king and his love's bet on the devotion of humans in love and Oberon's machinations to help the heroes and heroines is opera-silly, and it doesn't really seem meaty enough to support the proceedings at times, but it'll do.  (Really, Der Freischutz, is pretty silly, too.)  The spoken dialogue is comparatively lame – at least when compared to the occasionally compelling dialogue in Der Freischutz – and it sure sounds like closely-miked actors do the speaking rather than the singers, but what ya gonna do?  The singers generally do well.  The late Deon van der Walt makes a fine elf king, Peter Seiffert a brave Huon, and Inga Nielsen makes a pleasant sounding Rezia.  (Which is a good thing given how much she sings.)  Vasselina Kassarova's Fatime and Bo Skovhus' Scherasmin are also pleasant enough to hear.  Janowski leads a tightly controlled, rhythmically sprung, lively, and orchestrally transparent account of the music, though I can't comment on how he (or the singers) compare to others.

The music is good enough so that I will return to it.  Weber's inventive writing and orchestration – a flute melody flying above a string accompaniment, undulating clarinets with low strings supporting them, etc – and the general energy level make it a fun listen.  I'll probably program out the dialogue next time, but really, I have no complaints.  Now I have to give Kubelik a try.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2007, 03:24:07 PM
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I figured it was about time to try another disc of Leonardo Balada's music, so I opted for the Naxos disc with his second Cello Concerto, entitled New Orleans, along with his Concerto for Four Guitars and Orchestra, as well as two shorter orchestral works, Celebracio and a Passacaglia.  Again, it was a good choice. 

The disc opens with the Cello Concerto (2001), which is heavily influenced by "folk" sources, here a combination of spirituals and jazz.  The opening movement entitled Lament is influenced rather obviously by spirituals; it fairly oozes with the stuff.  But it works.  The music is still dense and layered and surprisingly modern while retaining an immediately accessible neo-romantic sound.  One may even be able to detect very faint whiffs of American-era Dvorak in the mix, along with hints of jazz.  The cello part is well written and superbly played by Michael Sanderling.  The second movement, called Swinging swings!  Here the obvious spiritual references are replaced by jazz elements that sound more than jazzy enough.  It's more a Gershwin or perhaps Schulhoff style of jazz than an Ellington or Davis style, and it appears in a strangely surreal, dream-like setting; the music flows along, with jazzy bits popping in and out at random, or seemingly so.  (Of course it's not really random.)  So much sounds so familiar, but it's all new invention.  One can't place the exact influence because it's a blend of many, and it just jells.  Another superb work.

I approached the Concerto for Four Guitars and Orchestra (1976), with the Versailles Guitar Quartet doing the small ensemble honors, with some trepidation.  Truth to tell, I'm not a big fan of acoustic guitar music, in its classical guise or any other guise.  A little bit goes a long way.  Electrify and amplify the instrument, and, well, the same holds true.  But here I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  First things first: this is a decidedly "modern" work, all knotty and dense and avant garde, so some may run for cover just reading that.  I almost did.  But I stuck it out.  When the guitars enter, they play with a nice degree of tension and simple repetitiveness, then something quite striking happens – they blend seamlessly into the pizzicato high strings that bring the orchestra in full bore.  Throughout the work the transitions between orchestra and soloists sound perfect, and Balada never lets the orchestra overpower the four instruments, which could very easily happen.  The second movement (the movements are titled I, II, and III) is slow and eerie, with some tangy and delicious high register playing on the guitars and various intriguing devices elsewhere.  The nine minutes sail by, and then the final movement just appears, with more energy and bite and some satisfying tuttis sprinkled throughout.  That makes yet another winner.

Next up is Celebracio from 1992.  It opens very slowly and quietly and has a distinctly baroque sensibility.  It quickly expands into a denser, more modern sounding piece, with Balada's writing highlighting different sections of the orchestra to spectacular effect.  It takes a little time, but the piece develops into full, grand, celebratory music that works as both a thought-provoking musical essay and easily accessible public showpiece. 

The disc closes with a Passacaglia from 2002.  It sounds spare and lovely to open, and it immediately evokes the same type of quasi-dream state that the Cello Concerto does.  And that wind writing!  I know I've heard something like it before.  Or have I?  Various musical ideas dance in and out of the piece fluidly, yet there's an effortlessness and inevitability to how the music progresses.  It starts off abstract and hard to pin down, but slowly turns into a folk passacalle.  Another little gem.

All parties involved do a superb job, with Colman Pierce showing himself to be a fine conductor and the Barcelona orchestra a rather fine regional ensemble.  Excellent sound rounds out a superb disc.  At full price it would be worth every cent; at the Naxos price it's a veritable steal.  I need more Balada.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Guido on April 08, 2007, 08:23:11 AM
Thanks for these - all very interesting reads. I do not share your enthusiasm for Balada, but it is good to read nonetheless. You should try the Naxos disc of the Rawsthorne Cello concerto again - even if the thematic material isn't always first rate, there are many moments of real beauty, and it is a very good work. The Symphonic Studies on the same disc is similarly brilliant.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2007, 06:00:37 AM
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For years I planned on getting this disc, yet I only recently got around to doing so.  I didn't really miss a whole lot.  Don't get me wrong, the disc isn't terrible or even bad – hell, it's okay or better – but it doesn't really offer anything that really catches the attention for long in two of the three works.  The best of the lot is the trio by Gunther Schuller, which is dense and layered and rhythmically complex, all while being subtle.  The Lalo Schifrin and Gerald Shapiro trios both bring to mind that famous Stravinsky quip: "Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end."  Both works are too long, and while both have some appealing elements, I just cannot get into them.  It's not that they're especially difficult, "modernist" pieces, mind you, they just don't hold my attention.  Indeed, the Shapiro has some decidedly romantic aspects, including a creamy beautiful Adagio, but it still just doesn't do it for me.

Sound is generally excellent and spacious, especially with HDCD decoding.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 06:12:55 AM
Thanks for carrying the thread on, Todd.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2007, 07:18:28 AM
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Heitor Villa-Lobos isn't a composer new to me, but aside from The Baby's Family and one other miniature played by Nelson Freire on an Audiofon recording of a 1984 recital, I've not listened to his piano music.  So I figured why not give one of Sonia Rubinsky's discs of the composer's piano music a shot?  Ms Rubinsky apparently is recording a complete set of Villa-Lobos' piano music, so if one disc is good there may be more goodies to be heard.  Plus the discs have been well-reviewed, so I figured the music and playing should be at least pretty good.  They're much more than that.

If the third volume in the series is anything to go by, this is one heck of a series, and Villa-Lobos is one heck of a composer for solo piano.  The disc opens with the Suite Floral, and it's an absolutely lovely little work.  Much of it sounds like a missing piece by Faure, though the third piece betrays its non-French heritage with some verve not often found in the piano works of the more famous French composer.  Next up is Ciclo Brasileiro, which is another collection of miniatures that at times sounds like a modern-day Latinization of other composers: The third piece sounds like virtuosic, Latin Chopin; the fourth sounds very much like a tropical Prokofiev.  That's not to say that Villa-Lobos doesn't have his own voice.  He does.  Indeed, the opening miniature is simply wonderful, with its ubiquitous right hand ostinato underpinning lyrical left hand playing, and the second piece sounds like a waltz-meets-tango dance.  The next work is Brinquedo de Roda, which one can think of as Villa-Lobos' version of Children's Corner.  It's largely delightful, but such a suite invariably invites comparison to Debussy's more famous, and better, work, and at times the material just doesn't rise to the same level as the other music on the disc.  The next work is a trio of pieces called  Dancas Caracteristicas Africanas, and while there's a "folk" element to it, it ultimately sounds abstract and rhythmically complex, and really invites the listener to listen carefully.  The disc ends with four miniatures – Tristorosa and three Choros – and all of them display the same traits, to one degree or another, of the preceding works.  On the basis of this music, I can't quite say that Villa-Lobos should be considered alongside the very greatest composers for the keyboard, but he deserves far more attention, and I intend to here more discs in this series.

To the pianist: she is quite fine indeed!  Perhaps because she's Brazilian, or perhaps because of her training and technique, or perhaps because of all of that and more, Ms Rubinsky really delivers the goods.  She seems to understand the music well, and she masterfully handles the rhythmic aspects of the music and brings out delicate and varied tonal colors throughout the disc.  I'd very much like to hear her in some standard rep – above all, Chopin and Schumann – and I know I must hear more of her Villa-Lobos. 

Sound is superb, though some pedaling is perhaps a little more noticeable than ideal.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 22, 2007, 06:38:01 AM
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I figured it was time for two things: some new Mozart, and a brief Brazilian aside in my on-going journey.  How to do both?  Follow up new music by Heitor Villa-Lobos with music by Mozart Camargo Guarnieri.  Guarnieri, who according to the Naxos notes is "universally recognized as the most important Brazilian composer after Villa-Lobos," is entirely new to me.  If I'd even seen his name before, I'd forgotten it.  But this disc stuck out in the "G" rack, what with its bright, colorful cover and its unfamiliar name.  That the disc contained a trio of piano concertos convinced me to buy.

The disc contains the first three of Guarnieri's six piano concertos.  I decided to start with the first.  The opening movement – Salvagem – bursts into being, with bright, colorful, dense and slightly opaque orchestral writing very much outside the standard European tradition.  It's infused with local folk music, or an intellectual abstraction of Brazilian folk music, and has a vital, swinging rhythm to it.  The piano writing varies nicely between a bravura, virtuosic style and a more delicate, color-conscious approach.  The slow movement, here called Saudosament, displays sparer writing for both band and soloist, and perhaps even a dash of despair.  The closing Depressa is back to showy concerto mode, with especially appealing wind writing of the Latin variety.  A fine opener.

The second concerto opens with a Decidido that sounds more sophisticated musically as well as grander and more sweeping.  Whereas the piano is largely integrated with the orchestra in the first concerto, here the piano is more prominent.  Bright and substantial and showy, the piece shares definite stylistic similarities with the earlier work.  The second movement Afetusoso is rich and complex and comparatively exotic.  It sounds very much like a Latin piece in the style of, well, Villa-Lobos, with, again, the winds adding unique textures and vibrancy to the music.  The piece closes with a Vivo that opens with rapid-fire piano playing and then moves along with an irresistible drive to the end. 

The third piano concerto opens with an Allegro deciso that is frenetic and propulsive out of the gate, but which slows up a bit to allow exceedingly colorful orchestral writing to shine through, and also some dazzling asides for various instruments and exhilarating exchanges between soloist and orchestra.  The slow movement – here labeled Magoado – is slow a sparse with chamber music-like textures and a lovely duo involving the piano and flute.  The work closes with a Festivo that's tangy and robust, with, yet again, especially attractive wind writing.  The piano part is again relatively integrated into the whole, but it also displays nice virtuosic flashes.  The music occasionally sounds languid and humid, if you will, but mostly it's vibrant and celebratory.

So, here's a disc filled with vibrant, exciting music making.  In some ways, I guess one could draw parallels to Bartok's three piano concertos, though any such action would do justice to neither composer.  It would also point out one weakness in the music on this disc: it's almost all about show.  These are largely virtuosic showpieces and lack the depth of the greatest (or even greater) piano concertos.  Since Deep and Heavy music isn't always needed, I do know I'll come back to these pieces again, and I'd even like to hear not only the remaining piano concertos, but also some other music by this composer.  The pianist, Max Barros, acquits himself quite nicely here, playing with flair and panache, and Thomas Conlin and the Warsaw Philharmonic support him very well indeed.  Excellent sound.  A winner.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: johnQpublic on April 22, 2007, 06:58:16 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 09, 2007, 06:00:37 AM
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but it doesn't really offer anything that really catches the attention for long in two of the three works.  The best of the lot is the trio by Gunther Schuller, which is dense and layered and rhythmically complex, all while being subtle. 

Yeah, that's kind of my assessment too, although I have not played the disc in a while. Wasn't the Schifrin sort of a hommage to Ravel and therefore he toned down his atonal tendancies for it?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2007, 06:42:14 PM
Quote from: johnQpublic on April 22, 2007, 06:58:16 AMWasn't the Schifrin sort of a hommage to Ravel and therefore he toned down his atonal tendancies for it?


I believe so.  I think I'd rather listen to Ravel.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2007, 06:43:48 PM
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How does one approach a recording like Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's final recording of orchestral love songs written for her by her husband?  There's certainly the potential for hagiography and exaggeration given the tragic circumstances, but I opted just to listen and gauge whether I like the music for what it is.  Previously I'd only heard the late Mrs Lieberson in two other works: Handel's Theodora under William Christie, and Mahler's Second under Michael Tilson Thomas.  In both cases she more or less made the recording, the former especially.  In this disc she is the recording.  Everything about it is very clearly meant for her and she delivers the goods.  The disc contains settings of five love poems penned by Pablo Neruda, which the Liebersons selected together.  The great care I imagine they devoted to the project pays off.

The first two names that jumped immediately into my mind within the first few notes are Mahler and Berg.  Since I like Mahler and Berg, that's quite alright with me.  My first overall impression of the music and performance, and one that stayed as I listened to the whole work, was one of intense, personal music.  These are not necessarily grand orchestral songs, but rather are intimate selections, and Mrs Lieberson nails every song with such delicate nuance and subtle inflection and communicative power that one just sits and revels in the music.  The close miking helps bring out every last expressive gesture in her voice.  The orchestral writing is mostly "modern," in an early-20th Century kind of way, though there are more than a few moments of exquisite beauty.  All of the songs work well, with the absolutely wonderful My love, if I die and you don't that closes the disc a rather obvious and moving farewell, which brings to mind Strauss' closer to the Four Last Songs.  And this song is as good as that one.  For me, though, the highlight is the third song – Don't go far off, not even for a day, because – which is a perfect synthesis of text, music, and interpretation.  The winding, gripping music and lyrics set the stage for singing of a very high order indeed.  At times throughout the disc it may be possible to hear hints of excess or self-indulgence, but if there is any subject that not only withstands but benefits from such things, it's love, especially in the circumstances here. 

I very much like this disc.  When it comes to orchestral songs I still prefer some other works – by the three other composers mentioned here for starters – but this disc is superb.  For me it serves as a primer to explore more of Peter Lieberson's music, and it also obviously stands as a monument to the late Mrs Lieberson.  Here's a work where it may be fine if no other recordings are ever made.  Really, what would be the point, and who could ever compare?


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 11, 2007, 05:31:37 AM
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Something entirely new seemed warranted.  You know, music by a composer I'd never so much as read a sentence about.  Stephen Hartke fit the bill.  I'd seen the name, but knew nothing beyond how to spell his name.  When I stumbled upon this disc at a local store I decided to buy based on two things: the fact that it was so new to me, and the fact that no less than Richard Stolzman plays the solo part in the main work on the disc, the Clarinet Concerto from 2001.

And that seems a good place to start.  The work is apparently influenced not only by jazz and blues, but also by the music that was the root of much jazz and blues, western African music.  Since I'm not an ethnomusicologist, I can't really vouch for how significantly this piece resembles said music, but I can report than the opening movement, Senegambia, is bright and vibrant and has a pulsating energy to it, all premised on a five-note ostinato bass-line.  It has a very groovy, dance-like feel to it, and it reminds me of proto-jazz rather than proto-blues.  (An exploration of the roots of the blues is what it's about.)  Stolzman, well, as I expected, he handles all with panache and ease, infusing his part with life.  Now, the second movement, Delta Nights, it's something different.  It's slower and darker, but still relatively bright and lively for something trying to evoke night.  Or is it?  (Sorta depends on what type of night life one has in mind, I guess.)  The clarinet adds a drowsy, decidedly bluesy feel to the music.  At times the playing and the music brought Erwin Schulhoff's Hot Sonata to mind.  It has that same composed spontaneity and directness that the earlier work does.  There's nice, light, transparent support from the small orchestra, too, with luxuriant string writing, and at times, for a slow movement, the whole thing is a bit dazzling.  The final movement, Philamayork, opens with muscular playing from the orchestra, and slinky and groovy playing from the soloist.  The music picks up in both speed and energy, and becomes a bit denser along the way.  After a while it seems rather like a more modern, more vital Gershwin.  It's just plain dandy, too.  A definite winner.

The rest of the disc is given over to shorter works.  The Rose of the Winds, a string octet from 1998, is a darker hued though not dark toned work, with rich, lush low strings supporting shimmering high strings in a sort of abstract musical journey.  There are of course lighter parts that have the buoyancy from the first work, and the whole thing unfolds effortlessly as idea after idea comes forth.  Gradūs, a sextet from 1999, sounds surprisingly "big", and the up-close recording brings the piece to vibrant life.  The double bass provides the springy rhythm, and the rest of the ensemble add tight, bright playing over that, with the bass clarinet adding some most welcome texture.  Pacific Rim, from 1988, is an orchestral work that is rather obvious in showing its eastern influences (a comment, not a criticism), and it sounds bright and crisp and snappy, with a sure rhythmic sense – something Hartke seems intent on imbuing every work with.  The orchestration is diverse and novel, and some combos work very well, and when one considers all the textural changes and even the fugue, one can only conclude that is a fine work.

I'm definitely glad I got this disc.  It's fresh-air contemporary music, by which I mean it's decidedly modern in its use of disparate influences and techniques, but it's also as un-stodgy as can be, and is immediately accessible.  No deep-thought is necessary to enjoy this work – in contrast to, say Charles Wourinen – but listening with an analytical ear only increases one's appreciation of the music.  I look forward to hearing more from this composer.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on May 11, 2007, 06:03:15 AM
Quote from: johnQpublic on April 22, 2007, 06:58:16 AM
Wasn't the Schifrin sort of a hommage to Ravel and therefore he toned down his atonal tendancies for it?

Schifrin had atonal tendencies?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on May 11, 2007, 06:04:29 AM
Very interesting review of the Hartke, Todd, thanks!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2007, 06:54:06 AM
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I'd had two positive experiences with discs of Leonardo Balada's music, so I decided to try a third disc.  I've had three positive experiences with discs of Leonardo Balada's music.  This new disc is of his first Violin Concerto (1982) and three smaller works, Folk Dreams (1994-98), Sardana (1979), and Fantasías Sonoras (1987).  I'll just dive right in,

The Violin Concerto is the meat of the disc.  The very modernist sounding work opens with an almost quasi-Messiaen orchestra-sounds-like-an-organ sound with blocks of music thrown out, though the sound is harder and darker than the Frenchman's music.  The violinist enters with slashing playing to meet the challenge of the orchestra, but soon the soloist is truly going solo, and the music is involving and suits the instrument well.  It also takes on a dance-like character.  The orchestral writing largely alternates between big blocks of sound and tingly, spiky, but always intriguing and inviting and novel little spurts of sound.  The music becomes lighter as the movement progresses.  The second movement – II – is the standard slow movement, and here the violin gets some gloriously gorgeous melodies to play.  I thought more than once of Samuel Barber here.  As the movement progresses, the music gets tangier, and the soloist still keeps one riveted.  The music bleeds attacca right into the final movement, which is a suitably conventional fast ending, complete with a jaunty, saucy dance-like feel for the violin, and groovy and beefy orchestral music, with some nice thundering right before the humorous little end.  All involved do a swell job, but Andrés Cárdenes is worthy of special praise for his fine fiddlin'.  I wouldn't mind at all hearing him play something else.  So, another winner from the Spaniard.

The next work, Folk Dreams, is a collection of three work written throughout the 90s for different conductors and orchestras (rather like Elliot Carter's Symphonia), and all are inspired by folk music (whodda guessed?), though put through the surrealist treatment.  The first piece, Line and Thunder, based on a Latvian theme, has a reasonably attractive melody coursing through the work, with heavier, more rhythmically syncopated music interrupting the flow to good effect.  Shadows, based on a Catalan theme, is slower and darker and richer, with at times eerie high strings put to good use.  The music is varied and layered and falls invitingly on the ears.  Echoes, based rather obviously on an Irish theme, is vigorous and jaunty and has slightly sinister overtones to it.  All told, another fine work.  Not Symphonia good perhaps, but good all the same.

The next work, Sardana, is yet another folk music inspired, dance-like piece.  It takes a traditionally small ensemble piece and fleshes it out with nice wind writing, nice rhythmic flair, and a generally light though sometimes sharp sound.  That written, it does sound a bit too long.  Fantasías Sonoras is a brief work where one cell is continually transmogrified throughout the work.  Generous textural and dynamic contrasts, copious orchestral colors, and an at times boisterous sound all lend themselves to a good time. 

Balada is three-for-three for me. 

Excellent sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: BorisG on May 12, 2007, 03:23:58 PM
Todd, who is the distracting effeminate-looking fellow in your posts?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2007, 07:41:14 PM
That's a young Val Kilmer in the great comedy Top Secret!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 12, 2007, 09:18:15 PM
Thanks Todd. Your reviews are always interesting and helpful.

If you want to get into Debussy's piano music some more, you MUST buy this set:

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on May 13, 2007, 01:04:11 AM
Any comments on the sound on this? No dubt on artistic quality though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 13, 2007, 03:22:51 AM
These range from terrible to decent. The first two CDs have a disclaimer saying that the historical value of these recordings makes them worthwhile despite lousy sound quality. The worst ones include the Beethoven Sonata no 3, Three Chopin Mazurkas, Mozart and Schumann piano ctos. The other ones I've heard so far are all OK IMO. Given the fact that these are all live recordings made in various venues over a long span of time, I doubt that the sound quality would be much better on other (much more expensive) releases on other labels. Still, for about $40, you're getting 10 CDs with some very interesting material. The Debussy preludes are actually not bad sounding at all (in terms of sound quality). I've still not listened to the other 7 CDs in this set.

You might encounter a problem obtaining these. The first set (on Membran), I just happened to find in a bookstore in Victoria BC (Canada) back in July of last year. The other set (pictured above), I had to order through a local retailer, but it took about three months to arrive. (Amazon didn't carry them.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on May 13, 2007, 04:39:17 AM
currently listed on mdt.co.uk
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 13, 2007, 05:54:14 AM
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on May 12, 2007, 09:18:15 PMIf you want to get into Debussy's piano music some more, you MUST buy this set:


Already covered on the Gaspard thread, but here goes: Already did!  And it's companion 10-disc set.  Arkiv had them on sale for $15 each last month or the month before, so I figured $30 for 20 discs of Michelangeli - how could I go wrong?  I already had six individual discs from the set, including the complete Preludes (to augment the studio DG recordings), but those discs found a deserving home.  Sound is variable, with poor sound marring an otherwise deliciously sinister (in a cartoon-ish way) Liszt firs piano concerto on the one hand, but a fine Carnaval on the others.  Anyway, both sets should still be at Arkiv.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 13, 2007, 08:14:00 AM
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I was so impressed by the Naxos "sampler" of various works by Conlon Nancarrow that I determined I should hear more of his music as soon as possible.  With this composer that means one thing: his Studies for Player Piano.  Now, at first glance, the idea of listening to dozens of studies for a comparatively poor sounding instrument that, by its very nature, lacks any intimate, human artistic element in its utilization may seem a bit daunting or even downright uninteresting.  (The problem regarding sound can probably be overcome by recordings on MDG, which use a customized Bösendorfer.)  Where's the emotion in such music to be found?  It's all so mechanical, right? 

Not so right.  From the outset it's clear that Nancarrow's works for player piano are almost certainly as good as can be written for that instrument.  It's also clear that the music is anything but mechanical.  It's funny and probing and invigorating and challenging.  It's so human.  It has been freed of the limitations of human digital dexterity.  The only limit is the imagination of the composer.  And that seems almost boundless.  Through the course of the dozens of studies, Nancarrow displays an amazing range.  He throws in so many ideas, tries so many things, explores rhythmic patterns that cannot otherwise be realized, and so expertly probes the possibilities of aleatoric music, that by the end the listener is left more than a little dazed.  How to assimilate all the music?  One can't, at least not in a few sittings, or perhaps many sittings.  There's so much on offer.  Indeed, one can't possibly cover the highlights of five discs of nothing but highlights.  Whether one considers the seemingly simple repeated patterns in some works, or the impossibly insistent and steady notes that flow through entire works (think one note repeated permanently at exactly the right tempo even though literally thousands of notes flurry around it), or the dizzying paths some of the music takes, it's all so much.  And then when one ends up listening to the third "movement" of the three part study 41, for two player pianos, where thousands upon thousands of notes per minute (perhaps an exaggeration, but only slightly) come hurling out of the speakers in a precise yet potentially random fashion (depending on just how one syncs up the two pianos), one can only marvel at such creative genius.  Yes, genius. 

This set cements Conlon Nancarrow's standing for me: he's among the greats of the 20th Century.  His music is unique, and there's just so much there.  Were I a musicologist, I could probably devote years to analyzing the music.  I'd rather listen to it, though.  I'd rather listen to the myriad ideas bursting out of the archaic, almost silly instrument.  Nothing else is like it.  This is an amazing set, certainly one of the best purchases of the year for me, and one I shall return to time and again.  If you are even remotely adventurous, do consider some of this music.  The set is available in separate volumes, and as referred to before, MDG is recording a "competing" cycle played on a Bösendorfer.  I'm pretty sure I'll be getting that, too. 

Sound is close and dry and analytical and reveals everything.  While I was able to listen to two discs straight through, I usually had to split up listening sessions to allow for some aural relaxation.  But I always came back for more. 

Amazing stuff.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: dtwilbanks on May 13, 2007, 08:22:10 AM
Thanks for that, Todd. This is a thread I always check.

Your post on Nancarrow and player pianos brings Zappa to mind. As a side note here, when Frank Zappa got fed up with musicians who were too expensive, not talented or not interested enough in his music, he began composing on the synclavier, which is some sort of programmable synthesizer, I guess. I believe he has several recordings using this instrument. For what it's worth, here's a video of him composing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77pDQceiUus
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 13, 2007, 08:46:01 AM
Ah, yes, Mr Zappa - what a guy.  I'm more partial to his pop/rock stuff (Joe's Garage is a classic!), but I have a very young Kent Nagano leading a disc of his music from the early 80s as well as Jazz from Hell (complete with the original G-spot Tornado) which is an all synclavier disc.  Stylistically, I'd have to say Nancarrow is more sophisticated and unique; Zappa tended to be derivative outside of rock music, and seemed to rather like serial-era Stravinsky.  For good reason.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: BorisG on May 13, 2007, 02:23:49 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 12, 2007, 07:41:14 PM
That's a young Val Kilmer in the great comedy Top Secret!

I thought it might be. Lately, Val is sporting a very large beer belly.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 19, 2007, 03:39:35 PM
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I so enjoyed the third volume of Sonia Rubinsky's ongoing series dedicated to Heitor Villa-Lobos' piano music that I figured I ought to try another disc.  I opted to back up one and try volume 2.  A wise choice.

The disc opens with three small pieces – A Lenda do Caboclo, Ondulando, and Valsa da Dor – all of which make fine if short representations of the composer's style.  The first and last pieces are lovely but somber, the third even more so.  (When it's not a fine waltz, that is.)  The second work is a fine little etude.

Moving to the meat of the disc finds the second of Villa-Lobos' suites entitled A Prole do Bebê, or The Baby's Family.  This longer of the two suites encompasses musical evocations of children's toys, but only at an abstract level.  There's nothing child-like about the music.  It's sophisticated indeed, replete with myriad textural, tempo, dynamic, and coloristic effects.  One can hear, at times, a sense of wonder at the musical images of the critters, much like what one might assume a child might think about the fanciful traits his or her imagination bestows on said fake critters.  The music is widely and deliciously varied, and it sounds sort of like Debussy and Falla mashed together, combined with a New World flair.  It's quite something.

The last work is yet another work given over to children's themes.  Cirandinhas is a collection of twelve works based on children's songs.  Again, the music far transcends the child-like.  While generally lighter and more fun, and even truly delightful, the more somber final two pieces aside, the music is also more rhythmically challenging and exciting.  One can detect a few hints of Prokofiev without listening very hard.  Nothing wrong with that!

As in the previous disc, Ms Rubinsky plays positively splendidly, with subtle (or not so subtle as necessary!) gradations of tempo and dynamics, and here tonal palette is quite impressive.  Superb sound.  A peach of a disc.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 03, 2007, 06:35:30 AM
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I've always found Bohuslav Martinů to be a reliable composer.  His works may not always be of Great Composer quality – though some certainly are – but his works always have some interesting ideas and usually sound quite appealing.  So I figured the new Naxos release of his piano quintets would be a safe bet.  So it proved to be.

The disc opens with the first Piano Quintet from 1933.  Despite being labeled a neo-classical work, as played here it's big, sweeping, and more neo-romantic sounding, at least at times.  The opening Poco allegro just carries one along, though it has some mildly jarring dissonances common to the time.  The Andante sounds downright beautiful most of the time, with only milder dissonant music occasionally thrown in.  The Allegretto is quicker and quite forceful, though it remains energetic and upbeat.  The work closes with an Allegro moderato that that maintains the same style to the end, with a few darker moments thrown in.  A very fine piece.

The second piano quintet also opens with a Poco allegro, but this one's even more sweeping than before.  It's also more astringent and larger in scale.  It sounds almost quasi-orchestral, rather like some of Brahms' chamber music, though the music doesn't sound at all like Brahms.  For contrast, some ripe, romantic melodies are thrown in to counter the harsher (though not harsh!) modernity of much of the writing.  The Adagio is simply lovely, with light string writing that almost glows at times.  The Scherzo has a vigorous, fun chase flanking a relaxed middle section, and the final movement alternates between a slow, rich Largo and vibrant Allegro.  Another very fine piece.

The disc closes with the Sonata for Two Violins and Piano from 1932.  This little ditty opens with a carefree and fun Allegro poco moderato, moves on to a darker, somewhat sad, texturally rich Andante, and ends with a vibrant, strongly voiced Allegro.  That makes three fine works.

The artists – the Martinů Quartet with Karel Košárek at the piano – all play positively splendidly, and the sound is top notch.  In short: An outstanding disc of 20th Century chamber music.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on June 03, 2007, 08:24:57 PM
Thanks for the thoughtful review, Todd.

As usual, highly informative!

Speaking of the Martinu Quartet, their set of string quartets by their namesake (again on Naxos) makes for another fine bargain.

Glad to hear they're continuing the tradition, here.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 04, 2007, 03:09:43 PM
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I'm the first to confess that I'm not much of an Aaron Copland fan.  His "Americana" or "Populist" or at least popular works (whatever you want to call them), in particular, just don't do it for me.  I have heard some of his less popular music, and found that more to my liking, and his opera The Tender Land as conducted by erstwhile local conductor Murry Sidlin at a venue I know is worth a listen or two.  When I saw that Robert Silverman's 1970s recordings of four of Copland's piano works had been reissued at Naxos price by Marquis Classics, I figured it couldn't hurt to give old Aaron a shot.

The disc opens with Copland's piano sonata from 1941, and this work falls squarely into Copland's modernist compositions.  The piece opens with some nicely appealing, if it's your thing, angular (or spiky or jagged) music played with crisp, hard staccato by Silverman, something he's adept at.  The music and playing eases up a bit after a while, but it doesn't exactly become Rach-like.  It remains dense and difficult.  And that's just the Molto moderato opening section.  (The work is one long movement.)  The Vivace section sounds a bit lighter, at least for a time, but it remains spiky, and the louder passages come across nicely as Silverman hits them keys hard.  The piece closes with a long Andante sostenuto that manages a very complex trick, and one I've heard very rarely: it stays resolutely modern and abstract and difficult, but it also sounds beautiful, at least at times.  Much credit must be given to Silverman for this, of course, but the music does sound attractive and supremely serene.  The music almost pulls off that time-suspension trick, and in some ways it sounds like a modern equivalent of the second movement of LvB's 111.  I still prefer the Bonn master's work – it is, after all, one of the supreme masterpieces of all music – but this work exceeded expectations.  It's quite good and will earn repeated listens.

The rest of the disc isn't up the same standard.  The Passacaglia from 1922 sound very formal and serious and never really offers the type of musical nourishment I hunger for.  It's rather plain.  The Four Piano Blues, written between 1926 and 1948 for four different pianists including Andor Foldes and William Kapell, are better.  The first is heavy, probing, and deliberate; the second lighter, more lyrical, and more playful; the third sounds beefy yet warm and glowing, while retaining a serious formality; the fourth is rhythmically spry and angular.  All have jazzy elements.  The disc rounds out with The Cat and the Mouse from 1920, which is jaunty, scampering, fun, and fresh, with a broad dynamic range.

This very short disc (46' or so) is thus mostly about the sonata, which is quite a work.  The younger Robert Silverman trumps the older Robert Silverman in terms of technique, and his musical sensibility is assured.  The only problem with the disc is the sound.  Extraneous noises interrupt the music throughout.  I can't tell if it's someone breathing really heavy, or something scraping along the ground or a wall, or just tape distortion or deterioration, or all that and more, but it does become a bit bothersome at times.  So does the occasional post-echo from the analog tapes.  Those caveats aside, this disc proved to be a nice, ear opening experience.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 09, 2007, 06:48:59 AM
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After a few moments I fumbled around my CD pile to make sure I hadn't put in a disc of Dvorak's string quartets rather than Bax's.  The opening Allegretto semplice of the first quartet sounds like nothing if not a lost Dvorak gem, one written while the Czech was on a secret sojourn to the British Isles.  It sounds rhythmically lively, buoyant, fresh, and "rustic," if you will.  Okay, on to the less Dvorakian Lento e molto expressivo: it sounds beautiful and mushy romantic, with a somewhat forlorn air, a feeling the quieter moments only reinforce.  The concluding Rondo is sunny and rustic like the opener, but here it's more Irish, with some of the music purportedly premised on an Irish folk tune.  The work is quite splendid, even if it sounds like something of an anachronism for its own time. 

The second quartet is more of its time.  The opening Allegro opens with the solo cello immediately establishing a tense, serious mood, a feeling only intensified when the viola enters.  As the movement unwinds, a few lyrical passages offer a rest from the somewhat darker, more dissonant music around it.  (Though one couldn't really call it too intense.)  The Lento, molto espressivo (with espressivo spelled properly) reveals that a proclivity for romantic music hadn't fled Bax by the time he wrote this.  The music is richly layered and sounds achingly beautiful and emotive at times.  The work closes with an Allegro vivace that opens with a transformed take on the first movement, with the whole ensemble going full bore for good sections of the movement.  The movement does alternate between robust, thrusting music, and relaxed, lyrical music, and caps off a fine work.

I really enjoy this disc.  Arnold Bax's first two string quartets are wonderful little works.  If they don't rise to the same level as the greatest examples in this genre, they still deserve to be better known, and are accomplished.  The Maggini Quartet plays splendidly.

SOTA sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bunny on June 10, 2007, 05:43:32 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 28, 2007, 06:43:48 PM
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How does one approach a recording like Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's final recording of orchestral love songs written for her by her husband?  There's certainly the potential for hagiography and exaggeration given the tragic circumstances, but I opted just to listen and gauge whether I like the music for what it is.  Previously I'd only heard the late Mrs Lieberson in two other works: Handel's Theodora under William Christie, and Mahler's Second under Michael Tilson Thomas.  In both cases she more or less made the recording, the former especially.  In this disc she is the recording.  Everything about it is very clearly meant for her and she delivers the goods.  The disc contains settings of five love poems penned by Pablo Neruda, which the Liebersons selected together.  The great care I imagine they devoted to the project pays off.

The first two names that jumped immediately into my mind within the first few notes are Mahler and Berg.  Since I like Mahler and Berg, that's quite alright with me.  My first overall impression of the music and performance, and one that stayed as I listened to the whole work, was one of intense, personal music.  These are not necessarily grand orchestral songs, but rather are intimate selections, and Mrs Lieberson nails every song with such delicate nuance and subtle inflection and communicative power that one just sits and revels in the music.  The close miking helps bring out every last expressive gesture in her voice.  The orchestral writing is mostly "modern," in an early-20th Century kind of way, though there are more than a few moments of exquisite beauty.  All of the songs work well, with the absolutely wonderful My love, if I die and you don't that closes the disc a rather obvious and moving farewell, which brings to mind Strauss' closer to the Four Last Songs.  And this song is as good as that one.  For me, though, the highlight is the third song – Don't go far off, not even for a day, because – which is a perfect synthesis of text, music, and interpretation.  The winding, gripping music and lyrics set the stage for singing of a very high order indeed.  At times throughout the disc it may be possible to hear hints of excess or self-indulgence, but if there is any subject that not only withstands but benefits from such things, it's love, especially in the circumstances here. 

I very much like this disc.  When it comes to orchestral songs I still prefer some other works – by the three other composers mentioned here for starters – but this disc is superb.  For me it serves as a primer to explore more of Peter Lieberson's music, and it also obviously stands as a monument to the late Mrs Lieberson.  Here's a work where it may be fine if no other recordings are ever made.  Really, what would be the point, and who could ever compare?




Well said.  I don't listen to this without the tears as I hear the words,

No estés lejos de mí un solo día, porque cómo,
porque, no sé decirlo, es largo el día,
y te estaré esperando como en las estaciones
cuando en alguna parte se durmieron los trenes.

No te vayas por una hora porque entonces
en esa hora se juntan las gotas del develo
y tal vez todo el humo que anda buscando casa
venga a matar aún mi corazón perdido.


Sublimely beautiful words, music and performance; how rare when all three are present in a single work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 24, 2007, 07:42:02 AM
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Poor us!  I've read a number of laments on the net about how much music fans have lost because Juan Arriaga died at the terribly young age of 19.  He was, or could have been, the next Mozart!  Or something like that.  Since I like string quartets, and since I'd never heard Mr Arriaga's music before, and since he is apparently all that and then some, I figured the Naxos disc of his string quartets was worth investigating.

It certainly was (and is).  The three quartets all share certain traits in common.  They all, on the whole, sound lively, wonderfully melodic, and energetic.  One could never say they possess the depth of Beethoven's late quartets, or the sophistication of Haydn's quartets from around Op 20 on.  (Or maybe even Op 9 on.)  Nor do they display the absolute melodic mastery displayed by Schubert.  But they do have enough there to warrant further listens.

A bit more detail seems warranted.  The first quartet shows some nice range.  The opening Allegro starts off slightly dark before moving onto more sparkling music, with a beautiful slow movement and jaunty Menuetto to follow.  The closing movement opens with forceful chords reminiscent of Beethoven and, especially, Schubert.  The second quartet is generally lighter and sunnier.  At times, one might get the feeling that the musical development isn't meaty enough, but the effortless lyricism pretty much compensates.  The final quartet is the most substantive of the three.  The opening movement is much the same as other swifter movements on the disc, but in the second movement Pastorale one hears something new.  Or maybe not so new.  It seems a tribute to the rather famous symphony sharing the same name, with it's stormy tremolos.  There's no explosive tutti here, of course, but the effect is quite nice.  The Menuetto sounds quite pleasant, and the concluding Presto agitato displays a certain compositional density that some of the other movements display.

It's not at all hard to really enjoy this disc.  The Camerata Boccherini play splendidly, the sound is superb, and the music is delightful.  I'm not sure I can say that Arriaga could have been the next Mozart or anything like that, but then how could one make such a claim?  I can say that other composers wrote more compelling music while as young or younger.  Mendelssohn's great String Octet, for instance, is superior to these three works, and Mozart wrote a number of better works.  Same for Schubert.  So I guess I can't join the vocal enthusiasts prone to exaggeration.  I can say that I like this disc, will listen to it again, and may even try more of Arriaga's music.  He strikes me as a lightweight Mendelssohn, with all that implies, good and bad. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on June 26, 2007, 02:08:05 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 13, 2007, 08:14:00 AM
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This set cements Conlon Nancarrow's standing for me: he's among the greats of the 20th Century.  His music is unique, and there's just so much there.  Were I a musicologist, I could probably devote years to analyzing the music.  I'd rather listen to it, though.  I'd rather listen to the myriad ideas bursting out of the archaic, almost silly instrument.  Nothing else is like it.  This is an amazing set, certainly one of the best purchases of the year for me, and one I shall return to time and again.  If you are even remotely adventurous, do consider some of this music.  The set is available in separate volumes, and as referred to before, MDG is recording a "competing" cycle played on a Bösendorfer.  I'm pretty sure I'll be getting that, too. 

Sound is close and dry and analytical and reveals everything.  While I was able to listen to two discs straight through, I usually had to split up listening sessions to allow for some aural relaxation.  But I always came back for more. 

Amazing stuff.

Just bumping this up with a "thank you and well done" to Todd (somehow I missed it earlier) for calling attention to Nancarrow, whom I would agree is one of the greats.  His exploration of varying meters and textures (many astoundingly difficult to even imagine) not to mention his affinity with jazz, all add up to one of the great bodies of piano literature, even if not playable by a "conventional" pianist.  (Although I have heard at least one of these arranged for piano four-hands, and wouldn't be surprised if some of the others follow suit.) 

I also agree that anyone listening could be excused for not hearing the entire thing straight through -- it's way too intense.  (And the sound is a little dry, but it's good for this particular music.)  But there is a huge amount of imagination on display, and some of his ideas are astonishing. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: gomro on June 26, 2007, 06:04:25 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 06, 2007, 07:24:48 AM
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Here's a composer new to me.  To the extent I'd even seen Leonardo Balada's name before it was only in ads.  That's a shame.  I picked up the Naxos disc devoted to his Guernica, Homage to Sarasate, Homage to Casals, Fourth Symphony, and a suite derived from his opera Zapata, appropriately entitled Zapata: Images for Orchestra

In many ways Balada is what I'm looking for in new music, and here that means music from as recent as 1992 (the symphony).  He blends folk music a la Bartok and Ives, intense modernism, and avant garde elements calling to mind Ligeti, among others.  The music on this disc never sounds academic or merely analytical; there's the spark of life to all of it.  Guernica, from 1966, opens the disc, and the piece is inspired by Picasso's work of the same name, and both depict, rather gruesomely, the Spanish Civil War.  The piece does about as good a job translating the image to music as I can imagine, though perhaps others can imagine a better visual-to-aural transcription.  (If so, they should write it down.)  It's chaotic and violent and confused and ugly and vibrant, and has the musical equivalent of an explosion right in the middle.  It's a dense, short work of just over 11 minutes, and while it's not easy listening, it's immensely gripping.

The two homages are more deliberately avant garde, what with spooky high string notes and tremolos and disjointed elements coming and going.  They seem somewhat less focused than the first work, but they are likewise compelling.  The Fourth Symphony is an interesting work in that it was written for Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (hence its title "Lausanne"), and contains, the excellent liner notes report, elements of Swiss folk music.  Again, it's a very modernist piece, but one informed by many moments of levity and textural lightness and even beauty.  In some ways, the two homages and the symphony sound the same – a critique anti-modernists would no doubt level – but there's much more than enough musical food for thought in each piece.

The final work is the suite derived from Zapata.  What a collection!  The first movement, a Waltz, sounds just like a 19th Century waltz and falls beautifully on the ears, with delicate string writing.  The piece slowly transmogrifies into grotesque, almost chaotic music meant to symbolize a firing squad.  It's very effective.  The March starts and stays grotesque in the best Expressionist-cum-trippy-avant-garde fashion, at times sounding like (disturbed) cartoon music.  The wonderful Elegy is apparently lifted straight from the opera, with a solo cello taking Zapata's part and a solo violin his dying brother's part.  The work closes with a Wedding Dance using Jarabe Tapatio (which pretty much everyone knows) as its recurring theme, which Balada then spins out in different directions while weaving in his own music most expertly.  It's sort of like what Ives did, but more sophisticated.

This is one heck of a disc, and I now know I must explore more of Balada's music.  Pronto.

Excellent sound.


I don't have this one, but I do have two others:
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very fine work. Some of it is more "avant" (in a sort of Lutoslawskian manner, more than any other composer I can think of) than other pieces, but all of it has that pungent touch of folk influence that apparently defines Balada's approach to music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: BorisG on June 29, 2007, 09:42:14 AM
For the Schnittke-lover, who may have overlooked last year's reissuing.

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 02, 2007, 03:12:55 PM
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Time for some more.  This time I went for a more recent volume – volume four.  This disc opens with the solo piano setting of the fourth Bachianas Brasileiras.  The opening Preludio is quite somber, very serious, and decidedly formal.  And romantic!  It sort of sounds like Bach meets Rach.  The Coral is again quite serious, and is richly textured and comparatively "heavy."  Rubinsky keeps things moving along quite strictly until after 3'30," when pounding chords juxtapose against tinkly arpeggios and other contrast-y devices until the end.  The Aria alternates between slow, somber music and vigorous, lively music, and the concluding Dansa sounds very much dance like.  Imagine that.

Next up is another of Villa-Lobos' numerous little pieces – Poema Singelo.  It sounds lovely and lyrical and romantic – almost a little song without words.  Next is another children's piece, the Carnaval das Criancas.  The overall demeanor is light and bubbly, but the overall style is decidedly complex.  Modern children, I guess.  After that is yet another children's piece, Francette et Pia.  Here the subject is of a little Brazilian boy meeting a little French girl.  A charming conceit, to be sure, and it's charming music charmingly played.  (The ending duets in both this and the preceding piece are as well done as the solo pieces.)  Were Villa-Lobos not so good at writing such works, one could tire of them quickly.  As it is, one cannot.  A series of little pieces finishes off the disc.  A Fiandeira is a lyrical, perpetual motion piece; Simples Cloetanea is itself a collection of three unrelated yet irresistible little pieces; and Valsa Romantica is, you guessed it, a romantic waltz.

As with the prior two discs, sound is superb and Sonia Rubinsky's playing is simply top-notch.  Another winner in the series.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 03, 2007, 06:25:40 AM
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Johann Jakob Froberger is a name I'd only read about up until I got this disc.  Those who've already discovered his music seem to hold him high regard.  Since the fine harpsichordist Blandine Verlet (she of the fine Louis Couperin recordings, among other things) recorded some of his music, I figured his music was worth a shot. 

On the evidence of this disc, Mr Froberger's music is not really for those wanting showy, bombastic music.  Granted, the title ou l'tranquillité doesn't promise the most extroverted works, but the style of writing present here, which includes excerpts from larger suites, is very much of a personal, introspective nature.  The music practically begs the listener to kick back, relax (but not too much), and simply get lost in the slow, delicate, intricate, and quite intimate musical ideas.  No Big Bang, no Flash, no Dazzle.  Just fine music.  Now, some may find such sustained intricacy and intimacy boring or hard to get into, and this certainly isn't a disc I'll just plop in for easy thrills, but if you've got a hankerin' for this type of music, this disc seems quite a fine choice.  Perhaps Froberger's other music is more obvious and extroverted, though what I've read about him doesn't lead me to believe he's another Scarlatti, but I rather fancy this music.  It's refreshing in a way.

Ms Verlet's playing is superb – nuanced, precise but not at all clinical, and imbued with life, all without any overstatement.  Or understatement.  Sound quality is top notch, too, and one gets some fine accompaniment from some birds in this springtime recording. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on July 03, 2007, 06:50:33 AM
Just a note, Todd, that I much enjoy lurking here.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 04, 2007, 07:06:08 AM
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Another entirely new composer for me, though the music on this disc sounds suspiciously familiar.  Boris Tishchenko lives and studied in Russia, and studied with Shostakovich himself.  It rather shows, at least here.  That's not to say that his music is completely derivative, but it seems to be heavily influenced by his one time teacher. 

The symphony on this disc is a big, long, at times loud affair, but it is also accomplished and varied.  Abandoning traditional notions of using descriptive labels for movements, Tishchenko instead labels the movements I-V, but much remains familiar.  The opening movement starts off with some rather playful winds dancing over pizzicato strings, but even amid the jollity one senses something a bit darker.  Not sinister really, just darker.  Time and time again, this darkness comes to the fore, especially with loud, astringent string writing, and in the grotesque, circus-like music in the latter half of the movement.  The second movement continues with this duality as the music sounds bold, boisterous, and clangorous, with seething rage all but erupting into the open.  All the while, a peculiarly happy veneer remains.  The third movement is the slow movement, and it is characterized by a slow, introspective, woodwind-led sound that rather reminds me of the slow movement of Suk's A Summer's Tale.  The fourth movement begins a return to the music that came before, with edgy strings, a purposefully blatty sound to the tuttis, and an at times "cartoonish" sound.  It's ironic and eerie and bitter, yet it pulses with life.  The closing movement opens with peculiarly quiet tom-toms underpinning a vibrant, melodic piccolo and orchestra exchange.  As the movement progresses, it maintains a happy-but-not-really sound as the music evolves into a cacophonous, tension-filled series of climaxes. 

In some ways in almost sounds like Shostakovich's 16th or 17th symphony.  There is enough stylistic uniqueness here to make sure one knows it's not DSCH, but the influence looms large.  The colorful, varied orchestration; the superb section writing; the seamless transitions and fluid development: Tishchenko is quite a skilled composer, there's no doubt.  I'm actually interested in investigating more of his music to see if he's more original elsewhere in his output.  Even if he's not, there's enough there to tickle one's ears.

Dmitry Yablonsky and the Moscow Philharmonic do an outstanding job, and the sound quality is superb.  In fact, I neglected to read the notes prior to listening and was thus surprised to hear the audience applauding at the end.  Slips and noise are kept to a minimum.  More good stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 05, 2007, 06:46:27 AM
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How much more exotic than a blend of East and West can one get?  (Perhaps Mongolian throat singing or Gambian folk music I suppose.)  Surely then Tan Dun should be worth a listen.  I mean, I inaugurated this thread with a recording of similar (well, not really) works by Huang Ruo, so another success should be assured.

Such is not the case.  The disc Bitter Love, which is a series of extracts from Tan Dun's opera Peony Pavilion, is the first flat out dud I've come across in my current exploration of new music.  Only a few things work – but more on those in a bit.  Pretty much everything else is bad.  Horrid at times.  The midi "horns" certainly fall squarely into the 'horrid' camp, as does the nonsensical caterwauling by some tortured male singer that pops up from time to time.  (I guess it may not be nonsensical to Mandarin speakers, presuming the words are in Mandarin, but screeching in English can kill even Shakespeare, so text quality matters not a whit.)  The baritone chorus, with its Gregorian chant informed sound, adds a measure of New Age-y sound that almost induces snickers.  Alright, ignore the word 'almost.'  The spoken parts – they're dreams, you see – are just shy of being horrid, but not by much.  There are also long stretches of songs and music that annoy fiercely. 

I don't want to be purely negative.  As stated before, there are some good things about the recording.  The soprano Ying Huang is one of them.  She has a very lovely, soft, airy, feminine voice.  If I can't imagine her as, say, Salome, she did make me dislike the recording less when she was singing.  Another good thing is the pipa playing of Min Xiao-Fen.  She adds a fluidity to her playing that I've not heard before.  (Okay, my exposure to the pipa is very limited, but still.)  And some of the "Eastern" sounding music does sound compelling from time to time.  Perhaps the most striking thing about this recording is the sound quality: It is simply amazing, demonstration quality stuff all the way.  Sort of.  Timbral accuracy, detail, and scale are absolutely amazing – instruments sound life size for sure – but it's also obviously processed.  The soundstage literally expanded beyond the boundaries of my rear and side walls.  This should be used by hi-fi dealers to demo gear.

But a good singer, good instrumentalist, and world-class sound cannot save this recording from being a world-class dud.  I suppose one might conclude that I'm just not open to different cultural influences, but my positive experiences with Huang Ruo and Bright Sheng lead me to a different conclusion: Crap knows no international boundaries.  Blech.




Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: gomro on July 05, 2007, 10:02:23 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 05, 2007, 06:46:27 AM
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How much more exotic than a blend of East and West can one get?  (Perhaps Mongolian throat singing or Gambian folk music I suppose.)  Surely then Tan Dun should be worth a listen.  I mean, I inaugurated this thread with a recording of similar (well, not really) works by Huang Ruo, so another success should be assured.
(snip)
But a good singer, good instrumentalist, and world-class sound cannot save this recording from being a world-class dud.  I suppose one might conclude that I'm just not open to different cultural influences, but my positive experiences with Huang Ruo and Bright Sheng lead me to a different conclusion: Crap knows no international boundaries.  Blech.


I bought this thing when it first appeared in the stores, and having it all that time has never changed my opinion, which is exactly the same as yours, believe me. And I don't mind MIDI horns or orchestration; in fact this afternoon I've played and enjoyed several vintage discs from electronic ensemble Tangerine Dream and some 1980s stuff from Philip Glass, which is in no way lessened by the electronic palette. Tan Dun just didn't have anything memorable to play with his MIDI equipment.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 08, 2007, 06:43:55 AM
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When I first learned that Naxos had commissioned ten string quartets from Peter Maxwell-Davies several years back, my curiosity was piqued.  I'd never actually heard anything by the composer, but some new string quartets seemed a fine idea, even if a record label commissioning them seems a bit commercial.  (Oooh, commercial – bad!)  It's been a few years since the first disc was released, and I just got around to trying it.  It ain't half bad.

The very first quartet isn't really what I expected, though I wasn't sure precisely what to expect.  At some level, I expected an avant-garde work – something Ligeti-like, perhaps – but what's on offer is a bit different.  The opening Adagio is lovely and appealing in late-19th / early-20th Century sort of way, an obvious homage to times past, but things pick up quickly and change with the Allegro, which is possessed of forward drive, tangy dissonances, rhythmic concision, broad dynamic and expressive range, and an admirable directness.  It's more modern, but not hard to listen to modern.  Hints of Haydn and Bartok seem buried in the music.  The music bleeds right into the slow, slow Largo which manages the neat trick of sounding both lovely and challenging.  Piercing violin playing continual pops up, and a rather twisted dance theme shows up around 5'45" to add a bit more color.  The Allegro molto closer is brief and light and mostly very quiet, ending the work with haunting, whispered pianissimo playing.  It's a very obvious homage to the end of Chopin's second sonata (and by extension, perhaps LvB's Op 26?), and works quite well.  A fine work.

The second quartet opens where the first left off, with an almost devout Lento distinguished by gobs of delicately variegated quiet playing.  The following Allegro is fast, dance-inspired, but also "angular," which is to say spicily modern.  But it's not too hard to listen to.  The Lento flessibile (I love the description) has searing, dramatic, pained playing, which is followed up by an Allegro that sounds grotesquely playful.  It's vividly varied in terms of both dynamics and texture.  The ending Lento flessibile portion opens slowly and quietly, with an endlessly (well, almost) repeated two note pattern carried on in different registers by the different instruments.  The repetitiveness creates an aura of abstract pensiveness, while fitful, intense, brief outbursts offer contrast throughout.  Another fine work.

I like this disc.  The quartets are obviously very "modern" works, but I find them immediately accessible if still tastily complex.  While I was initially expecting something different than what I got, I don't mind at all what I heard.  My guess is that these works, while perhaps not as monumental as Beethoven's quartets, will yield more secrets upon more repeated hearings.  I should probably try some more.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Don on July 08, 2007, 07:09:11 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 03, 2007, 06:25:40 AM
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Johann Jakob Froberger is a name I'd only read about up until I got this disc.  Those who've already discovered his music seem to hold him high regard.  Since the fine harpsichordist Blandine Verlet (she of the fine Louis Couperin recordings, among other things) recorded some of his music, I figured his music was worth a shot. 

On the evidence of this disc, Mr Froberger's music is not really for those wanting showy, bombastic music.  Granted, the title ou l'tranquillité doesn't promise the most extroverted works, but the style of writing present here, which includes excerpts from larger suites, is very much of a personal, introspective nature.  The music practically begs the listener to kick back, relax (but not too much), and simply get lost in the slow, delicate, intricate, and quite intimate musical ideas.  No Big Bang, no Flash, no Dazzle.  Just fine music.  Now, some may find such sustained intricacy and intimacy boring or hard to get into, and this certainly isn't a disc I'll just plop in for easy thrills, but if you've got a hankerin' for this type of music, this disc seems quite a fine choice.  Perhaps Froberger's other music is more obvious and extroverted, though what I've read about him doesn't lead me to believe he's another Scarlatti, but I rather fancy this music.  It's refreshing in a way.

Ms Verlet's playing is superb – nuanced, precise but not at all clinical, and imbued with life, all without any overstatement.  Or understatement.  Sound quality is top notch, too, and one gets some fine accompaniment from some birds in this springtime recording. 


I agree.  Verlet's disc is quite stunning and dives right into the introspective nature of Froberger's keyboard music.  Other worthy Froberger discs include those from Rampe on Virgin Classics/MDG, Cates on Wildboar, Remy on CPO, Mortensen on Kontrapunkt, Leonhardt on DHM and van Asperen on Aeolus.

What I haven't yet heard is the current series of Froberger keyboard music on Globe with Egarr at the helm (4 volumes so far).  Anyone familiar with the Egarr?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Maciek on July 09, 2007, 04:56:47 PM
What? Don, am I to understand you did not bring back Wladyslaw Klosiewicz (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Klosiewicz-Wladyslaw.htm)'s Froberger disc from your trip to Poland?
(http://www.cdaccord.com.pl/images/covers/035.jpg) (http://www.merlin.com.pl/frontend/browse/product/4,189380.html)

I suppose you missed out on his Goldbergs and Scarlatti Sonatas as well? ::)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 22, 2007, 02:35:59 PM
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A few years ago I picked up a fine disc, from Naxos, of decidedly obscure music.  It's entitled Norwegian 20th Century String Quartets – see what I mean about obscure – and has four surprisingly good works on it.  The first composer represented on the disc is one Klaus Egge, and since his work left a good impression, when I saw that Naxos recently opted to release a similarly themed disc, this time as part of the 20th Century Norwegian series, with more works by Mr Egge, I jumped.  It was a good call.

The disc opens with a non-20th Century work by that most famous of Norwegian composers, Edvard Grieg.  The reason is pretty clear when one considers the programming.  The miniature that opens the disc is from Grieg's compilation of 25 Norwegian Folksongs and Folkdances, and is based on the theme from Solfager og Ormekongen, or Sun-Fair and the Snake-King.  Since Grieg made such a specialty of piano miniatures, it's not at all surprising that this work sounds wonderful.  It also leads right into the next work: Klaus Egge's second piano concerto, Op 21, from 1944, which is alternatively titled Symphonic Variations and Fugue on a Norwegian Folktune.  The same folk tune that Grieg used.  But one wouldn't really be able to tell short of reading the score, because the music is decidedly different.  Both the soloist and band alternate between neo-romantic lyricism and (almost) lushness and craggier, spikier, more modern music more of its time.  The work winds through the variations quickly and tautly – the whole piece is around 20' – and the concluding fugue is possessed of intense energy and virtuosic but not flashy playing from all involved.  It's a fine work.

The next work continues on with the folk music inspired theme, which is the overriding theme of the whole disc, with a first of the Op 12 piano pieces from Mr Egge.  This work is called Halling Fantasy and it is quite appealing.  It's knotty and craggy and most decidedly vigorous, with independent rhythmic patterns for each hand.  It sounds rather like Bartok had a long-lost cousin up north who was pretty much as adroit as he at writing gnarly folk-inspired pieces.

The last work by Egge is a biggie: the first piano sonata, Op 4.  Once again the folk element pervades, and once again the music is tastily modern.  The work is based on the Draumkvædet, or a folk tale about a lengthy dream that leads a young lad through heaven and hell and such forth.  The opening Grave is thus dark and brooding and boasts potent, thundering bass at times.  The Allegro moderato seems perhaps more Allegro than moderato, what with its flowing cascades of notes, delivered both smoothly and with a sense of urgency.  The Adagio ma non troppo is a bit slower, though hardly truly slow, and possesses a somewhat sharp edge to the sound, and discordant rhythms aplenty.  The music remains dark and assumes a ruminative tone to boot.  And that's just in the opening couple minutes, because after that, at just after 2', the music becomes fiery and stinging for a brief while.  It settles back down, though it remains just a bit unsettled.  The third movement is labeled Scherzo infernale, and it sounds rather like Grieg-meets-(diabolical) Liszt.  It's beefy and bold and driven, if not quite up to the same dizzying level as Liszt's most over-the-top concoctions.  (Some may say that's a good thing.)  The concluding Allegro in halling is more upbeat – almost celebratory – as it seems as though the imaginary protaganist is emerging from the long, intense, frightful dream in overjoyed fashion.  The music and playing have an effortless, slipstream quality to them, and ends the work in a most satisfying manner.

The disc winds down with three miniatures by three different composers.  Sverre Bergh's Norwegian Dance Number 2, Gamel-Holin is another folk-based work, and it sounds unfailingly lovely, delicate, and light.  Alf Hurum's Aquarelles, Op 5/2 is a vigorous little work, with a really vibrant middle.  The final work on the disc is Geirr Tveitt's Brudlaups-Klokker, or Wedding Bells, which was written on the afternoon of a colleague's daughter's wedding as a wedding present.  For something written on the spot, it actually sounds quite lovely.  It's sweet, wistful, gently melodic, and most beautiful.  A fine present indeed!

I like this disc quite a bit.  No, none of the works ranks among the best examples of their respective genres, but there's more than enough there to come back to again and again.  And I think this definitely indicates that I should sample more of Egge's music.  (Tveitt's, too.)

The pianist for all the works is Håvard Gimse, a pianist I've neglected for too long.  I've mulled over buying a few of his other discs, and now I think I'll have to reprioritize some of my future purchases.  The man has a superb technique, can extract a broad tonal palette from his instrument, and has a wide, powerful dynamic range.  I definitely would like to hear him in Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Debussy.  The Trondheim Soloists, conducted by Håvard's younger brother Øyvind, acquit themselves nicely in the concerto.

SOTA sound all around, though the concerto, which was recorded earlier and with a different engineer, has some analog hiss, or something that sounds just like analog hiss, running throughout.  It's only audible during the quiet passages, and even then it's very low in level, but it seems that an analog tape was used somewhere in the recording and/or mastering process.  No matter, a fine disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Don on July 22, 2007, 05:58:01 PM
Quote from: Maciek on July 09, 2007, 04:56:47 PM
What? Don, am I to understand you did not bring back Wladyslaw Klosiewicz (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Klosiewicz-Wladyslaw.htm)'s Froberger disc from your trip to Poland?
(http://www.cdaccord.com.pl/images/covers/035.jpg) (http://www.merlin.com.pl/frontend/browse/product/4,189380.html)

I suppose you missed out on his Goldbergs and Scarlatti Sonatas as well? ::)
Didn't buy any cds in Poland; never happened to run across a record store.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: mjwal on July 23, 2007, 04:34:19 AM
Just a note on your Maxwell Davies review, Todd: I found it very interesting as written so to speak with an "innocent ear" (you say you don't know Max's work). The description of the 2 quartets is very just and much better than anything I am capable of - and I love that illuminating Chopin reference, but it is important to note that there is some pretty knotty, difficult music coming on later issues, like #3 and #6 - I haven't heard the latest coupling #7 and #8.. I'd definitely recommend 8 Songs for a Mad King to get an idea of where this composer is coming from, and then try the symphonies #2 and #5. Most of his music is available at a very decent price from his website, MaxOpus.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 23, 2007, 06:19:49 PM
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When Rzewski Plays Rzewski first came out early this decade, I was interested in getting it, but for some reason I never quite got around to it until now.  In some ways I can't say that the wait was such a bad thing.  Sure, Frederic Rzewski keeps alive the whole pianist-composer thing, but that really works only if the pianist's compositions are really compelling.  Other pianist-composers of the recorded age have apparently recorded relatively little of their own works.  (Horowitz- and Volodos-like transcriptions not included.)  Kempff, Casadesus, Schnabel – to name just three – all focused their recording efforts on more standard fare.  Perhaps for good reason.  (The little I've heard from the latter two hint strongly at them being better pianists than composers.)  Rzewski, though, was afforded the luxury of recording seven discs worth of music by Nonesuch.  Was such a luxury warranted?

The first disc seems to indicate it was.  The disc is given over to music inspired by North American folk music, and here Rzewski's obvious penchant for improvisation, or composition closely mimicking improvisation, really pays off.  The North American Ballads sound like folk-music that has gone through an intellectual's mental meat grinder and come out quite well.  Whether playing with heavy, droning ostinato, or dark, hardened boogie-woogie, or a throbbing, brittle rhythmic sense, the music jumps from the speakers.  The Housewife's Lament , the disc's closing work, has moments of beauty, though it more or less carries on in the same style as before.  The set starts off strongly.

The second disc is nearly as good.  It opens with Mayn Yingele, a set of variations that sounds rather like Beethoven-meets-Schoenberg.  Gnarly and knotty much of the time, Rzewski still manages to leave room for some passages of outright beauty.  The music also seems to wander almost aimlessly at times, and it certainly seems as though at least some of the music is truly improvised.  Based on Rzewski's own ideas, the long cadenza certainly seems made up on the spot.  The work ends with an industrial strength trill variation.  It's good, and worth several listens.  The next work, A Life, is a work of around 4'33" that was written as a memorial to, not surprisingly, John Cage.  Knotty, again, and chaotic, it is a fitting tribute.  The disc ends with Fouges, a collection of 25 Schoenbergian miniatures, with all that implies.  Those wanting endless streams of lovely melody need not listen.  More adventurous souls will find to more to enjoy.  Alas, this is where something that pops up over and over through the rest of the set also appears: the use of non-musical means to convey ideas.  Here that means Rzewski banging on something with something else.  (Hitting the piano with a stick?)  That doesn't get me worked up.

The third disc is devoted to more traditional compositions: a Fantasia and a Sonata.  The Fantasia is a modern day take on the old stand-by, and Rzewski's is heavy and blocky and thick and spiky.  Again, it sounds improvised at times, and it makes for a stimulating listen, if not a very relaxing listen.  The Sonata is even harder going.  Truth to tell, I find it too long.  The opening movement is over 25' in length, and while one can enjoy the alternating harsh, pounded out notes and the rounded chords and the slower music with snatches of fun and melody, it just doesn't seem to end.  The second and third movements are shorter, but are still long, and how much a variations on Taps can one take?  The concluding Agitato is yet another set of variations, here 27 of 'em, and again, how much is enough?

The next two discs are taken up by the first parts of an on-going composition called The Road.  And here's where my patience wore thin.  The piece opens with the recorded sound of the pianist walking to the piano, and it concludes with him walking away.  In between, one hears long stretches of hard, dissonant, clangorous music interspersed with somber, barren slower passages, as well as some more lovely passages, and everything in between.  But one also has to sit through humming and banging and scraping and thumping and moaning and other non-musical, or rather, non-pianistic sounds.  The recitation of the last part of Gogol's The Nose is an interesting conceit (I love that work), but in delivery it just doesn't float my boat.  I'm all for adventurous art, but there comes a point where it just ain't working.  The Road has a lot of these points.  Which is a pity, because some of the music is truly excellent and compelling. 

The sixth disc contains Rzewski's take on his 36 variations on "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" , based on a song by Sergio Ortega.  In some ways this is the modern equivalent of the great Diabelli Variations by LvB himself.  The song, while nice, isn't quite up to what follows, as Rzewski unleashes a torrent of emotions and pianistic techniques.  The variations vary widely, from lyrical to introspective to depressed to fiercely defiant, with the most heated music delivered with a most robust cutting intensity.  The two cadenzas do seem improvised on the spot and sound very much informed by his mood while playing.  The final restatement of the theme has an intensity and vitality that one may not have expected upon first hearing it.  Rzewski interjects some whistling here and there, and while I could have done without it, the work and the performance are still quite fine.

The set closes with the comparatively brief De Profundis, which includes lengthy spoken parts, with the text provided by Oscar Wilde in the form of a long letter he composed while in prison.  Again, random noises pop up all over, and again I just couldn't derive much pleasure from them.  But when only the piano or the piano and text are mixed together, there are some fine things.  Wilde's text, while a little incoherent at times as presented in the snippets here, have not a little power, and Rzewski's music seems quite in tune with the spirit of the text.  Alas, when a bicycle horn is added to the mix, the demented Marx Brothers effect ruins the music.  Strip out the non-musical extras, and one would have a more compelling work.

What to make of this set?  The purely musical aspects are often, though not always, quite compelling.  Some works are too long, some too intense for extended listening sessions.  (I don't think I could ever finish this set in less than two-three weeks.)  And Rzewski's playing is quite good; he seems to have the inside scoop on the music, though he'd no doubt be the first to admit that there's no "right" way to play his music.  But the non-musical aspects of the set bother and annoy and detract from the overall achievement, at least for me.  I simply don't want to list to grunts and scraping sounds.  This doesn't get added to the frequently played list.

Sound is dry and close but excellent.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Maciek on July 24, 2007, 01:46:16 PM
Quote from: Don on July 22, 2007, 05:58:01 PM
Didn't buy any cds in Poland; never happened to run across a record store.

Yeah, now that you mention it I realize that I didn't see any record stores on my trip to Torun either... :-\
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on July 24, 2007, 01:57:46 PM
Thank you Todd for maintaining this thread; the most interesting thread on the GMG-forum.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 17, 2007, 06:35:54 AM
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I figured it was time for another "exotic" import from the East, because such imports are always exotic to Western ears.  Or perhaps not.  The nice little Naxos disc of three works by Korean composer Isang Yun can expose one to something new, but not too un-Western.

The disc opens with Chamber Symphony I from 1987, and it's a fine chamber symphony.  I came to the piece expecting, well, I don't know what, but I got something that's decidedly "modern" and familiar.  The winds add the strongest hints of "Eastern" sound, and some occasional string passages do too, but I hear what sounds to be the influence of DSCH, perhaps some modern Germans, and a Western-trained sensibility.  The piece seems to be a chamber orchestra fantasy, meandering through a maze of most appealing music, with taut writing and delivery, and bright, blaring brass to perk up one's ears.  Monumental?  Nah.  Quite good.

Next up is Tapis pour cordes, also from 1987, and here in its string orchestra guise rather than its string quintet guise.  It's compact, tense, and terse, with more obvious Eastern influences thrown together with a Bartok-cum-Lutoslawski sound that is searingly intense at times.  The blend works very well.

The disc closes with Gong-Hu for harp and strings, which sounds similar aurally to Tapis (ie, more Eastern), but is broader and more leisurely.  There's still some bite at times, and here it is the harp that adds the most non-Western sound to the music.  Of course, the harp isn't the most enthralling instrument, so this may never make it into either the core repertoire or even my collection of frequently spun works, but it's nice to hear.

Yun's music offers some fine listening – enough, perhaps, for me to consider his symphonies next.  Conductor, band, and sound are all up to snuff.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Anne on November 17, 2007, 02:11:36 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 12, 2007, 07:41:14 PM
That's a young Val Kilmer in the great comedy Top Secret!

He looks like he's come straight out of a Dickens' movie.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: gmstudio on November 17, 2007, 04:21:23 PM
Quote from: Todd on November 17, 2007, 06:35:54 AM
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Is this a part of their Japanese Classics series?  I've really enjoyed those, particularly the symphonies of Hashimoto, Yashiro and Yamada.  I'll have to keep an eye out for Yun.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 17, 2007, 04:28:16 PM
Quote from: gmstudio on November 17, 2007, 04:21:23 PMIs this a part of their Japanese Classics series?

No – Yun is (or rather was) Korean.



Quote from: Anne on November 17, 2007, 02:11:36 PMHe looks like he's come straight out of a Dickens' movie.

New avatar – it's now the Waco Kid.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2007, 10:36:15 AM
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After three successful discs in a row, I figured I should go with a proven winner and try another disc of music by Leonardo Balada.  How about a nice, big choral work? I asked myself.  So I went with his "agnostic" requiem, No Res, written in memory of his mother, along with Ebony Fantasies.

The disc opens with No Res from 1974.  I'll get right to the point: I don't like this work.  It's not terrible, mind you, and it's expertly crafted, but I just don't like it.  Balada, per his notes (it's always helpful to have notes written by the composer), was angered as well as saddened by his mother's death, and this work is a protest against death itself.  An interesting, potentially powerful conceit, but the specific devices here don't work for me.  The piece is augmented by taped sounds throughout; indeed, it opens with the sounds of howling dogs.  The rest of the first part of this two-part work includes excellent choral singing that alternates between haunting and eerie, and is delivered in a smooth or blocky style, as the text and music requires.  Random, bizarre sounds appear and disappear throughout, and then there's a narration that uses multiple languages.  Anger, confusion, bitterness, sorrow: all shine through at times, and at times the piece is effective.  But at other times it is not.  The disjointed feel just doesn't jell, though clearly it is intentional – this is an angry, very personal requiem, after all.  The text ain't the hottest, either.  The second part of the work is slightly better.  Informed mostly by rage, and displaying greater drama and vigor, it sounds more compelling, though the tape sounds detract from the piece, at least for me.  There are many fine moments and devices in the work, and some may very well like it much more than I do, and I can understand why, but this just won't get too many spins around these parts.

The second work, Ebony Fantasies from 2003, is much more to my liking.  Balada resets four well known black spirituals to superb effect.  The set opens with Nobody knows the trouble I seen in a setting that doesn't resemble the original at all.  It's snappy, boisterous, and curiously uplifting and upbeat, with copious hints of jazz sprinkled throughout.  I got a crown follows, in a decidedly modern setting, with quasi-aleatoric "form" and an almost chant-like quality.  Were you there? opens with dark, elongated playing by the low strings, and the chorus sings in a very slow, somber, but ultimately touching manner.  It is haunting and beautiful.  The piece closes with War no mo', which sounds vibrant and rhythmically alert and decidedly "modern," though its message is timeless (and timely, I suppose).  Balada has written several times of his respect for spirituals and jazz, and his respectful, brilliant treatment of such music backs up his words.  A fine work indeed.  I hope to hear it in concert someday.

So, a mixed bag, with a hit and a miss.  Fine sound, fine conducting, and fine playing throughout.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on November 21, 2007, 10:45:30 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 21, 2007, 10:36:15 AM
So, a mixed bag, with a hit and a miss.  Fine sound, fine conducting, and fine playing throughout.

Thanks for those comments, Todd.  I might be interested in hearing this, even if not ultimately purchasing it.  I've heard his Steel Symphony (the Maazel recording) and liked it, but don't know any of his other music.

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2007, 10:48:47 AM
Quote from: bhodges on November 21, 2007, 10:45:30 AMI've heard his Steel Symphony (the Maazel recording) and liked it, but don't know any of his other music.


I suggest the disc with Guernica on it: that's still the best work I've heard by Balada.  To my ears, he's one of the best living composers. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on November 21, 2007, 10:59:05 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 21, 2007, 10:48:47 AM

I suggest the disc with Guernica on it: that's still the best work I've heard by Balada.  To my ears, he's one of the best living composers. 

Thanks, I looked up the disc and recognized the cover, and it looks right up my alley.  Got some good reviews elsewhere, too. 

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 24, 2007, 12:18:39 PM
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I've always had a weak spot for 20th Century string quartets.  Bartok's supreme masterpieces were among the works that got me seriously interested in classical music to begin with, and since then I've acquired a reasonable collection of recordings spanning the whole of the century.  So why not try someone new?  So I settled on Marek Stachowski, a composer new to me, and the Dux recording of all of his works written for string quartet through 1995.

The disc opens with his first string quartet from 1963, and the piece sounds of its time.  It's very avant-garde.  The opening Animato is comprised mostly of flitting figures and not-too-harsh dissonance delivered in a lively, um, animated fashion.  The Tranquillo opens with the cello laying on some thick glissando (though not Gloria Coates thick) before the other instruments fade in and out.  It's tranquil, yes, but also a bit eerie at times, with controlled outbursts to pierce the nearly pervasive tranquility.  The Scherzando is brief and puckish, yet serious, or at least seriously constructed.  It's tight and dense and gnarly.  The concluding Risoluto is likewise tightly structured, and some music literally scraped out.  It's a nice, vibrant, somewhat inaccessible work.

The second string quartet from 1972 is, if anything, even harder to get into.  The single movement, amorphous, mostly quiet blob of sound of a quartet is interrupted at times by ruder, rougher outbursts to add contrast.  It sounds quasi-aleatoric, and it seems that Mr Stachowski was impressed and influenced by Ligeti's second quartet.  Simply reinforcing this is the round-robin pizzicato playing, which sounds new yet familiar.  For the rest of the work, the piece develops along similar lines.  It's not bad, but it's not as compelling as, say, Ligeti's second quartet.

The next work is Quartetto da ingress from 1980.  Again, Stachowski favors a quiet overall sound – all the better to emphasize dynamic contrasts.  This piece is also a single movement work, and it too unfolds continuously, with fine unison writing and appealing tremolos and glissandi and even hints of tonality thrown in.  It lacks traditional melody, of course, so it might be very rough to get into; indeed, this isn't going to be plopped in my CD player for any easy listening sessions.

The next work is the third string quartet from 1988.  Again, the music starts off slow and quiet, and very slowly develops with terse outbursts piercing the somewhat static soundworld.  But here the style is more accessible, closer to tonal.  The second movement has tons of fun pizzicati before moving on to the third movement which sounds quite a bit like the first. 

The disc ends with Musica festeggiante per quartetto d'archi from 1995.  Another single movement work, it unfolds in a fast-slow-fast fashion, with the same basic approach and devices mentioned previously. 

While this disc is a success overall, I have to admit that there is a certain sameness to the music.  Stachowski uses the same devices over and over, and while his music does demonstrate progress, I was hoping for greater stylistic diversity.  Still, I'll keep the disc and spin it on occasion.  The Jagiellonian Quartet is more than up to the challenge of the music, and the sound is spacious and metallic, though I wouldn't doubt if that merely reflects on the music itself.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 31, 2008, 10:19:15 AM
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I find Einojuhani Rautavaara a reliable composer.  I've picked up a number of recordings of his music over the past five or six years, and with the exception of his dull opera Rasputin, I've always like what I heard.  So I picked up the Naxos disc of his second and third piano concertos and the small orchestral work Isle of Bliss with relatively high expectations.  I was satifisfied.

The disc opens with Isle of Bliss, which is based on a poem by the Finnish poet Aleksis Kivi.  (The inspiration for one of Rautavaara's finest works, the opera Aleksis Kivi.)  The compact tone poem opens vigorously and joyously, and quickly segues into a lush, dreamy, and appropriately slower sound world, with the winds carefully and delicately evoking bird calls, something so dear to this composer and critical in this work, what being based on the poem Home of the Birds.  As the work continues to unfold, the work seems to take on a calm, and, well, blissful feel.  It's a fine work, and almost strikes me as something a cooler Richard Strauss may have written had he been informed by 1990s ideas.

The next work is the third piano concerto, Gift of Dreams, originally dedicated to Vladimir Ashkenazy, who has recorded it.  Here the pianist is Laura Mikkola.  Anyhoo, the opening Tranquillo, as the title suggests, opens calmly, with lovely, soothing string playing of a New Age-cum-Romanticism sort – but in a good way.  The piano enters gently, with sparse notes, but then it picks up until a long run ushers in the winds then brass.  I detected the rather obvious influence of Bartok's Third Piano Concerto (a very good thing!) and even hints of Rachmaninov.  (It was written for Ashkenazy, so that only makes sense.)  The piano writing becomes dazzling, though never over the top.  The Adagio assai is slow, calm, and a bit cool at the open, with the pianist this time coming right to the forefront.  In such an environment excess would not do, so excess there is not.  As the movement progresses the music becomes more vigorous, with especially tasty swirls in the high strings and drive in the lower strings, with rumbling timpani helping to ratchet up the intensity in the middle.  Then it calms down a bit, revealing a conservative overall structure.  The concluding Energico is more, um, energetic, with both the soloist and band getting to let loose a bit.  With drum thwacks aplenty, and pulsing string playing, and virtuosic piano writing and playing, the work ends with a standard concerto finale, though one that fades away nicely at the end.  All the while the work possesses that unique Rautavaara sound, with lush sounds informed by prickly compositional devices, all merged into a most satisfying package.  Having heard all three of Rautavaara's piano concertos, I must say that I like this one the most.

The disc closes with the fine second piano concerto.  The opening In Viaggio starts of sparse, with a bass emphasized orchestra underpinning shimmering piano figurations that continue while the whole orchestra begins to play.  The first solo part for the pianist isn't much more than a continuation of the opening material, though as the orchestra reenters and the whole work develops, the piano part also develops.  The orchestral writing itself becomes more potent, with prominent percussion and swelling strings.  A nice, beefy opener.  The Sognando e libero opens with comparatively gentle, ruminative piano playing and orchestral playing to match, though the strings sting a bit, hints of unease in the air.  Then everything speeds up, building to a powerful climax before subsiding.  The concluding Uccelli sulle passion finds Ms Mikkola playing knotty, almost neo-Schoenbergian piano music solo, and then when the orchestra plays, it's in a gliding, undulating fashion, with the strings notable again for their beauty and bite.  The piano plays in a similar fashion throughout, in what sounds to be challenging writing.  It's hard to tell if the soloist is now the accompanist at times, but both band and soloist take to the fore from time to time.  Rautavaara's distinctive wind writing (usually ascending solo bursts) pop up here and there, and the whole thing fades away to nothingness.  This is a very knotty piece, but it's also very approachable.

Indeed, that may be the key to the success of this disc and of Rautavaara generally.  His music is both modern and respects (and borrows from) tradition.  He's not afraid to write something dense, gnarly, and rigorous.  But he's also not afraid to write beautiful music.  And he has the ability to make even serial music conventionally beautiful.  These three works all reinforce his talents.  That's why I find him to be one of the greatest of composers active in the last two or three decades.

As to the performers, Ms Mikkola does a superb job, and Eri Klas and his Dutch band far more than ably support her.  Superb sound rounds out a superb disc. 



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Maciek on June 09, 2008, 03:26:35 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 24, 2007, 12:18:39 PM
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How on earth did I manage to miss this post? One of my favorite composers (here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,608.0.html)'s his thread, BTW), and I am especially partial to his writing for strings - but definitely prefer when they are larger ensembles (though I do like the SQs). I have a nice Warsaw Autumn recording of his Divertimento. I think I'll put it up. 0:)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 16, 2008, 02:11:41 PM
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I had immense success when I picked up the Naxos Nancarrow "sampler" and the complete works for player piano on Wergo, so I figured I might as well go for the new-ish disc of his string quartets (and other works) played by the Arditti Quartet on Wergo.  While this is a fine disc it's not quite as good as the other recordings I mentioned.  The reason is plain enough; the bottom line is that Nancarrow was simply better at writing for the player piano and other small ensembles than he was at writing for the more conventional string quartet medium. 

Don't get me wrong: there's plenty to enjoy.  The music is gnarly and modern in a nice heavy duty way, but it also maintains Nancarrow's generally lighter, sunnier overall feel.  Competition for late LvB these works are not.  Meticulous attention is paid to each instrument, and the musical arguments are dense.  Some fun music pops up here and there – as one would expect from Nancarrow – but I guess I wanted more.  The fillers, including arrangements of some of the player piano studies made by Nancarrow and others, fall into the same category.  There's a really nice, brief Toccata for violin and player piano which seems to jump to life a bit more, and the closing Trilogy for Player Piano shows where Nancarrow is most at home.

The Arditti play superbly, as one would expect, and sound is superb too.  I definitely rate this disc a success and think that Nancarrow fans will like it.  It just doesn't match up to his (formidable) best works.  That's a tall order, though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 17, 2008, 03:21:58 PM
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So far in all my listening I've heard very little Michael Tippett – only the symphonies.  I wasn't uniformly impressed, particularly with the one with faux voices or breathing or whatever in it.  (It's been years since I listened to it.)  But I figured I might as well try something else, and this disc of two of the piano sonatas and the Piano Concerto was quite handy.  I enjoy John Ogdon's pianism for the most part, so I figured he'd make the most of the works here.

The disc opens with the first Piano Sonata, and it's quite good in a generic, modernist sort of way.  It's complex and dense, with nice contrasts in rhythm and dynamics, along with some bite, yet it retains enough traditional melodic and harmonic elements (and four movement structure), or something approximating them, to be quite accessible.  It's not of Prokofiev quality, say, but it's a nice listen.  The next work is the second Piano Sonata, which is a more complex yet, more avant garde, with harsh dissonance and ragged rhythm.  A less comfortable listen, and a bit less persuasive, too.  If I go this route, I'm thinking Schoenberg is more to my taste.

The disc ends with the Piano Concerto, which is the best work on the disc.  Again, it's definitely "modern," but it's also approachable.  The overall feeling is on the upbeat side, and there's energy aplenty.  Orchestration is handled deftly, with some nifty wind writing; some rather, well, British sounding brass parts (hard to describe, but I don't think anyone would say some of the fanfares sound French); and string writing that is both attractive and piquant.  In the opening movement one can hear the influence of Bartok in places, as well as some other composers, though the Hungarian's influence is most audible.  I'll definitely give this work a spin in the future, but I must say that it's not quite up to the Bartok and Prokofiev level.

The 60s era sound quality is very good, and Ogdon plays with notable command of the music.  Colin Davis and the Philharmonia more than ably accompany in the concerto.  So, a good disc, maybe a very good one, but really one for intrepid repertoire explorers.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 20, 2008, 11:06:55 AM
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Up until I bought this disc, I believe the only work by Jean Françaix I had heard was his Piano Concerto.  A fine work to be sure, but surely there is more to the composer.  There is!  I'm not sure why this disc caught my attention – perhaps the bright colors on the cover, perhaps the unusual instrumental combinations (winds aplenty, strings, and piano) – but I'm sure glad it did because it's one heck of a charmer.

Profound levity, that's the best way I can describe the sound of the music on this disc.  The four works – two long-ish, two short – all display the same traits: an irresistibly light, upbeat mood (for the most part); snazzy rhythms; beauty; grace; clarity; meticulousness; informal formality; and undeniable Frenchness.  (No German or Briton could ever write this music!)  Even the slow movements more or less convey the same things, just at a more leisurely pace.  They are immediately and completely accessible works, yet they also scream out 20th Century.  These could never have been written in the 19th Century, yet strident, hard, jagged music is nowhere to be found. 

While all the works sound different, and all have different instrumental combinations, they all occupy the same overall sound world.  There's no sense of the composer rehashing the same ideas, though, not by any means.  Some may find the music and ideas too trite, and this certainly isn't chamber music of Beethoven/Bartok/Shostakovich/<add your favorite heavyweight here> caliber, but surely one can enjoy perfectly crafted musical bon-bons every once in a while.

The Gaudier Ensemble plays splendidly and Hyperion's sound is top-notch. 

A delicious disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 06, 2008, 02:56:54 PM
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Here's a composer entirely new to me.  Until I saw the Naxos disc of his complete solo piano music, I'd never even seen the name Dimitris Dragatakis.  My curiosity was piqued, though I'm not sure why.  So I have listened to the disc, and I must declare this a most exhilarating find! 

The disc opens with a trilogy of shorter works from 1949 and before – meaning they're "early" works.  (The composer lived from 1914 to 2001.)  They are all pleasant enough works.  Nostalgia is a Greek-flavored, Iberia-esque piece, though not as complex as the Spanish masterpiece.  Butterfly is a light creation featuring tasty irregular rhythms  Little Ballade offers the first hints of what's to come with a vigorous, intense, fiery, occasionally knotty and occasionally romantic sound.  One can detect faint whiffs of Bartok.

The early works then give way to the meat of the disc.  Dragatakis is revealed to be a thoroughly modern composer with a pronounced avant-garde streak, though he seems to be a few years behind the times with each work.  The two Piano Sonatinas exemplify this.  Written in the 60s, they are both angular, dissonant, driven pieces, and seem to hint at Prokofiev and perhaps Schoenberg.  Then comes Antiques, a collection of eight miniatures from 1972 that are often austere, occasionally violent, and display hints of both Minimalism and Ligeti.  The Anadromés are more austere yet, but somehow manage to maintain a rhythmic brio.  The two Etudes carry on in a similar style.  Inelia, from 1997, is a most fascinating piece.  Dragatakis maintains a thoroughly modern style yet injects more accessible harmonic and melodic components in places.  It's a most remarkable piece.  The disc closes with the 11-minute long Monologue No. 4, from 2001, which wasn't premiered until after his death.  It's mostly a no-compromise type piece, knotty and occasionally unapproachable, but one hears wistfulness, and perhaps even bitterness and regret in a few spots. 

Lorenda Ramou plays all of the works, and she is fully up to the challenge.  She worked with the composer and premiered some of his pieces, and accordingly she seems to have the music down cold.  She plays with impressive command and feeling, something not always expected in such modern works.  Throw in fully modern sound, and this is one heck of a disc.  If you like modern piano music – think Schoenberg, Ligeti, or Nono – then this may be one to consider.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 10, 2008, 01:30:09 PM
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I'm not sure why I decided to try this disc.  It's filled with pretty much nothing but miniatures – and transcribed miniatures at that.  Sure, the transcribers in question have names like Heifetz and Perlman for most of the works, but they're transcriptions.  But why not? 

Anyway, the disc opens with an original work by called Four Rags by John Novacek, Ms Josefowicz's accompanist.  It's a pretty good throwback to the early 20th Century ragtime music the rest of the disc is devoted to.  After that, things move back in time to works by Charlie Chaplin (!), Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, Stephen Foster, and Manuel Ponce (?).  Most are mildly entertaining but fade from memory once the music stops.  Even Heifetz's arrangement of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, interesting though it is to hear, isn't exactly gripping. 

There are a couple interesting works.  Henri Vieuxtemps' work Souvenir d'Amérique,  a set of variations on Yankee Doodle, is great fun.  The main melody is given the hyper-virtuoisic treatment and it works.  The Porgy and Bess suite also works well as arranged.  But these two works total about 20 minutes of a 60+ minute disc.  That's not enough. 

Leila Josefowicz plays quite nicely, with a pleasant but not gorgeous tone, and a slightly small sound, at least as recorded here.  Novacek plays his part superbly.  Sound is major-label top-flight.  Even so, this is lightweight disc that doesn't seem to be something to listen to very often.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 13, 2008, 07:19:27 AM
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I've sampled a variety of lieder by a number of composers over the years, but until this disc I never got around to listening to the songs of Hugo Wolf.  So when I stumbled on this old disc of an even older recital by that estimable duo of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore I figured it was time.  The disc contains a recital from 1961 and has 20 of Wolf's Mörike lieder, all penned in 1888.  On the evidence of this recital, I really need to investigate more of Wolf's music. 

As I expected, Fischer-Dieskau and Moore work perfectly together, with Moore generally supplying the steady base from which Fischer-Dieskau can launch into interpretive flights of fancy.  Many of the songs have a dark or somewhat dark mien, and they sound unusually rich.  The texts are all quite good, and some more than that.  And sometimes it's the smaller works that hit hardest.  For instance, Bei einer Trauung is extremely brief, yet it's unsettling piano part and condensed verse describing an unhappy wedding packs a wallop.  There are a number of other similar moments through the disc, and Fischer-Dieskau digs in.  His mannerisms do show through here and there, and he is histrionic in the last two works in the recital (Zur Warnung and Abschied), so those who do not like him probably wouldn't like this disc.  Me, I do, and need to hear more.

Sound is definitely not modern: it sounds like a live recital recording from its time and the volume and scale of both singer and pianist varies a bit more than one would ideally prefer.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 20, 2008, 07:18:58 AM
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I must confess that Resphigi is not a composer I've ever really cared for much.  The Roman Trilogy?  Rather snooze inducing if you ask me.  And what else is there?  Well, I also tried his opera La Fiamma.  Kinda the same thing.  But being at least somewhat intrepid, I figured I could try some more, and so when I stumbled upon this disc of four even lesser known orchestral works on MDG, I figured I could give it a shot.

The disc opens with a work entitled Metamorphosen mod. XII from 1930.  It's sort of a re-imagining of Gregorian Chant, if you will, one filtered through a mix of modernism and late romanticism.  The late romanticism shows up in the Andante theme, which possesses a positively Korngoldian lushness, though this is married to a devout seriousness.  The 12 variations, each in a different church mode, display the same traits, though they throw in hints of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra in that each instrument gets its time in the spotlight.  The music is a bit too thick, heavy and (faux-) serious to take too seriously.

The next work is Rossiniana from 1925.  The four movements all evoke the namesake of the work, and that means a bright, fun, sparkling, witty sound for the most part, with just plain fun instrumentation.  The second movement is a bit more dramatic, and boasts a truly thunderous bass drum, and the final movement is perhaps  just a tad garish and boisterous, though it's fun.  Overall, it's a slight work, but an enjoyable one.

Next up is the first recording of the Burlesca from 1906.  It's a free-form fantasy, with delicate strings and slightly bombastic brass and strings.  A nice enough bon-bon. 

The final work is the Passacaglia in C Minor.  Yes, it's an orchestration of a Bach work.  It opens darkly, with lush strings creating a rich texture as well.  Once again it sounds faux-serious, but a bit too much so.  And it's gaudy.  (One can only occasionally hear Bach straining through.)  And it's too long.  Um, it's not the greatest work.

So another stab at Resphigi, and it's a decided mixed bag.  A couple of the works are fun enough, but slight.  A couple are heavy and overwrought.  In other words, it's not a disc to spin very often.  At least it sounds magnificent!  MDG's sound is about as good as it gets, with clarity, detail, and bass of Telarc-ian quality (when Telarc is at its best).  George Hanson leads the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra far more than ably, and the band plays well.  They deserve better music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 12, 2008, 07:46:29 AM
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Time for another completely new composer for me.  I've seen the name Edmund Rubbra before, and I've read some positive remarks about his music, so it seemed like a good enough time to give something by him a shot.  I opted for the Naxos ditty containing his Violin Concerto and other works.

First, the other works.  The disc opens with the Improvisations for Violin and Orchestra, Op 89.  The piece opens with the violin front and center with help only from the timps, offering for a nice contrast.  It also opens rather "slow," only gradually unfolding until the orchestra enters with a dark sound that is not so much portentous as just plain serious.  About halfway in the piece begins to sound more vibrant and more extroverted before reassuming the dark mien and then back.  The orchestration is rich and really quite striking, to boot.  I'm not sure how improvisational it sounds, but I like it.

The next work on the disc is the Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby, Op 56.  It's a collection of five short works based on ancient, or at least pre-baroque works.  They're generally light and crisp and very much show their inspiration.  It comes across as a light divertimento, though the fourth piece, Loth to depart, is a bit more serious.

The final work on the disc is the aforementioned Violin Concerto, Op 103.  The first and endearing impression of the work is that it is very conservative, especially given its composition period – the late 50s.  The opening movement is excellent.  Its orchestration is meaty and heavy, and possesses a quasi-romantic quasi-grandeur.  The writing for the violin offers some superb, not too flashy writing (a plus), and Krysia Osostowicz plays very well indeed.  The winds also get some fine music to play, and the tart oboe rarely gets juicier parts.  The slow second movement is rich, varied, and expansive, and, well, poetic (it is labeled 'Poema,' so that seems appropriate).  The violin part becomes more pronounced against a calmer orchestral background, too.  The final movement is the expected (almost) bravura closer, with more nifty wind writing coupled to fun percussion writing to bring the work to close.  But for the obvious influences of even older music, the concerto would seem to be more from the Edwardian era than the Eisenhower era, but even so it's a work worthy of more exposure.

As mentioned before, Krysia Osostowicz plays extremely well, and the Ulster Orchestra under Takuo Yuasa also acquit themselves superbly.  Throw in world-class Tony Faulkner sound and this superb disc.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on October 12, 2008, 07:57:17 AM
I always enjoy this thread of your'n, Todd. Thanks!

FWIW, I "met" the Rossiniana via the Naxos disc with Buffalo/Falletta.  A little work-a-day, struck me as.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on October 12, 2008, 08:04:46 AM
Quote from: Todd on October 12, 2008, 07:46:29 AM
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As mentioned before, Krysia Osostowicz plays extremely well, and the Ulster Orchestra under Takuo Yuasa also acquit themselves superbly.  Throw in world-class Tony Faulkner sound and this superb disc.

I wholeheartedly agree, and please try some more Rubbra, Tod. As you like 20th century string quartets, the two midprice Dutton discs are strongly recommended.

And keep up your fine thread!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Grazioso on October 16, 2008, 04:30:43 AM
I've yet to hear Rubbra's violin concerto, alas, but have heard and greatly enjoyed his viola concerto, which in many ways matches your description of the other work:

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 22, 2008, 05:45:24 PM
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How many flute aficionados are out there?  They're there, but I don't know of too many of them.  I'm not really one, though every once in a while I like to give a listen to a flute work.  Or three.  Emmanuel Pahud impressed me a few years ago when I first heard his playing of Sofia Gubaidulina's Music for Flute, Strings and Percussion, so when I saw this new-ish disc filled with three even newer works for flute and orchestra I went for it.  It was a pretty good decision.

The disc opens with the Flute Concerto by Marc-André Dalbavie.  The brief concerto opens with potent chords from the orchestra and flute, and then the flute is off on an extended, front and center run, rising and falling throughout, with plenty of snazzy rhythms and gobs of more than ably played notes flitting by.  The orchestra offers supremely transparent support in a neo-Bartok-cum-Berg sorta way.  Here and there the flute blends into the orchestra, and then after the first several minutes the whole piece slows way down, and quiets down a bit, too.  At such times, Pahud displays what I can only assume is dazzling breath control (flute aficionados would have to jump in here).  The piece then alternates between the two styles somewhat, though the slower music predominates.  There are definitely plenty of highlights to this very well crafted work, but it will take more listens to determine whether I'd consider it of the same quality of Gubaidulina's work.

The next work, Michael Jarrell's ...un temps de silence..., though, strikes me as the best work on the disc.  The piece opens with percussion and flute offering tonal and textural contrast, and it sounds a bit more than faintly Boulezian.  It's darker, more uncompromising, and more unyieldingly avant-garde.  There's aggression in some of the writing, with grinding tuttis, and a few piercing notes from the soloist.  It then cools off a bit to flute-centric writing allowing Pahud to play with as much tonal luster and beauty as he can (or maybe not!), though the music retains a slightly mysterious feel.  That is, it stays on the dark side, and throws in a searching intensity.  The work ends slowly, dissolving into near nothingness, with the flute and orchestra twitching near the end.  This work is definitely complex and dense, but it also is surprisingly easy to listen to, at least for me.  If you don't like post-war works, it may be best to avoid it, though.

Matthias Pintscher's Transir for flute and chamber orchestra closes the disc, and it is perhaps the most unusual work of the three.  The piece opens slowly and quietly, and from very early on there's a lot of emphasis on creating sounds out of the instrument and Pahud's breath, by which I mean you hear both quite clearly.  No more tonal luster; it's more like parlor tricks.  Anyway, after a focus on the flute, the orchestra gradually returns with a bright, clear sound permeated with unusual sounds.  I don't know if Pintscher opted for unusual instrumentation or simply combines the instrument brilliantly, but there are sounds here I ain't heard before.  The piece just seems to build tension, and Pahud really displays his ability, truly screeching out high notes in short bursts, until at about 7'30," the full orchestra bursts into life relieving the tension.  The piece then alternates and unfolds in a most intriguing manner.  The piece also boasts a huge dynamic range, this slightly exaggerated by the almost unbelievably quite pianissimos Pahud delivers.  Is it a great work?  Don't know, but it is an interesting one. 

So, here's a disc with three contemporary works that is quite listenable, as far as avant-garde type discs go, and Emmanuel Pahud shows that he's got some serious chops.  Throw in some superb modern sound, and amazingly precise playing from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under three conductors – Peter Eötvös, Pascal Rophé, and Matthias Pintscher for his own piece – and one has a surprisingly effective collection of modern works for flute.  Not everyone will like it, though.  Adventurous sorts very well may.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 03, 2008, 12:53:46 PM
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Time for some decidedly Heavy Duty, High Art-type music.  Hans Werner Henze should work.  I've had mixed feelings about the Henze works I've heard, but I figured he was worth another shot, and this Naxos disc of two of his violin concerti and a work for violin and piano seemed a good bet.  I was right. 

The disc opens with the First Violin Concerto, from 1946, and the very young Mr Henze displays some great skill in this composition.  The opening movement, designated Largamente, rubato – Allegro molto starts off with a searching violin part contrasted with a hefty, clangorous, spiky orchestral part.  The continued interplay between these two parts is quite intriguing, and better than any 20-year-old ought to be able to write.  (Mozart obviously excluded.)  The movement tapers off near the end, with slow, austere, and haunting music.  Yes, the influences of Berg and Bartok are obvious, and he seems to channel the Hungarian almost directly in places, but what better composers to imitate?  Anyway, the Vivacissimo second movement is more vibrant and energetic, with a more prominent orchestra playing along with an incredibly slick, piercing soloist.  The Andante con moto opens with beautiful dodecaphonic music – yes, it's possible – and as the movement unfolds the soloist flits near the upper reaches of the instrument at one point, and slashes at his fiddle violently, and that's before the music transforms into something almost ugly and oppressive, while maintaining a dark, funereal mien.  The concluding Allegro molto vivace explodes angrily into being, with a slight grotesqueness to it.  But Henze knows to offer something else, so some nearly serene, almost beautiful music arrives just in time.  The juxtaposition of the two styles continues on throughout, for the most part.

The second work is the much later Third Violin Concerto, from 1997.  Apparently inspired by Thomas Mann's Dr Faustus, the work again offers many contrasts.  The first movement, Esmerelda, opens very slowly, quietly, and almost mournfully: astringent, sorrowful music nearly pours out of the violin.  When the orchestra finally enters full force at around 2'20" or so, it's in a deliciously dissonant, almost harsh, yet smoothly crafted way.  There's some manipulation going on, and Henze's orchestration is rather impressive.  Das Kind Echo is next, and it's light in texture to start, but becomes playful and robust in short order.  A few moments of sorrow creep back in, but the most impressive aspect of the music is the masterful pianissimo writing, with some notes hanging on endlessly into silence.  The work closes with Rudi S., which opens with a soaring solo line before coming back to earth.  Some of the music sounds simultaneously confused and contemplative, and once again I was reminded of Berg's Violin Concerto as I listened. 

The disc ends with the brief Fünf Nachtstücke, from 1990, for violin and piano.  The brief pieces all sound unique and strongly characterized: Elegie is slow and elegiac, and heavy on the violin until the coda; Capriccio is lighter and prodding fun; Hirtenlied I is potent yet sorrowful; Hirtenlied II offers more of the same in a more poignant package; and Ode is relaxed yet extroverted, with a few hard-hitting passages thrown in.

So, here's a disc comprised of more or less High Art.  I'd be surprised if musicologists found many hints of folk music in any of the pieces.  It's a bit abstract, if you will, and a bit difficult.  It may even be "intellectual" music.  But whatever else it is, it is also more than a little enjoyable.  Not, perhaps, listen-every-week enjoyable, but enjoyable nonetheless.  Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved plays brilliantly, and Christopher Lyndon-Gee leads the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra more that ably.  My only quibble is with the sound quality: it can be a little glassy during tuttis.  Otherwise, another winner from Naxos.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on November 03, 2008, 12:56:31 PM
There you are: High Art doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

Thanks for the review, Todd!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on November 03, 2008, 01:05:22 PM
Quote from: Todd on October 22, 2008, 05:45:24 PM
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Thanks for the interesting comments on this, Todd.  I am eager to hear it, ever since a flutist friend said she heard it and "almost fainted."  (Meaning, she liked it.  A lot.)  I like Dalbavie and Pintscher quite a bit, but don't know Jarrell's music at all. 

Quote from: karlhenning on November 03, 2008, 12:56:31 PM
There you are: High Art doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

Thanks for the review, Todd!

I'll sign on with that opinion, and yes, thanks for review no. 2, as well.

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 06, 2008, 06:51:01 AM
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Time for another work of High Art!  After such a success as the Henze disc, another heavy-duty, intellectual, superbly crafted work should be the ticket.  There are many choices out there, of course, but I determined that I should try an opera this time around (for no particular reason), and that something by Ferruccio Busoni would be nice (again, for no particular reason).  This led me to Kent Nagano's late-90s recording of Doktor Faust.  Would musical lightning strike twice in succession?  No.

I'll just offer my verdict right now: this opera is too slow, too long, and boring.  Why, you ask?  Well . . .

First off, the opera has a decidedly unusual structure.  Rather than Acts, this one is carved up into an opening Symphonia, a long, spoken introductory poem (with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau almost inevitably the speaker), then two Prologues, an Intermezzo, and then the principal action, divided into three scenes, with a spoken Epilogue to wrap it all up.  Whew!  Novel structures are neither here nor there for me, but it's clear from the opening Symphonia what this will be like.  The music is somewhat subdued for a dramatic work, but it's rich, fastidiously constructed, rather attractive in parts – and ultimately a bit boring.  It never really grabbed my attention the way it should.  The spoken dialogue is well delivered, but the text (or at least the translation of it) is heavy-going: it's definitely "intellectual," and perhaps just a bit ponderous.  Busoni himself wrote the text – shooting for the Gesamtkunstwerk thing of course – so this is his take on the legend, not Goethe's or Marlowe's.  Let's just say that Busoni isn't quite the literary talent of those two.  The Prologues and Intermezzo offer a mixture of rarely compelling, occasionally interesting, and often boring music paired to mostly uninteresting text that doesn't really roll of the tongues of the singers in the same fashion as, say, something written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. 

The Principal action, well, it offers more of the same.  Plus an organ solo!  As to the plot, well, it's a convoluted take on Faust.  Mephistopheles – he's there.  (Beelzebub, too.)  Faust makes his bargain.  There's Faust's love interest – here the Duchess of Parma.  There are singing students, soldiers, a philosopher, and an assistant named Wagner.  Truth to tell, I found the plot a little too plodding even for a slow opera. 

Back to the music: though written mostly in the 1920s, it's not modern in the sense of Wozzeck or Jonny spielt auf or other works of the era.  There are definitely some "modern" elements, but it sounds rather formal and somewhat conservative most of the time.  Hints of Mahler, Wagner, and even Dvorak (in one place) can be heard, and no doubt others if one listens closely enough.  I couldn't and didn't. 

I really wanted to like this work, but it ended up missing the mark for me.  Others may find it more compelling, and I can certainly see some reasons why, but I just can't see myself listening to this again.

Sound is quite fine and Kent Nagano, his band, and the singers all acquit themselves nicely. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 08, 2008, 06:23:31 AM
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I've never been a huge fan of Camille Saint-Saëns.  His music is often pleasant enough, or at least what I've heard of it is, and it can be exciting at times, but at least some of it is too slight for my tastes.  I've mentioned before that I find him the finest fourth rate composer.  Well, I've  never tried his big ol' honkin' opera Samson et Dalila before, so I figured I might as well give the guy another shot. 

As with Busoni's disappointing Doktor Faust, I'll just come out and offer my verdict: I thoroughly enjoy this opera, and the few quibbles I have are related to the recording and cast and not the work itself.  And really, what's not to like?  The story is pretty well known, of course.  The mighty Samson manages to slay the governor of Gaza and free the Hebrew slaves from the Philistines.  The sultry and vengeful Delilah seduces the big lug and determines that his hair is the source of his strength and chops it off.  The Philistines plan on killing the strongman, but after repenting for his lusty ways, God imbues him with enough strength to destroy the temple and all the Philistines there gathered, along with himself.  Really, it seems the perfect type of story for an opera. 

And, perhaps almost ironically, Saint-Saëns seems the perfect man to set the story.  The music for this story could easily have been Very Dramatic, thick, even ponderous.  While there's more heft than I associate with Saint-Saëns in places, he keeps things generally brisk, reasonably clear and transparent, and at times light and crisp.  There are (light) hints of earlier Wagner, a bit more obvious influence of Verdi, and even perhaps some Berlioz, but what strikes one is the music's innate Frenchness.  The instrumentation is dazzling and sparkling at times, especially in the third act instrumental interludes, and everything sounds elegant and well proportioned, especially given the subject matter.  The whole thing fairly breezes by.  The first act, in particular, even though it's around 45 minutes, seems over almost as soon as it starts.  The second act, with the seduction scene, could have been a bit more sultry, I suppose, but it's quite attractive as is.  And the extended celebration in the third act is just plain good stage music.  Beyond that, the text is quite good.  No, it's not Da Ponte or Hofmannsthal good, but Ferdinand Lemaire's libretto works well. 

Now my quibbles.  To the sound: 1962 was a long time ago now, and this recording can't hide its age.  It's very good, as many similar vintage recordings are, but the dynamic range is limited, there's some congestion during the loudest passages, and there's some breakup in the loudest sung passages, especially those where Jon Vickers is at the center of the action.  Rita Gorr, while her French is superb and her tone very attractive, sounds a bit too rich and mature for my ears; her tone isn't seductive enough.  (Perhaps a recording with Veronique Gens could be made; she jumped immediately to mind while listening.)  Vickers is perhaps just a bit too rough at times, too.  I've no issues with the conducting and orchestral playing, both of which seem quite fine.  I may very well end up buying a newer recording in better sound to meet my needs, but this is a surprisingly good opera and one to which I know I shall return.  No, it's not quite a work at the same level as, say, Tristan or Otello or Les Troyens, but it's quite fine.  Saint-Saëns has moved up the compositional ladder a rung or two. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: T-C on November 08, 2008, 07:07:41 AM
An excellent modern recording of Samson Et Dalila (and now quite cheap) is the EMI recording that is conducted by Myung-Whun Chung:


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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 12, 2008, 09:26:04 AM

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Who doesn't like some syrupy, late Romantic music every once in a while?  I know I do.  And rarely have I heard composers who took this art form to such exalted heights as Erich Wolfgang Korngold.  Some of the man's music is so aurally gooey and rich that I think you can gain weight just by listening.  For whatever reason, I never got around to listening to this disc with Leon Fleisher and friends playing music for the piano left hand and strings until now, a full decade after its release.  (Since the project took seven years for Sony to publish, I guess I shouldn't feel too bad.)  In addition to what is essentially a piano quartet from the Wunderkind, the disc also boasts a piano quintet by Franz Schmidt, who makes his first appearance in my collection.

The disc opens with the Korngold work, and it's a doozy.  Thick, rich harmonies.  Glorious, rich melodies.  Beautiful, rich slow passages.  Vibrant, rich fast passages.  This work embodies Korngold's writing.  The first two movements in what is called the Suite for 2 Violins, Cello, and Piano Left Hand, Op 23, display large-scaled, expertly crafted string writing, where the players get to (almost) let loose, and strong, nicely articulated writing for the pianist.  (Both works, like most works for piano left-hand, were penned for Paul Wittgenstein.)  Fleisher more than holds his own with the string players, and the lushness of the music is intoxicating.  The third movement – Groteske – is more biting and purposely over the top, though even it has an achingly beautiful middle section.  The last two movements more or less continue on the basic approach as the first couple movements.  This is definitely syrupy and Very Romantic music, but it is also tinged with modernity.  There's more to it than just beauty, but beauty sticks in the mind's ear.  Be careful, though: if you have high cholesterol, this may be one to steer clear of.

Franz Schmidt's Piano Quintet isn't quite as good, but it's good nonetheless.  For the most part, it reminds me a lot of Brahms.  It's somewhat formal and meticulously crafted, though it lacks Brahms' genius.  But there's more to it.  It's even more romanticized.  If one could take a work from Brahms, throw in some works by other late romantics, let the whole thing ferment for a couple decades, then one might end up with this work.  It's a bit languid, more than a bit lovely (especially the gorgeous Adagio), and rather comfortable sounding.  And perhaps just a bit predictable, too.  Still, it ain't shabby.

The artists all play quite well.  Fleisher, in his pre-Botox resurrection days, delivers some exceptionally fine piano playing.  Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, and Joel Smirnoff deliver fine fiddling, and Michael Tree is very good on the viola.  Yo Yo Ma is predictably good on the cello.  The only thing I should say is that these decidedly modern players still make the music sound rich and gooey.  I can only imagine what it would sound like if a good old-fashioned, portamento-loving ensemble were to tackle these works.  It'd be something to cherish, I think.

Sound is essentially SOTA, even though the oldest recording is seventeen years old now.  Were that all recordings this nice sounding. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Grazioso on November 14, 2008, 04:03:24 AM
Todd, thanks for the detailed reviews. A few discs you may enjoy now:

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Worth it for the septet for trumpet. piano, and strings alone, never mind the other fine pieces. This is civilized, melodious, charming music.

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One of the great large-scale Late Romantic symphonies, from c. 1950
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 14, 2008, 06:59:51 AM
Quote from: Grazioso on November 14, 2008, 04:03:24 AM(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51200EPZ8YL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
One of the great large-scale Late Romantic symphonies, from c. 1950



Already have this one in its original guise.  Superb stuff.  The Saint-Saens does indeed look interesting.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 15, 2008, 01:07:12 PM
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Time to give Leonardo Balada another listen, this time in the realm of opera, or rather operetta.  This disc contains two brief operettas, one being a sequel to the other.  Generally, when I go in for opera, I like 'em big (Wagner or Berlioz, say), or I like 'em to pack a wallop (Wozzeck or King Roger), and little itty bitty ones generally don't do it for me.  Alas, these two fall into this category.

The first work is Hangman, Hangman!!, from 1982, a work purportedly based on a cowboy folk-song.  (I'd like to hear said song.)  Here, the main character Johnny is slated to hang until dead for the ghastly crime of horse theft.  Poor Johnny, he don't want to die, y'see, so he hollers out for his mother, his father, and finally his Sweetheart.  He begs to know whether they brought silver or gold.  (If this sounds rather like Led Zeppelin's more famous song Gallows Pole, it is, it's just ten times longer.)  But here things are different.  A rich, slick Irishman (in the Old West?) ends up literally buying the town and freeing Johnny.  No satisfactory explanation for said actions is given.  Not that one is needed, I suppose.  The music is surreal and modern, with twisted attempts at American "folk" music, and it's definitely got rhythmic verve, but it's a bit slight and the English doesn't fall very well on the ear, especially when it takes on a sort of Sprechstimme.  This ain't no world class stage work.

Neither is its sequel, The Town of Greed, from 1997.  Here the story picks up twenty years later.  Now Johnny's a big shot, y'see, and somehow he uses his Sweetheart, along with his mom and pop, to cut exciting, lucrative business deals.  To maintain a proper operatic façade, there is a love duet between Johnny and his Sweetheart, but the special appearances of Ford and Toyota let you know the point of this work.  Rather like Weill's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany and Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore, Capitalism and greed are the big villains.  Also, like in those two works, the idea is presented just a bit too obviously.  Balada does take things a bit further, though.  In this opera there's a recession!  As a result, the previously beloved big shot Johnny falls from favor, and the townsfolk want to – wait for it – hang him!  But as in the first opera, a magic man comes along to save the day.  But this one is from Wall Street!  And he shoots Johnny!  And he turns the town into a toxic dump!  Johnny's Sweetheart, well, what do you think happens?  The moral of the story: Money corrupts.  (Wow!)  Given the continuity of the story, it should come as no surprise that the music is very similar, mixing the obviously modern and the supposedly folksy in an especially adroit way.  However, both works fall short of what Mr Balada is capable of in his best works.  His strictly orchestral works are far better.

Sound is quite good for both works, with a suitably small venue obviously the setting, and the conductor and band and singers all do well enough.  Alas, the music and storylines just don't do it for me.  Social critique is fine – hell, it needs to be encouraged – I just want something better.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Guido on November 16, 2008, 03:55:25 AM
Glad you liked the Korngold Suite - it's probably my favourite chamber work of Korngold's - not just incredibly beautiful as you say, but also very finely crafted and thought out. Also, the one handed piano part really makes the piano seem like an equal partner to the string players rather than the traditionally more dominant role that it takes in much chamber music that includes a piano.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 18, 2008, 02:01:28 PM
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I so enjoyed my first disc of music by Stephen Hartke that I determined I should try another.  Alas, there aren't tons of recordings, but a decent selection is out there.  I decided to go "safe" and go with more orchestral music, so I settled on his Violin Concerto, nicknamed Auld Swaara, paired with his Second Symphony on New World Records.  'Twas a wise choice. 

The disc opens with the concerto, and right from the start it is fresh and individual.  Drumsticks striking each other offer the only support to the swaying violin at the start, while the orchestra enters in bursts.  Tart dissonances and surprising tunefulness combine with an infectious, throbbing, subtle rhythm to keep the listener involved.  As the piece unfolds a bit, one gets the sense that this is something of a pastiche, in a Stravinskian sort of way: rude blasts from the brass, a chaotic cacophony of percussion, and a Copland-on-narcotics string sound blend in a modern sonic cauldron.  And that's just the first section of the opening movement.  The middle section is dominated by the violin, and the music takes on a brooding feel.  The third section offers something of a return to the first section, but it also sounds more like a "conventional" concerto in that the violin and orchestra have obviously contrasting parts.  The second movement is actually a Fantasy tacked on to the first movement, and it's a fantasy on an old Shetland fiddle tune called, not surprisingly, Auld Swaara.  It's a lament for a lost fisherman, and so it only makes sense that the music is slow, rich, and more than slightly mournful.  Strings dominate the proceedings, but winds peek through here and there, and then the soloist enters to play the main theme.  It's definitely sad, and at times intense and vibrant, and to keep the mood appropriate, the movement is slower than most concerto closers.  Michelle Makarski was the dedicatee of the work, and she plays it extremely well here.

The disc closes with the (chamber) symphony, which is dedicated to the composer's memory of his father (this distinction is italicized in the notes), and it is also something of a slow, mournful piece.  The work opens with an Andante con moto that kicks off with searing strings that quickly transition to a bright, biting, confused sound world.  It's a subtly angry pavane.  (It's a pavane per the composer; the subtle anger is my take.)  As the piece develops, percussion and winds dance in and out of the music, but once again the strings form the intense core.  (And can one detect hints of Berg?)  Next up is the Scherzo, and it jumps into being.  Bright, punchy, and "chunky," it is indeed something of a twisted joke, and the music contains transfigured elements from the first movement.  Somehow it sounds a bit grotesque, in the most satisfying way.  The work closes with an Adagio sostenuto, and here the percussion starts things off, with the winds following shortly thereafter.  Not too long into it, the strings lurch into the sonic picture, and the music assumes a dark, mournful tone; it's quite moving.  A little further in the strings sound searing once again, in a Mahler 10th sort of way.  (Hartke never apes anyone or anything, though; the influences are more discreet than that.)  As the work winds down there is an extended piano-horn duo that plays up the emotional content of the music before finally giving way to a resigned ending. 

Once again, I must report that I really dig the music Mr Hartke writes.  This time the music is more abstract than on the prior Naxos disc, but it seems even better constructed.  There are a lot of musical ideas packed into these conventionally timed works, but the ideas are not conventional.  Modern they may be, but they also respect the past, and most important of all, they are original.  I'm definitely going to be sampling more of this composer's music.

As to the sound, well, it's very good if perhaps a bit bright.  The conducting and playing offer nothing to quibble about.  The Riverside Symphony apparently relies on soloists from New York to fill its ranks, and New York obviously has a deep talent pool.  George Rothman does a fine job conducting, too.  A winner.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 25, 2008, 02:57:31 PM
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I've generally steered clear of "early" music in my exploration of the classical canon.  I start off with early baroque figures like Louis Couperin, and then rarely.  I'm familiar with some early music via the excellent syndicated radio series Millenium of Music, and while I find some interesting, until now I'd never dropped a dime on a CD.  But I was milling around a (most likely) soon-to-be toast Borders and a four CD set of John Dowland's complete solo lute music caught my eye.  Four CDs of BIS engineered music on Brilliant Classics for a paltry $14 – how could I go wrong? 

Well, I couldn't, and I didn't.  The set contains 92 individual works, so I shan't really delve into detail, but the overall impression the music made on me was hugely positive.  I don't think I can say solo lute music is quite as compelling as solo piano music, but there's enough variety and, especially, beautiful melodic content here to compel me to return to this set again and again.  A good number of the pieces are spritely dances or dance-like pieces full of charm.  Some are simple, short little trifles, as titles like Lady Hunsdon's Puffe and Mrs White's Nothing might imply.  But an even larger number of works are more serious, more introspective, and more melancholy, all while being supremely melodic.  Again, titles like Forlorn Hope Fancy or the better known Loth to depart give away the essence of the music.  It's in these pieces that Dowland reveals his musical skill.  Many pieces don't sound especially complex (of course I don't play lute), but the music effectively conveys what words cannot.  It's quite possible to simply plop on one of the CDs, press play, and then just let the whole disc run though while one savors every nugget.  And though Dowland's music often possesses a certain Renaissance-y sound, there's a timelessness to much if it.  The beautiful musical line of many pieces could be lifted whole and used by a folk or rock band today.  Indeed, I believe I've heard modern music inspired by A Musicall Banquet and Come Away before. 

This set originally coming from BIS, the sound quality is stupendously good.  The lute always comes across with wonderful clarity and, with the instruments using all gut strings, with amazing warmth and body.  One gets the sense of a lutenist sitting right between one's speakers happily (or perhaps slightly morosely) plucking away.  Jakob Lindberg plays splendidly, and his three instruments all sound exquisite.  I do confess a preference for the all gut-stringed instruments, though the wire stringed instrument is necessary for some works.  For some reason this set reminded me of the distinctly dissimilar "jazz" disc Beyond the Missouri Sky by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny; there's a simplicity and unaffected directness to the music that cuts through labels and genres and time and just sounds comfortable and right.  It's as though I've heard this music forever, and yet the joy of discovery remains.  A superb set – I may have to investigate more Dowland.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 28, 2008, 11:10:23 AM
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It's been a while since I picked up the Danel Quartet's excellent traversal of Ahmed Adnan Saygun's string quartets, and it's been years since I picked up the Koch recording of Saygun's piano concertos, so I figured another dose of the Turk's music was due.  CPO appears to be in the midst of releasing a good number of his works, so I opted for a mixed program disc – the Fourth Symphony combined with the Violin Concerto and an orchestral suite. 

The disc opens with the symphony, and in many respects it's a conservative work for its time – 1976.  Hardly an avant-garde or even advanced fusion style work like, say, works from Ligeti or Rautavaara, it instead looks back to the inter-war era.  Saygun, as is his wont generally based on my listening, seems to mix in some "folk" influences, though not directly, and a traditional, fast-slow-fast overall structure.  The robust Deciso opening movement seems almost overstuffed at times.  Hordes of instruments blaring out, occasionally thick orchestration, vibrant and intense rhythmic drive, and grand scale all mix together effectively enough, and Saygun even allows for some lighter moments and some individual instruments to take center stage.  The Poco Largo is a melancholy movement, but again its orchestration at times is a bit thick, and the overall forward momentum never really lets up here, either.  (That's a nice trick in slow movements.)  The concluding Con anima e molto deciso offers even more vibrant music than the opener, with blatting brass and more overtly eastern influences.  (And one simply cannot escape the influence of Bartok and other inter-war era composers.)  There's much to enjoy here, but this does not enter the canon alongside Beethoven's Fourth.  That written, it's even better the second time around.

The Violin Concerto is next, and it, too, harks back in time from its 1967 provenance.  (Many people will find this a good thing, of course.)  Again using a moderately-fast-slow-fast approach, the piece opens with a large-scaled, long Moderato.  Flexible, inventive orchestration, and a generally lighter feel than with the symphony, makes this a smoother, gentler (though not gentle) work.  Brief dreaminess is brought on by some expertly deployed harps, and various instruments again come to the fore.  Most to the fore is the violin, of course, and Saygun offers something a bit unexpected.  Nary an overtly virtuosic flourish occurs; rather, the soloist plays more slowly, serving up some rich, thoughtful music, and near the last part of the movement, an extended, careful, searching cadenza of no little attractiveness.  The Adagio is an attractive but notably mournful movement, sort of an extended, rich dirge.  Not too thick and heavy, though some brass shows up, it is quite fine.  The concluding Allegro is brief, quicker, again rhythmically incisive, and massive.  It also possesses stereo-testing bass.  Not Gee-Whiz!, chest pounding bass, but bass drum filling the hall from the ground up and out type bass.  (Saygun also makes sure to offer some bass drum thwacks in the symphony.)  There's a "chunky" feel to some of the music, but that's quite alright with me.

The disc closes with brief, three movement suite.  This is unabashedly folk-music influenced, the composer's Turkishness not subsumed by anything.  Yes, he blends these influences with Occidental devices, but the attractive thematic material is as distinctive as any I've heard.  The opening Meseli, in particular, offers a rhythmically arrhythmic (in a PVC sorta way) theme.  The slow second and faster, bolder third movement likewise tickles one's ears with new, bold ideas.

I enjoyed this disc quite a bit, though I can't really say that the two main works will enter the standard repertoire.  Enjoyable as they are, they aren't quite inventive or catchy enough to become concert or recording mainstays.  That written, I do believe I need to investigate yet more music by Mr Saygun.  As to sound, well, it's extremely good, though a minor, slightly glassy sheen is present in the loudest passages.  Ari Rasilainen and his Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz handle the music extremely well.  Of particular interest to me is the violinist Mirjam Tschopp.  She plays the concerto extremely well and possesses a rich, always attractive tone.  She never really gets to display her chops in a flashy sort of way, but I want to hear more from her. 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 02, 2008, 04:38:40 PM
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Joseph Canteloube was not a composer I was looking to explore.  But I noticed that one of my favorite singers, Véronique Gens, recorded a disc of his music for Naxos a few years back.  So I figured why not?  Canteloube is a "modern" composer in that he lived from 1879 to 1957, but the works for voice and orchestra presented in these excerpts from Chants d'Auvergne sound decidedly old-fashion.  All of the works are influenced by folk-music, but all are original.  Apparently, in the north of France, there were still a lot of stories about sheppards and, especially, sheppardesses early in the 20th Century, and there was a lot of focus on love songs (which I'd buy), as well as frequent use of words like la and lo. 

Okay, so the song texts aren't necessarily Profound, but they don't necessarily need to be.  And indeed, when one listens to the music, profundity would be out of place.  The music is generally light, bright, and clean, with delicious wind writing.  Indeed, the flute, oboe, and clarinet all get their chance to shine in different songs, and the overall orchestration is usually breezy and always beautiful.  Also always beautiful is Ms Gens' singing.  Her command of French is absolute, of course, and she knows just how to deliver the words, whether strongly or with a tantalizing breathiness.  I just can't get enough of her voice.  Jean-Claude Casadesus and the Orchestre National de Lille lend a satisfying Gallic touch to the music, and sound is good, but a bit brighter and glassier than Ms Gens gets from Virgin engineers.  A delightful disc.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on December 02, 2008, 04:56:07 PM
Be sure to check out CD 2 in Gens' series of Canteloube songs, which came out a couple of months ago. (Serge Baudo takes over conducting duties.)
I feel bad about not reading this thread more often - had a chance to buy the Dowland today but missed it.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bunny on December 04, 2008, 05:31:01 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 02, 2008, 04:38:40 PM
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Joseph Canteloube was not a composer I was looking to explore.  But I noticed that one of my favorite singers, Véronique Gens, recorded a disc of his music for Naxos a few years back.  So I figured why not?  Canteloube is a "modern" composer in that he lived from 1879 to 1957, but the works for voice and orchestra presented in these excerpts from Chants d'Auvergne sound decidedly old-fashion.  All of the works are influenced by folk-music, but all are original.  Apparently, in the north of France, there were still a lot of stories about sheppards and, especially, sheppardesses early in the 20th Century, and there was a lot of focus on love songs (which I'd buy), as well as frequent use of words like la and lo. 

Okay, so the song texts aren't necessarily Profound, but they don't necessarily need to be.  And indeed, when one listens to the music, profundity would be out of place.  The music is generally light, bright, and clean, with delicious wind writing.  Indeed, the flute, oboe, and clarinet all get their chance to shine in different songs, and the overall orchestration is usually breezy and always beautiful.  Also always beautiful is Ms Gens' singing.  Her command of French is absolute, of course, and she knows just how to deliver the words, whether strongly or with a tantalizing breathiness.  I just can't get enough of her voice.  Jean-Claude Casadesus and the Orchestre National de Lille lend a satisfying Gallic touch to the music, and sound is good, but a bit brighter and glassier than Ms Gens gets from Virgin engineers.  A delightful disc.




Did you know that Gens is a native of the Auvergne so the dialect flows so naturally when she sings; there are no awkward phrasings nor pronunciations. 

The only other recording of the songs that I turn to is by Netania Davrath, whose voice had the most wonderful quicksilver quality.  She worked very hard to master the pronunciations so that the singing would be as natural as possible, and I believe, succeeded very well.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 06, 2008, 07:17:07 AM
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I've only tried a few works by Ernest Bloch to this point, and they've all been quite good.  So it was with high expectations that I bought this disc of his Violin Concerto coupled with Baal Shem and the Suite Hébraïque.  In many ways I enjoy this disc quite a bit, but something is also just a bit askew, if you will.

The disc opens with the concerto, from 1938, and there's much to enjoy, but also some things that detract from enjoyment.  The opening Allegro deciso kicks off with music purportedly inspired by Native American music.  (Not being an ethnomusicologist, I cannot say for sure if that's the case, but it sure sounds like it superficially.)  It's really quite nice, but the music quickly transforms into an epic, music equivalent of Cinemascope®, with religious elements more obviously thrown in.  It blends the sacred and profane, in other words; sure, it's serious and perhaps even devout, but it also has a movie soundtrack quality to it.  The violin writing is big, bold, and soaring, and the orchestral writing is very rich and colorful.  It rather reminds me of the music of Korngold, though it's not quite as lyrical or catchy.  Bloch throws some "mystical" elements in, though those didn't really work for me.  The Andante is more mystical yet!  The sound is certainly "exotic," with perhaps hints of Scheherezade, or maybe something older tossed in.  The music is leisurely, relaxed, and beautiful.  It may even conjure images of lazing around in the Aegean sun.  A plain old Deciso closes the work, and it's back to soundtrack territory, though pious overtones become more evident.  It manages to sound subdued yet immediately striking.  There are many fine elements to this concerto, but I'm not sure how well the whole thing jells.  It has something of an episodic quality, and it simply doesn't sound as compelling as other, standard repertoire 20th Century concertos, or even some undeservedly lesser known concertos like Walter Piston's 1st.

The next work, Baal Shem, from 1923, is more overtly religious in nature, and as such it seems a more purposeful, coherent work.  The three pieces are all strongly written.  Vidui is devout and very beautiful, especially the violin part.  It's a powerful, very human prayer and lament.  Nigun is firm, more energetic, and almost ecstatic at times.  Simhat Torah is bright cheery, yet also very formal and respectful.  Taken together, the three pieces seem to fit extremely well.

The Suite Hébraïque, from 1952, again has more overt religious elements, but it also has more of that movie soundtrack quality to it, including some melodramatic sappiness in the final movement.  I find the version for piano and violin to be far more satisfying.  The larger forces here turn it into something too garish for my taste.

So I'm not exactly bowled over by this disc.  Zina Schiff violin playing and José Serebrier's conducting and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's playing is all very good, but the music is not what I had hoped for.  I'll give the disc a few more spins, but frankly I can see this one disappearing from my collection before too long. 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2008, 06:52:15 AM
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I rather enjoy Vincenzo Bellini's opera Norma, but until now I've never tried anything else written by him.  I figured it was time to give another work a shot, so I settled on I Capuleti E I Montecchi, here in the recording conducted by Donald Runnicles from the late '90s.  I mean, come on, if ever a Shakespeare play screamed to be recast as an opera, Romeo and Juliet is it.  Except that this version isn't the Shakespeare version.  There are a number of differences, though the same basic thrust of the story is the same, and of course both young lovers buy the farm at the end.

I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but perhaps after years of listening to Tristan, I wanted something extremely dramatic with a searing, emotional ending.  Well, I didn't exactly get that.  The opera is in two acts, the first establishing the conflict of the two families and the complicated plot to marry the young heroine to the wrong dude.  The second act leads inexorably to their demise.  Should be pretty conflict ridden and intense, and so forth.  Well, the first act is kind of weak.  It's got lots of choral singing, martial music, and remains reasonably clear.  What's lacking, to my ears, is sufficient drama.  It is an early 19th Century, Italian opera, so it doesn't quite pack the wallop of later, predominantly Germanic works, so it never achieves what later works achieve.  I can't hold that against the work, but it just seems too crisp, too vigorous, too upbeat at times for me.  The second act, though, is good.  Here is a sort of prototype for what Wagner wrote, though without the harmonic daring, sweeping scale, or perfect orchestration.  (Also absent is the sometimes bloated text.)  The entire mood of the work darkens as the final tragedy approaches.  Bellini's music seems to belong to a slightly later period, and it effectively communicates the action.

I can't say that I'm particularly enamored with this work, at least as presented in this recording.  Oh, sure, Jennifer Larmore and Hei-Kyung Hong are fine in the leads, and the rest of the cast seems acceptable or better, and the orchestral playing is fine, and the sound is excellent.  This just never really clicked with me, even in the superior second act.  Maybe a better recording would bring the score to life better, but then again maybe not.  I'll probably give this opera another go in the future, but not for a while. 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 14, 2008, 08:35:12 AM
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Recently, I've been slowly expanding my exposure to early Baroque music, and now even earlier eras, and in that vein I decided to finally try some music by Claudio Monteverdi.  I didn't feel like an ancient opera, but an ancient liturgical work, well, that's something different.  So I opted for his Vespro Della Beata Vergine from 1610.  This is apparently another of those works where a lot of academic questions exist.  How many voices should be in the choir – one per part, something more like a chamber choir, etc – and, more importantly, should all of the music be presented at once?  There is chant mixed in, a couple magnificats, and so on.  What all should be included in a performance, and in what order?  I can't say because I don't study any music academically, let alone four hundred year old music, but I can listen to what others have decided to do.  Since I've had uniformly positive experiences with Paul McCreesh's recordings thus far, I decided to rely on his approach for my first outing.

Once again I'm very pleased with the results.  McCreesh uses a small, light ensemble, and single voices for the choral parts, and he seems to adopt relatively quick tempi a lot of the time, though I can't make comparisons at the current time.  Whatever the merits or demerits of his approach, everything works well.  I've never been a big fan of chant, but the passages in this work come off quite well, don't last especially long, and are part of the work and not the only aspect of it.  The choral singing is very attractive, as are the solo parts.  The light, discreet continuo parts supporting the singers are all attractively ascetic, and when multiple instruments and singers all join forces, the sound they generate and the effect they create are mesmerizing.  This work does sound somewhat like a hodge-podge, everything plus the kitchen sink type of work at times, but it always captivates.  "What's next?" One wonders while listening.  Chant, organ, soloist with harpsichord continuo, some choral music – Monteverdi mixes things up constantly, and while obviously ancient music, the sounds one hears are surprisingly rich and varied.  It's a big work, an ambitious work, and a beautiful work.

I have but one complaint about the recording: the sound.  The church used in the recording lends some authenticity to the proceedings, I suppose, but it also adds quite a bit of reverberation, which may or may not have been aided by the engineers.  There's a great sense of depth in the recording, with some voices close and some far away, but clarity suffers.  On the plus side, when "large" forces play, the sound blends together fantastically, creating aural soundscapes I've not yet experienced.  I think I need to explore some more early Baroque (and earlier music). 





Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 19, 2008, 07:15:34 AM
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I figured it was about time that I took a listen to DG's latest wunderkind conductor Gustavo Dudamel.  There are a few choices, but I decided to pass on his Beethoven and Mahler recordings and instead focus on works by, or inspired by, Latin American composers.  I did this not so much because I wanted to stereotype the conductor, but more because I have very serious doubts that a twenty-something conductor, however gifted, could possibly deliver readings of core rep that rivals, say, Bruno Walter or the Kleibers or, well, you get the idea.  That and the program on the Fiesta disc looked tempting: a host of short works by composers I've not even heard of for the most part. 

The disc opens with a work that I actually am familiar with, Sensemayá, by Silvestre Revueltas.  I'll just note here that this is the best work on the disc and that Dudamel leads a very fine, colorful, and vibrant reading of this Latin Rite of Spring.  Esa-Pekka Salonen's recording, due partly to how it was recorded, is more ominous and thunderous, but I'll gladly welcome this newcomer.

Now to new works.  Inocente Carreńo's Margariteña is next, and as played here it's a vibrant, generally upbeat dance, with some nearly pensive parts and an almost tone poem feel.  Antonio Estévez's Mediodia en el Llano is a musical evocation of Venezuela's high plains.  It's somewhat spare and brooding, and suitably arid in some parts, and mercurial in others.  It's almost a neo-impressionist piece, if such a thing exists, and sort of has hints of Debussy in it.  Arturo Márquez's Danzón no. 2 has a slow, rich opening, but then erupts into an intensely vibrant, bright dance.  Some almost obligatory introspective and sentimental music offers some contrast a few times, but this is, rightly, mostly about the dance.  Aldemaro Romero's Fuga con Pajarillo is up next, and it combines dance and fugue with a modern sensibility to create an energetic, sunny, fun, but also formal and rigorous work.  It's one of the best works on the disc.  It's not quite as good as Alberto Ginastera's dances from the ballet Estancia, though.  These four brief works are all crafted in a masterly fashion, and, along with the Revueltas work, just seem to represent a slightly higher level of composition than the others on the disc.  (A few more listens may very well add Romero's work to this list.)  I'm familiar with other Ginastera works – piano concertos and string quartets – and as with them, his music just works for me.  Anyhoo, the dances are fast, intense, and vibrant; slow, lilting, laid-back and lovely; fast, fiery, and potent; and vivacious and fun, in that order.  The last new work for me is Evencio Castellanos' Santa Cruz de Pacairigua, which blends "folk" elements and more elegant, formal music into a rich celebration.  Both musical approaches – signifying the common folk and the rich, apparently – eventually combine into a somewhat raucous, everyone-is-welcome shindig.  Some slower, more nostalgic music also makes itself known.  All of the works contain instrumentation and musical styles that are identifiably "Latin," or at least not French or German, so the music on offer is potentially refreshing to ears accustomed to nothing but Old World writing.

(Oh, the disc closes with Bernstein's Mambo.  It's quite energetic, but I think Lenny does it better.)

The Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (whew, that's a name) play extremely well – this is one well-drilled group of pampered, upper class Venezuelan kids – and DG engineers deliver some fine sonics.  Dudamel seems to know what he's doing, so I look forward to hearing more from him.  I probably still won't try his LvB or Mahler, but I'd like to hear him lead some other music.  Perhaps some Carter (doubtful) or, since next year is a Haydn year, some Papa Haydn.  Will the A&R folks at UMG see the synergy?  I hope so. 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 27, 2008, 07:59:55 AM
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Sergey Tanayev isn't a new composer for me.  I'd heard one work by him before – the Suite de concert for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28 from the Oistrakh Edition a few months ago.  So this is something of a Tanayev year for me.  Anyway, this star-studded disc from DG, anchored by Mikhail Pletnev at the piano, seemed like a nice enough disc to sample.  After listening to the Suite and these two works, one word comes immediately to mind: Brahms.  The liner notes go to great lengths to point out how Tanayev isn't merely a "Russian Brahms," but that is in fact how the music often sounds.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Both the Piano Quintet and Piano Trio are cut from the same musical cloth.  The quintet is the bigger, longer work, and the opening Adagio mesto hints at all the music to come.  It's grand in scale – it's reminiscent of some Brahms chamber music if you will – and rich and luxuriant, and rigorous and formal, too.  The Scherzo is appropriately clever and fun, and displays some sparkling piano writing which Pletnev delivers quite nicely.  The grand Largo is powerful, and perhaps just a tad overly emotive (which is taste-dependent, of course), yet retains rigorous formality.  The Finale is somewhat predictable in that it is large, lush, romantic and rigorous.  If this all reads like faint praise, it isn't meant to.  Much the same can be written about the trio, though here there's a variation movement thrown in, and some of the playing sounds almost schmaltzy at times.

I really did enjoy this disc, though I can't say that Tanayev emerges as quite the major figure the notes try to portray.  Between this and the Suite, I think it makes sense to slowly sample a few other works from this composer, though I'm not sure I'll ever start buying multiple versions of his works.  Of course, doing so may point out even greater strengths in the music.  Sound is fine, and playing is generally very good, though one must wonder if chamber music specialists might make even more of these works.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bulldog on December 27, 2008, 12:13:09 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 27, 2008, 07:59:55 AM
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Sergey Tanayev isn't a new composer for me.  I'd heard one work by him before – the Suite de concert for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28 from the Oistrakh Edition a few months ago.  So this is something of a Tanayev year for me.  Anyway, this star-studded disc from DG, anchored by Mikhail Pletnev at the piano, seemed like a nice enough disc to sample.  After listening to the Suite and these two works, one word comes immediately to mind: Brahms.  The liner notes go to great lengths to point out how Tanayev isn't merely a "Russian Brahms," but that is in fact how the music often sounds.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Both the Piano Quintet and Piano Trio are cut from the same musical cloth.  The quintet is the bigger, longer work, and the opening Adagio mesto hints at all the music to come.  It's grand in scale – it's reminiscent of some Brahms chamber music if you will – and rich and luxuriant, and rigorous and formal, too.  The Scherzo is appropriately clever and fun, and displays some sparkling piano writing which Pletnev delivers quite nicely.  The grand Largo is powerful, and perhaps just a tad overly emotive (which is taste-dependent, of course), yet retains rigorous formality.  The Finale is somewhat predictable in that it is large, lush, romantic and rigorous.  If this all reads like faint praise, it isn't meant to.  Much the same can be written about the trio, though here there's a variation movement thrown in, and some of the playing sounds almost schmaltzy at times.



The performers are responsible for that "schmaltzy" playing.  I'm not a big fan of the Pletnev & All-Stars recording.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2009, 11:11:48 AM
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Until recently I've resisted the pull of early music, and in particular a cappella music, since my occasional exposure to it was usually, though not always, less than satisfying.  (Of course there are more modern a cappella works, but I tend to associate the form with pre-Baroque works.)  Well, last year I sampled a compelling modern a cappella work, and I decided to try something new, or rather something really old.  I settled on a new disc of music by Cristóbal de Morales, a composer entirely new to me.  This disc offers one of those ear-opening experiences that come along all too infrequently.  The last time I stumbled across something similar is when I heard Wozzeck for the first time, and that launched me into a journey of the world of opera that has not yet ended.

The works on this disc are unfailingly wonderful.  The first thing I noticed was the sheer aural beauty of all of the works.  All are "small," in that only a few voices are used, but the sound is ravishing and the music at times spellbinding.  All of the singers display what sounds to my ears like mastery of their parts.  The individual melodies that one can pick out are all lovely and captivating, and the mastery of polyphony Morales displays is remarkable.  I enjoy all of the works on the disc, with the Magnificat and Motets all perfectly scaled, but for some unexplainable reason, it is the three Lamentations that most capture my fancy.  They are, in a word, glorious.

I know essentially nothing about Renaissance music, and have heard very little of it, so perhaps this disc of Morales' music is a fluke.  (Given that I like Dowland as well, I don't believe that to be the case.)  Perhaps I wouldn't like other music by him, or by other early composers, and maybe this is really the exception in terms of a cappella works.  I know I'll be finding out if that is the case going forward.

SOTA sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 15, 2009, 07:06:21 AM
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I decided to take my current exploration of early music as far back as I plan on going, right to Hildegard von Bingen.  Medieval music is quite old enough for me, almost assuredly, as I have no real interest in listening to how people think the Romans may have listened to music.  I've been aware of Bingen for years of course, but the thought of near-millennium old music didn't get my blood racing.  But my recent positive experiences with Dowland and Morales led me to take the plunge.  I'm glad I did.

The first thing I noticed about the music, particularly on the tracks where women sing, is the beauty of the music.  It is somewhat delicate and light, with beautiful and seemingly simple melodies, and the use of only four voices brings a temptingly spare, comforting feel to the music.  The female voices nearly float in the acoustic they were recorded in, and the soaring high parts, well, they soar.  But not too high.  The works performed by male singers fare quite well also, but the music seems better suited to female voices.  (Not being an academic, I can't say whether Bingen intended these to only ever be performed by fellow nuns or not, and frankly I don't care.)  Compared to the more advanced works by Morales, these pieces just don't seem as compelling.  Over 74 minutes of unison chant doesn't offer the same excitement of the advanced polyphony on the Morales disc, and the melodies aren't quite as striking.  Bingen also seems to have suffered from an early, mild case of Wagneritis, in that her texts are long and rambling and indulgent.  I can live with that. 

Jeremy Summerly and his Oxford Camerata do a quite fine job, at least to these ears, of bringing the music to life.  Sound is very good, though here the Morales disc also wins.  Still, a most enlightening purchase. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on January 15, 2009, 08:04:39 AM
Thank you for this fine series. May I respectfully suggest you try this:

(http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/HMC901831-32.jpg)

(currently on offer at mdt)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 20, 2009, 07:06:23 AM
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Dietrich Buxtehude is another early baroque stalwart I hadn't yet sampled.  I suppose I should have tried (and should try) his organ music, but organ music ain't my thing, so I opted for some chamber music, namely the seven opus 1 sonatas.  As played here they appear to be a precursor to the modern piano trio, with a violin, cello, and harpsichord.  Apparently there are divergent performance traditions, and the music can be played with a pair of violins instead, but I think for my purposes the current line up is sufficient.

The music is nicely varied.  There are plenty of nods to dance music, but there's also more.  There's occasional fugal writing, and some music that practically seems to beg for improvisation, or at least colorful embellishment.  There's a sense of somewhat muted joy at times on this disc; the playing is generally lively, but it's also quite proper.  No one seems to really push any boundaries.  That's more an observation than a criticism, but one must wonder if a more vigorous approach would do these works some good.  There's also quite a bit of polish to the playing.  Would a rougher approach make the works even better?  Well, these works are quite fine, so it may be worth investigating alternative takes in the future, though I think I'll absorb these performances a few more times before trying.

The ensemble Convivium plays quite nicely, with the few "too good" reservations I mentioned, and the sound is generally quite good, with all three instruments generously represented – nothing sounds recessed here.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bunny on January 20, 2009, 09:03:53 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 15, 2009, 07:06:21 AM
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I decided to take my current exploration of early music as far back as I plan on going, right to Hildegard von Bingen.  Medieval music is quite old enough for me, almost assuredly, as I have no real interest in listening to how people think the Romans may have listened to music.  I've been aware of Bingen for years of course, but the thought of near-millennium old music didn't get my blood racing.  But my recent positive experiences with Dowland and Morales led me to take the plunge.  I'm glad I did.

The first thing I noticed about the music, particularly on the tracks where women sing, is the beauty of the music.  It is somewhat delicate and light, with beautiful and seemingly simple melodies, and the use of only four voices brings a temptingly spare, comforting feel to the music.  The female voices nearly float in the acoustic they were recorded in, and the soaring high parts, well, they soar.  But not too high.  The works performed by male singers fare quite well also, but the music seems better suited to female voices.  (Not being an academic, I can't say whether Bingen intended these to only ever be performed by fellow nuns or not, and frankly I don't care.)  Compared to the more advanced works by Morales, these pieces just don't seem as compelling.  Over 74 minutes of unison chant doesn't offer the same excitement of the advanced polyphony on the Morales disc, and the melodies aren't quite as striking.  Bingen also seems to have suffered from an early, mild case of Wagneritis, in that her texts are long and rambling and indulgent.  I can live with that. 

Jeremy Summerly and his Oxford Camerata do a quite fine job, at least to these ears, of bringing the music to life.  Sound is very good, though here the Morales disc also wins.  Still, a most enlightening purchase. 


I don't think Sr. Hildegarde was trying for excitement.  I think that she was creating music to enhance the contemplative life.  It also helps to know that the early Church did not allow polyphonic music because they felt it contradicted the idea of "One God." I'm pretty sure polyphony existed back then, only consider the strong traditions of polyphony in European folk music; it just wasn't used for religious music until much later. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 26, 2009, 10:44:34 AM
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I believe I've seen York Bowen's name mentioned a time or two in reviews or articles, and what not, but until now I'd never taken the time to listen to his music.  Why I'm not sure; he was born in 1884 and there are quite a few great or at least extraordinary composers born within a matter of years either way of that particular one.  So when I came across this two-disc set of works for viola and piano I figured I might enjoy what was captured on those little plastic and aluminum discs and took the plunge.  What a delightful treat!

The set opens with the first of two Viola Sonatas, written when Mr Bowen was a lad of 20.  It's a vibrant, energetic, and often just fun piece.  It also displays a rich, romantic feel, aided no doubt by the rich sound of the viola.  It's conventional in form, but that doesn't mean it ain't fun to listen to.  A short Romance in D Flat follows, and it's quite similar.  Next up is a sort of string quartet, though this one is a short Fantasia four violas!  I was expecting a monotonous sound, but that's not what composer and players deliver.  The versatility of the instrument is brought out, with rich lower registers supporting some higher than often heard writing for the viola.  The next work is a forgettable and somewhat lamentable retake of the slow movement of Beethoven's Pathetique with viola obbligato.  Next.  The Phantasy in F Major closes the first disc, and this returns to the same sound world and approach of the first two works, though it's generally slower and more languid.  The second disc opens with the second Viola Sonata, and it is stylistically similar to the first, though if anything it's even happier and brighter.  Heck, it's just plain old good fun.  The next four works all offer much the same style of music, either plucky and fun (in the Allegro de Concert) or a bit more languid and overtly "romantic" (the Romance and two Melodies).  Only the concluding Rhapsody in G minor from the late date of 1955 offers something a bit mote challenging, dense, and complex, though it never quite sheds the earlier traits.  All told, with the exception of the LvB work, all of the pieces work very well.

Sound is absolutely top-flight, and all artists involved acquit themselves most expertly.  Lawrence Power is a heck of a violist, and Simon Crawford-Philips is a fine accompanist.  Indeed, his playing shows that the accompaniment isn't meant to be pushed to the background and that Bowen was a creative and intriguing author for 88 keys.  A superb set.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 29, 2009, 08:45:45 AM
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Thus far in my listening I've only made time for one work by Charles Wuorinen, and that was when I was fortunate enough to attend the world premiere of his Fourth String Quartet years ago.  I enjoyed it and decided I should listen to more of his music, but I just never got around to it.  Now I have, and I must say I waited a bit too long. 

This outstanding disc opens with a single movement string sextet that sounds unequivocally "modern," no doubt unpleasantly so to some, but at the same time it is really rather accessible.  Harsh dissonance and jagged rhythmic changes are kept somewhat at bay, and a smooth, appealing, at times attractive, almost traditional sound emerges.  I mean this in relative terms; this is modern music, but one can almost hear the tradition of pre-war composers shining through.  This isn't radicalism for the sake of radicalism.  It's almost contemporary Brahms.  Anyway the music unfolds nicely, is tightly constructed, and has interesting musical ideas popping out throughout, with some exciting, vigorous, rhythmically catchy portions.

The Second String Quartet is similar in most ways, though it's in four movements, labeled movements 1-4, and displays the same traditionally modern sound.  The opening movement alternates between fast and slow, and has a nifty ticking sound at the start, and some infectious, vibrant, slashing playing throughout.  The second movement is somewhat deceptive.  It starts slow, much of the movement is quiet, with tasty tremolos and plucky pizzacatti, but it also continuously evolves.  The third movement is more vigorous, and deliciously dissonant.  The final movement starts slow but quickly evolves into a more striking, intense, satisfying conclusion. 

Next is the single movement Divertimento for string quartet, and it's apparently the same music as Wourinen wrote for piano and saxophone.  The overall tone and feel of the work is light and fun – a heavy divertimento would seem a bit unusual – but the music is nicely tense and propulsive.

The disc ends with a Piano Quintet that sounds like a standard "modern" work, by which I mean it displays much of the difficult, knotty goodness of, say, some of Schoenberg's works.  It's less accessible, perhaps, but it's no less satisfying.  There are some standard elements.  The long second movement is the slow movement, and it offers a sonic and (perhaps also) an emotional element not present in the other movements.  This first, by contrast, is a somewhat standard, nicely driven opener, the third movement is an intermezzo, and the fourth movement is swift, rapidly changing, and vigorous, with audience-pleasing elements.

This is extraordinarily fine CD.  I enjoy every work on the disc completely and have already played it a couple times and plan on doing so a couple more times in the next couple days.  Charles Wuorinen writes some mighty fine music.  I really need to investigate his output a bit more. 

Sound is excellent, and all of the players are far more than up to the challenge.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 30, 2009, 08:46:01 AM
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It's been years since last I bought a disc of music by William Alwyn, so I decided to try his string quartets, a medium I often find composers give their best effort to.  Perhaps that's the case with Alwyn, perhaps not, but one thing's for sure, this is a nice disc.

The disc opens with the First String Quartet naturally enough, and it at once seems an anachronism.  It was written in the 1950s but it sounds more like a work written a half-century to three-quarters of century earlier.  It's decidedly "romantic," and it's lush at times.  It also sounds more than faintly Czech, though nowhere near as much as Bax's First Quartet.  There's a bit more to it.  Some of the music is perhaps a bit more acidic than works from the time frame it alludes to, and the more than occasional peppiness keeps one listening closely, as does the overtly old-fashion slow movement. 

The Second Quartet, subtitled Spring Waters, is from the mid-70s, and while it sounds much more modern, it's still behind the times.  That's quite alright.  More astringent, more challenging, it still sounds attractive, as though Alwyn didn't want to write ugly music.  The first movement is constantly changing with some nifty rhythmic changes; the second movement, a scherzo, sounds somewhat like a lighter and less serious Bartok; and the final movement is mostly slow, brooding, and serious.  Not having read Turgenev's novel of the same name, I can't say that Spring Waters evokes any imagery from the book or even is supposed to.

Next is the Third Quartet from 1984, and it's both "modern" and "romantic" at the same time.  In its two movements it manages to blend gentleness and contemplation, frisky dances, intensity, abstract harshness, and syrupy sentimentality into a cohesive whole.  It seems somewhat personal, if you will, or at least more so than the prior two works, and it's the most compelling work on the disc.  The disc closes with a Novellette that's fun and brisk and offers a nice contrast to the final string quartet.

The Maggini play well, as always, and the sound is excellent.  I don't think I can say these are among the great string quartets of the last century, but they are very good and will receive future spins. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on January 30, 2009, 08:56:09 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 29, 2009, 08:45:45 AM
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This isn't radicalism for the sake of radicalism.  It's almost contemporary Brahms. 

My favorite part of your most interesting review, which shows yet again that some composers are much less daunting than some might think.  I wonder (out loud) what Wuorinen thinks of Brahms.  My hunch is that he probably listens to quite a bit of his music.

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 09, 2009, 07:15:05 AM
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I so enjoyed my first disc of Morales' music that I decided to try another post-haste.  Whilst browsing the local classical specialist I came upon this disc, with the Requiem a 5, or Missa Pro Defunctis, along with some shorter motets on the Spanish label Cantus.  In short, it's another stunner.

The Requiem is the main work, and what a glorious one it is!  Once again the melodies are stupefyingly gorgeous, and the polyphony beyond masterful.  The entire work unfolds in a most, well, natural way.  Everything fits perfectly, and nary an ugly sound or misplaced note can be heard.  The liner notes state that the work evokes terror.  I don't really hear that, but mixed in with the astounding beauty is profound sorrow and solemnity.  Is this not what a requiem should be?  This work does have five voices, allowing for even more interesting interactions than on the Hyperion disc, and the soprano generally leads the melodies.  In addition, there is an organ accompaniment.  It's quite effective; sometimes voices and instrument blend together in perfect harmony and produce a larger, more beautiful sound.  The three, multi-part motets all occupy a similar sound-world and all depend to an extent on the organ.  I'd say the Requiem is my favorite work on this disc, and probably my favorite work so far from the composer, but all of the works are simply marvelous.

Sound and performance standards are extremely high.  I'd probably give a slight edge in both instances to the Hyperion recording, but make no mistake, Raúl Mallavibarrena and the Musica Ficta do exceptionally well.  I'll definitely have to explore more music by Morales, and given my prior antipathy regarding these types of works, that's quite something. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2009, 07:49:29 AM
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Missing Ravel piano concerto discovered!  That's what I thought a few times while listening to Ned Rorem's Second Piano Concerto from 1951.  It's a decidedly "French" sounding work, with a light, clear, at times almost delicate sound and feel.  The work never becomes heavy or opaque, which allows some rather nifty wind writing to show up, and the piano writing is often dazzling and fun.  The long opening movement seems like a concerto in itself, with some fast, vibrant sections and slow, (almost) contemplative ones.  I guess that makes sense given that the movement is labeled "Somber and Steady."  I'll leave it to the reader to guess what the second movement, labeled "Quiet and Sad" sounds like, but that Gallic flair is still there.  Ditto the concluding "Real Fast!" movement.  Okay, maybe I was too hard on Rorem for ripping off Ravel; it also sounds like he knew his Poulenc, too.  But he also knows how to write some attractive, fun, creative orchestral music, even if it ain't the Deepest Music Ever Written. 

The second work on the disc is his much more recent Cello Concerto, from 2002.  This work strikes me as altogether more substantive and serious, but not a whole lot "heavier."  (This is definitely not DSCH's third cello concerto.)  It's also more unabashedly "modern."  One thing I enjoy about Rorem is his ability to write nearly harsh, dissonant music that still sounds attractive, and this works offers up some of that.  There's also a sparser overall feel, using less to somehow evoke more.  The work is more probing, more intense, yet it's also a bit subtler.  Rorem's influences are also a bit less obvious – perhaps a bit of Liszt, maybe some Prokofiev, and almost certainly some Messiaen – and his writing more sophisticated.  The multiple, brief movements also keeps the piece moving right along, not dwelling on anything.  I really enjoy this work.

As with much Rorem, I find much to admire.  Perhaps these works aren't the greatest in their respective genres, but they are by no means lightweight works, the Cello Concerto especially.  The disc reminds me why I like to pick up a Rorem disc every now and again: he writes really good music.  As to performers, Simon Mulligan does a fine job tickling the ivories and Wen-Sinn Yang does an excellent job on the 'cello.  José Serebrier and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra do some fine work as well.  Superb sound rounds out an excellent disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 18, 2009, 05:50:25 AM
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Having enjoyed all of the recordings of music by Ahmed Adnan Saygun, I figured I could go for another one, and I settled on a CPO disc devoted to his Third and Fifth Symphonies.  It's another winner.

The disc opens with the Third, and it's got all manner of Saygunian goodness in it.  There's the "exotic" writing, with novel orchestration creating ear-tickling effects.  There's an astringent, muscular sound to much of the music – no wimpy symphony this.  There's an affinity for low strings that regularly crops up.  There are brilliant fanfares.  There are attractive melodies intermingled with knottier fare.  One can hear folk influences, but this ain't no paean to folk music.  There is some ever so slightly eerie quiet music; some cool, manly marches; some nice little parts for bassoon.  It's Big, it has a nice 38 minute length.  It sounds swell.

So does the Fifth.  The work is both quite similar and quite a bit different.  It occupies a similar overall soundworld as the Third, with comparatively exotic music and novel orchestration, but it is also more refined, less folk-inspired, and more ethereal.  The work unfolds in an almost Sibelius-like way, and it's sparser and more austere much of the time.  It's more "abstract," as well, not that the Third can be described as a programmatic piece.  It just seems more accomplished and more assured overall.  And it's better than the Third, too. 

Ari Rasilainen does an excellent job directing, and the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz do an equally excellent job playing.  Excellent sound, too.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 25, 2009, 07:32:59 AM
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I had a hankerin' for some more Early Music, and given my success with Morales, I figured I might want to try another 16th Century Spanish polyphony master, so I turned to one of Morales' students, Francisco Guerrero.  Again, I knew nothing of the composer or his music going in (and barely more than nothing now), but once again I have to rate my exploration a success, if not quite as much a success as my forays into the music of Morales.

At the core of the this disc is the Missa Super flumina Babylonis.  It's a large scale work, relatively speaking, and comprises all of the main elements of a mass – the Kyrie, Gloria, et al.  Also thrown in are brief Aleluya and Ofrenda movements.  Much like the works of Morales, beautiful melodies and masterful polyphony permeate the music, as does some masterful antiphony.  The Aleluya and Ofrenda are plainchant interludes.  Also thrown in is some fine music making by sagbutt and cornett players.  Everything is very good, but I just never got as caught up in the music as I did (and do) with the works of Morales.  The older Spaniard's melodies are just more beautiful, his polyphony more bewitching.  It's just that simple, at least for me.  Others may feel differently.

The disc also contains other works, including a couple of nice, brief instrumental pieces performed by the sagbuttists and cornettists (?), and some more substantial pieces.  The opening Ave virgo sanctissima is superb, for instance, and the moderately large-scaled In exitu Israel is also quite captivating. 

Given the nature of the works, two different choral ensembles were used for the different works, the British Ensemble Plus Ultra taking the mass and some other works, the Spanish Schola Antiqua taking some of the smaller works.  Both perform admirably, if not quite to the same standards as the Brabant Ensemble on the Hyperion Morales disc.  His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts play well enough, as well, but are there better ensembles out there?  I don't know.  Michael Noone seems to have a firm grasp of the music and conducts well, and the sound is excellent.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 27, 2009, 06:01:58 AM
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Time to move forward in time a little, but not really too much.  I've long enjoyed Heinrich Ignaz Biber's Rosary Sonatas, so I though I ought to try something a bit bigger.  I settled on his Missa Christ resurgentis in a recording by Andrew Manze and the English Concert and The Choir of the English Concert.  What a splendid disc!

The disc opens with a brief, snazzy, well played fanfare before moving into the mass itself.  And the mass itself is really rather spiffy.  Biber, or Manze and his band, or both, inject a rhythmic life into the music.  It's not like the music is jazzy, but it moves forward with inexorable drive, and I swear it sounds groovy at times.  It's also superbly orchestrated, with crisp cornets and trumpets cutting through ensemble from time to time, and sweet strings.  The standard texts come to life as well.  So far, so good, but then some additional instrumental music is thrown in, in the form of some sonatas, as well as one sonata attributed to Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.  Why this was done, I don't know, but it blends in nicely enough.  To wrap up the work another snazzy fanfare is played.  The cumulative effect of the mass is to perk the listener up – or this listener at any rate. 

Once the main work is done, the disc moves on to instrumental works, particularly four sonatas from Fidicinium sacro-profanum.  These works not too surprisingly display many of the same traits as the instrumental pieces used within the mass, which means they are quite fine.

Manze and his band play splendidly, and the chorus certainly sings well enough.  No complaints about sound quality, either.  A superb disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Dr. Dread on February 27, 2009, 06:27:06 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 27, 2009, 06:01:58 AM
Manze

There's a name we can trust.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 16, 2009, 07:08:51 AM
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So far I've tried two Morales discs, and so far I've had two big successes.  This one makes it three for three.  This is simply a marvel of a disc.  The disc opens with a smaller but still substantial work by Morales, and ends with a short work by Alonso Lobo, but the core of the disc is the great Missa pro Defunctis, written for the funeral of Philip II.  It's just under an hour long as presented here, and is austere, serious, profoundly solemn and breathtakingly gorgeous.  By 'breathtakingly gorgeous' I mean that this listener found himself breathing a bit shallower than normal so as not to sully the wonderful sounds falling on my ears.  Gone is the almost dazzling, in a Renaissance sorta way, polyphony of the earlier Morales pieces, but in it's place is something perhaps even better.  Here is a blend of voices and sole instrument to create an otherworldly, dare I write heavenly, masterpiece.  It's the cumulative effect that matters.  Throw in a truly marvelous setting of the ancient plainchant Dies irae (think the tune from Liszt's Totentanz), and one can easily be transported to a different, better world.  The work is, I believe, written for five voices and bajón, but it appears from the notes that eleven different singers are used during the mass.  Perhaps they are alternated, but whatever the case, the spacious venue adds a certain heft to the singing, and the emphasis on lower voices adds a richness and seriousness that can never be accomplished with higher voices.  The bajón accompaniment is discreet and effective. 

The opening Officium defunctorum: Invitatorium is another masterful work, more in line with some earlier Morales works, and the closing piece by Mr Lobo is quite fine as well.

Sound is spacious, allowing for superb blending of voices, and suits the music perfectly.

A great disc. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 18, 2009, 02:08:06 PM
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Exploring the Renaissance a bit more, I figured I should listen to Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina.  I've read about him, of course, and seen reference to his works, and I even worked my way through Hans Pfitzner's deadly dull opera Palestrina, but I'd never tried his music.  Perhaps waiting was needed for me, I don't know, but the music is worth the wait.  This is music on pat with Morales, and no doubt many might say it is better than Morales.  (They'd be wrong, but you get the idea.)

In many ways, all the praise I've heaped upon the works of Morales applies here.  The polyphony is masterful, the melodies gorgeous, the harmonies enthralling.  But there are critical differences.  Whereas Morales strikes me as more adventurous in some of his works, Palestrina strikes me as more conservative and concerned with mastery of existing forms.  His works are also even clearer, and often lighter than the works of the Spanish master.  Too, they sound even more devout, more spiritual, if that's possible.  They also have a more soothing effect, at least for me.  All of the works in this two-disc set are wonderful, but special mention must be made of the Missa Papae Marcelli, which is a work of such quality that it surely ranks alongside the greatest liturgical works ever written.

The Tallis Scholars sing splendidly, and sound is generally very good, though there is a slight digital glare at times in some of the recordings.  More great stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 24, 2009, 07:00:39 AM
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Continuing on with yet more Cristóbal de Morales finds the first disc that if it doesn't exactly disappoint, then it surely doesn't live up to high expectations.  But I think I know why.  It's not the music.  The collection of works on the disc – five motets and the Missa Queramus cum pastoribus by Morales, and the brief Queramus cum pastoribus by Jean Mouton – are all quite nice, and all of those traits that I of Morales' music that I so enjoy are still there: the beautiful melodies, the striking harmonies, the brilliant polyphony.  It's the performance.  Two things stand out.  First, the music is never taken too fast, yet it all seems to be pushed forward a bit too much.  It doesn't sound as controlled and smooth and relaxed as the other discs I've tried.  This is because, second, the singers, as a whole, don't sound quite as good as the singers I've heard thus far.  They're not bad, but compared to the Brabant Ensemble or Gabrieli Consort, they don't have the degree of refinement and tonal grace I prefer.  A somewhat glassy and hard recorded sound doesn't help things, either.  I'll listen again, no doubt, but I need to look elsewhere for my ultimate Morales fix.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: premont on March 24, 2009, 08:30:53 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 20, 2009, 07:06:23 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude ... I opted for some chamber music, namely the seven opus 1 sonatas.  As played here they appear to be a precursor to the modern piano trio, with a violin, cello, and harpsichord.  Apparently there are divergent performance traditions, and the music can be played with a pair of violins instead, but I think for my purposes the current line up is sufficient.

The proper scoring is violin, viola da gamba and continuo.

Quote from: Todd on January 20, 2009, 07:06:23 AM
.. but one must wonder if a more vigorous approach would do these works some good.  There's also quite a bit of polish to the playing.  Would a rougher approach make the works even better?  Well, these works are quite fine, so it may be worth investigating alternative takes in the future, though I think I'll absorb these performances a few more times before trying.

The former DaCapo release, now on Naxos, with John Holloway, Jaap ter Linden and Lars Ulrik Mortensen might be worth for you to seek out. But remember this is essentially rather introvert music.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 05, 2009, 03:18:08 PM
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Continuining on with more Renaissance music, I decided to move north a bit and try some Orlande de Lassus.  (Though not the recording recommended earlier in this thread.)  Philippe Herreweghe has recorded enough music by Lassus to seem a safe bet, and so I grabbed his latest offering, the Cationes Sacrae for six voices.  The recording is both spectacular and a bit disappointing.  Let me 'splain.

To the spectacular parts: the sound is as close to perfect as can be imagined.  Voices are ideally clear and still blend beautifully.  If only all recordings could sound as good.  The quality of the singing is also quite extraordinary.  Collegium Vocale is an exceedingly talented ensemble, no doubt of that.

But these two positives can't make up for music that, while incredibly beautiful much of the time, isn't quite as good as what I've heard from Palestrina and, especially, Morales.  The fourteen works are mostly sacred, though the opener is not, and the polyphony is nearly as masterful as Morales', and the melodies as beautiful as anything either Morales or Palestrina conjured.  For reasons I just can't explain adequately, it just doesn't hit the spot.  I will definitely give this disc several more listens on top of the ones it has already received, and I most certainly will explore more Lassus, but this disc just didn't wow me.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on April 18, 2009, 04:40:42 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2009, 11:11:48 AM
  I settled on a new disc of music by Cristóbal de Morales, a composer entirely new to me.  This disc offers one of those ear-opening experiences that come along all too infrequently. 

A note of thanks for this review - because of it I bought this Morales disc on Hyperion, and have been enjoying it a lot  0:)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 19, 2009, 05:14:16 PM
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After listening to so much ancient liturgical music, it seemed time to move forward in time a bit.  I decided to move all the way to the present – well, the early 90s at any rate – and sample Sven-David Sandström's High Mass, with Herbert Blomstedt conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.  The work is a large scale, nearly 90 minute long work, with vocal parts for three sopranos and two mezzo sopranos, in addition to a massive chorus, orchestra and organ. 

Sandström's work offers quite a contrast to the works I've been listening to.  Gone is the beautiful polyphony, and in its place is a hardened, modern sensibility, though one informed by Romantic impulses.  The Kyrie eleison erupts violently, with piercing percussion, and a foreboding and ominous feel, only to be followed by a calmer, dreamier Christe eleison where the ladies come to the fore.  But that darkness never fully dissipates.  In stark contrast, the long Gloria is ecstatic and celebratory in a Messiaen-meets-Glass sort of way.  I wouldn't have though I'd like such a mixture, but it ain't half bad.  The Credo, while maintaining its modernity, also infuses a bit more traditional beauty and solemnity into the mix.  The Sanctus, with its bright opening fanfare, and jubilant chorus, is more in the celebratory vein.  The Agnus Dei is solemn and devoutly respectful and possessed of not a little beauty.  These summaries of course offer only the briefest description of what the work is like, but it seems that there is more life in the old mass, even after all these years.  That written, I cannot say that this compares to, oh, say, Bach's towering masterpiece, or to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, or to the best of the ancient music I've been listening to lately.

But that's not the only work in this two-disc set.  Ingvar Lidholm's brief Kontakion is also included.  Apparently inspired by an ancient Orthodox rite, and written for performance in the Soviet Union in the late 70s, the work opens with a screechy, decidedly "modern" sound before gradually and gently moving to a slower, sometimes quieter, and occasionally prettier sound world, though astringent strings are never far away.  Delius this not, though; it could be tough going for those not enamored of post-war music.  The work is a bit harder to get into, and while inspired by events of the day, is a bit more abstract.  Overall, it's quite good, but another half dozen listens are needed to really get into the piece.

Blomstedt does a superb job leading the forces involved in these live recordings, and the forces themselves do a more than commendable job.  Sound is excellent, though not the best that modern recording techniques can produce.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Grazioso on April 20, 2009, 03:56:44 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 19, 2009, 05:14:16 PM

After listening to so much ancient liturgical music, it seemed time to move forward in time a bit.  I decided to move all the way to the present –


You may find this of interest:

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Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe, which, like much of his work, seems to blend the ancient and the modern. A beautiful piece, recorded to the usual exemplary ECM standards.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2009, 04:23:03 PM
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I've been neglecting romantic music for a while, so I decided to try something new when a sale at a local retailer prompted me, for some unknown reason, to grab the Naxos disc of Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony and Piano Concerto.  It's a nice disc.

It opens with the decidedly large-scale piano concerto.  Over thirty-six minutes in length, and scored for a big ol' band, this is a late-romantic work through and through.  Cast in four movements, with lovely string writing, some beautiful melodies, dazzling cascades of piano notes from time to time, this work sounds quite Brahmsian in some ways, but also a bit anonymous in others.  It seems rather interchangeable with a number of obscure works from Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series.  Indeed, I wonder why Hyperion didn't record it.  That written, it's better than a number of works I heard from that series, though it doesn't come close to matching the great works of the genre.

The same pretty much holds true for the so-called Gaelic Symphony.  Informed by Irish folk-tunes in place, according to the notes, this grand symphony again possesses a simultaneously Brahmsian and anonymous sound.  Once again, beautiful strings and beautiful melodies show up with some regularity, and once again it doesn't compare to the great works in the genre.  It's an enjoyable work, though.

Sound is a bit less than ideal, but Alan Feinberg plays the piano well, and Kenneth Schermerhorn leads his Nashville band more than ably.  A good, if not perhaps overly distinguished disc.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 30, 2009, 02:12:13 PM
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Albert Roussel is one of those composers I've routinely thought to myself I should investigate some more, but for some reason never did.  Until now.  Seeing that Christoph Eschenbach has recorded the symphonies for Ondine, all but guaranteeing wonderful sound for music that surely deserves it, I decided to try some more Roussel.  It was about time.

The disc opens with the gorgeous, wonderful First Symphony, subtitled Le Poème de la forêt (Poem of the Forest.)  On more than one occasion I found myself thinking 'this is what Debussy would have written had he penned a symphony.'  It's got that "impressionist" thing going on.  It's got superb orchestration, ranging from gorgeous tuttis of ample strength to gorgeous passages scored for few instruments.  It's got plenty of time for the flute, and for the harp.  It's gorgeously languid, or languidly gorgeous, in many places.  It's sophisticated.  It's very Frenchness is undeniable and irresistible.  It's a plum of a piece.

The much shorter, even more sophisticated Fourth is at least as good, and quite possibly better.  It's more serious, a bit darker, and more tightly constructed.  But it's also supremely beautiful, which seems to be something of a Roussel specialty.  And the strings are sumptuous. 

Eschenbach leads the Orchestre de Paris in two fine performances.  I have nothing to compare them to, but I can see trying another version or two of each work, and if even better recordings are available, all the better.

Superb sound, as expected.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 13, 2009, 08:09:25 AM
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Where have you been all my life?  I pondered this question, not exactly seriously, while listening to another disc of music by Roussel conducted by Mr Eschenbach.  This disc, with the large-scale, serious symphony, and two suites from Bacchus et Ariane, made for a perfect follow-up to the prior disc of Roussel's music.  This is some great stuff.

The disc opens with the two Bacchus suites, and what fine suites they are.  The music conveys all manner of moods, from fun and playful, to wistful, to sad, to boisterous.  More important, it's inventive and fresh throughout, and just about everything is masterful.  The orchestration, the melodies, the harmonies: everything is superbly crafted.  There's nary a weak spot.  Now, this isn't my first time hearing the second suite; I have Eugene Ormandy's recording as well, but Eschenbach rather handily bests him here.

But the raison d'être for this disc is surely the second symphony.  With its extended, slow, mysterious open, its colorful orchestration, its beautiful and soaring and occasionally slightly searing strings, and its decidedly attractive oomph in places, it tickles the ear.  And that's the opening movement!  The second movement is slower and generally "quieter," but it's possessed of a tension and nervous energy that's quite appealing, and the string writing takes on a certain Mahlerian or Shostakovichian sound at times.  Oh, and it stays resolutely attractive.  The final movement is bold, at times almost cacophonous, and definitely is the most animated movement of the work, though it has moments of relative serenity.  Again, the orchestration is inventive and appealing, and never can an ugly sound be heard.  It seems to be the perfect combination of symphonic rigor and elegance.  Perhaps it is, or perhaps it is not a masterpiece, but whatever the case, it's a knockout, and I suspect I'll have to explore other recordings.

Eschenbach and his band play superbly, and sound is outstanding.  A winner.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Diletante on May 13, 2009, 08:24:06 AM
Hi. I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your posts very much. :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 17, 2009, 11:24:07 AM
Whilst browsing a local used LP hut, I stumbled upon a CBS recording by Robert Casadesus that I didn't have, which meant that I simply had to have it.  The LP, a low-price CBS Odyssey reissue of a late 50s recording of Vincent D'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air for Piano and Orchestra, finds Casadesus partnered with Eugene Ormandy and his Philadelphia Orchestra.  I'm not sure why this recording didn't make it into the complete Casadesus Edition, because it is well played, sounds superb, and is an enjoyable piece.

How is it enjoyable?  Well, it has some decidedly French traits that tickle the ear.  Much of the time it's light and swift.  The wind writing, especially for flute and oboe, is fun and piquant.  There's a somewhat breezy feel to much of the music.  And it usually sounds elegant and beautiful.  The crescendos are sufficiently weighty and grand, given the mountain motif, and the piece never tips into orchestral excess.  The only real weakness for me is the somewhat trite ending.  The piano part is largely integrated into the music rather than being front and center as in a concerto, but even so there some fine moments for the soloist to shine.  Given the soloist involved, the shine is bright indeed.  In some ways the music of Joseph Canteloube came to mind, meaning, I assume, that Canteloube knew his D'Indy.  I can't quite say that this long titled work is a relatively forgotten major masterpiece, but it is a very enjoyable work, and one I'll spin every once in a while.

Though the LP is 20-30 years old, sound is superb.  Casadesus sounds fuller and richer than he does on CD, while retaining his litheness and elegance.  The Philadelphia strings sound absolutely gorgeous.  Only the sound of the brass is somewhat disappointing.

The other work on the LP is Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra.  Since I have that work on CD, I decided to do an A-B comparison to hear which one sounds better.  The LP does, and rather handily.  Ironically, the CD is noisier than the LP.  This is due to the analog hiss, which is muffled on LP.  I suppose this means that the CD is more accurate, but what it translates to is a harder-edged, sharp, and at times unpleasant sound.  Casadesus' piano playing sounds more metallic, and the orchestral strings harsher.  The brass is cleaner, and the low bass is tighter on the CD, but the overall effect is much less pleasant to listen to, and certainly sounds no more like real music.  The only clear advantage the CD has is in dynamic range.  And this is comparing the sound to a LP budget pressing.  I wonder what an original pressing might sound like.  Perhaps better, perhaps the same, perhaps worse, who knows?  Anyway, the $3 and change I paid for the LP was money well spent.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 19, 2009, 02:28:56 PM
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I figured I might as well finish off Christoph Eschenbach's Roussel cycle, so I grabbed the disc devoted to the Third Symphony and the ballet Le Festin de l'araignée (The Spider's Feast).  Not too surprisingly, at least for me, it's quite a nice disc.

The symphony opens the disc, and it's got all of those attributes I like about Roussel's music.  It's masterfully orchestrated, and at times plenty of fun, but it's got more to it than that.  First, it's nicely varied.  Imposing tuttis, a bit of 20s jazz influence, some searing strings, serene calmness, mildly violent outbursts, intriguing small solo turns, it's a grab bag of musical goodies.  Second, it's compact and economic in its means.  No idea wears out its welcome, as it were.  I can't say it's the best of the four symphonies, but it's certainly on of the four best out of four superb works.

The ballet offers more luxurious, beautiful, at times languid and at times energetic music.  String writing, yep, it's quite good.  Fun, yep, that's there, too.  In general terms, it like the other pieces I've described.  I guess I can just say it Rousselian at this point.

Excellent sound and performances.  Eschenbach's Roussel cycle is most enjoyable.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 29, 2009, 12:04:14 PM
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Once again I thought I'd try some music by Michael Tippett, to hear if there's something in his output that really got me going.  String quartets seemed a good bet, so I went for the Naxos recording of Tippett's string quartets 1, 2, and 4 played by The Tippett Quartet.  Meh.

I didn't find anything wrong with the music, but I didn't find anything especially compelling, either.  The first quartet from the 30s and 40s has a nice enough combination of romantic and slightly "modern" elements, but it's just kind of there musically.  Nothing particularly interesting happens.  The second quartet, from the 40s, is perhaps a bit more "modern," but it's likewise a bit dull.  The fourth quartet, from the late 70s is a bit more interesting.  It's more avant-garde, which isn't necessarily good or bad, but it has more interesting ideas.  Alas, it strikes me as a bit too long; my attention wandered frequently. 

The Tippett Quartet play very well, and sound is very good, but the music just doesn't work for me.  Others may find it more interesting, though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bulldog on May 29, 2009, 12:45:24 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 29, 2009, 12:04:14 PM
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Once again I thought I'd try some music by Michael Tippett, to hear if there's something in his output that really got me going.  String quartets seemed a good bet, so I went for the Naxos recording of Tippett's string quartets 1, 2, and 4 played by The Tippett Quartet.  Meh.

I didn't find anything wrong with the music, but I didn't find anything especially compelling, either.  The first quartet from the 30s and 40s has a nice enough combination of romantic and slightly "modern" elements, but it's just kind of there musically.  Nothing particularly interesting happens.  The second quartet, from the 40s, is perhaps a bit more "modern," but it's likewise a bit dull.  The fourth quartet, from the late 70s is a bit more interesting.  It's more avant-garde, which isn't necessarily good or bad, but it has more interesting ideas.  Alas, it strikes me as a bit too long; my attention wandered frequently. 

The Tippett Quartet play very well, and sound is very good, but the music just doesn't work for me.  Others may find it more interesting, though.


I find these quartets become more interesting with repeated listenings - that's a very good sign.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 29, 2009, 02:27:26 PM
Quote from: Bulldog on May 29, 2009, 12:45:24 PMI find these quartets become more interesting with repeated listenings - that's a very good sign.



I found the opposite, unfortunately.  I've listened to the disc four times and the last time I usually found myself wondering why I wasn't listening to other music.  I'll probably keep the disc for a while, but between this, the symphonies, and the piano concerto disc, I'm not sure I'm a Tippett guy.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bulldog on May 29, 2009, 02:33:45 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 29, 2009, 02:27:26 PM


I found the opposite, unfortunately.  I've listened to the disc four times and the last time I usually found myself wondering why I wasn't listening to other music.  I'll probably keep the disc for a while, but between this, the symphonies, and the piano concerto disc, I'm not sure I'm a Tippett guy.

That's okay as long as you're a Bridge guy. ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 29, 2009, 02:41:34 PM
Quote from: Bulldog on May 29, 2009, 02:33:45 PMThat's okay as long as you're a Bridge guy.



The little I've heard certainly seems to indicate that I am.  (Whew!)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bulldog on May 29, 2009, 03:57:54 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 29, 2009, 02:41:34 PM


The little I've heard certainly seems to indicate that I am.  (Whew!)

I had a few back-ups just in case:  Berkeley, Bax, Holbroke and Arnell.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 17, 2009, 07:52:04 AM
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In my listening experience, Michael Endres has demonstrated himself to be a fine player of Germanic piano music.  His Mozart and Schubert sonatas are among the best I've heard, and his Schumann, while not of the same caliber, is still very good.  So I decided that Endres would offer a good introduction to assorted piano works of Carl Maria von Weber.  While I do have a few versions of the Perpetuum Mobile ending of the first sonata, and possibly a version of the entire first sonata (I honestly can't keep track), it's been a long time since I listened to the recordings, and this is the first time I purposely bought some Weber piano music.

As I expected, Endres delivers.  Endres' style is generally understated, but here it's hard to be understated.  Weber's music is filled with gobs of notes obviously meant to be played in virtuosic fashion.  Endres clearly has the technique to play the music with a glittering, easy sound when needed, and he can play the slower parts equally well.  His tone and style seem to work extremely well.

The music itself is very entertaining, but it sounds a bit shallow.  Compared to the great works of Beethoven and Schubert, there's an empty slickness and banal playing-to-the-gallery feel to some of the music.  The fast movements are fast and dazzling, designed to draw applause.  The slow movements, while often very beautiful, don't offer much depth.  That written, the music is definitely attractive.  And it's fun.  It is also undeniably of its age; it almost screams out early Romanticism.  It's hard to hate fun, early romantic piano music.  As to specific works, the Second Sonata and Seven Variations on the Aria Vien'qua dorina bella are my favorites at this point, but the Fourth Sonata and Grand Polonaise also have a strong appeal.  While I can't say that this music matches up to the best music of the age, this is still a very enjoyable set for not too serious listening. 

Sound is a bit bright and a bit bass-shy, but otherwise is very good. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 30, 2009, 11:57:15 AM
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I so enjoyed my first disc of Véronique Gens singing songs of Joseph Canteloube that I decided to try the second volume on Naxos.  Everything I wrote about the first volume applies here.  The music is generally light, bright, and clean, with delicious wind writing, and it's always beautiful.  Likewise, Ms Gens sounds wonderful, as expected. 

The disc finishes up Chants d'Auvergne and adds the Tryptyque and Chants de France.  There's an obvious similarity among all the works, but the Tryptyque is special.  It's more languid 'n' lush than the other works, and closer in spirit to Ravel's great Scheherazade.  That's a good thing.  For some inexplicable reason, Naxos didn't include texts of any kind with the disc.  Go figure.

Sound is good, but the orchestra is a bit muddy at times, and Ms Gens sounds more prominent than she would in person, not that I'm complaining about that.  The Orchestre National de Lille plays well again, but this time Serge Baudo takes up the baton and does a fine job.  Another delightful disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 08, 2009, 11:36:42 AM
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I've enjoyed the orchestral music of Francis Poulenc since I first heard the Concerto for Two Pianos, so I decided it was time to try something else.  I decided to try the piano music.  I looked around and there aren't exactly tons of options.  When I came across the complete works performed by Gabriel Tacchino on EMI, I found the set for me. 

As I expected, Poulenc's solo piano music is mostly great fun.  A total of 83 pieces spread across the two discs, with many grouped into collections – 8 Nocturnes, 3 Intermezzi, 15 Improvisations, etc.  There are no really big works, no formal, serious sonatas.  But the music makes for good listening.  Sounding like a cross between Chabrier and Faure at times (and even Scriabin in the first of the 3 Pièces), his pieces are mostly light, crisp, clear, and snappy.  (And the Nocturnes certainly do not sound like one might expect.)  There are a fair number of slower, more somber pieces, but even they never really plumb the depths.  The music seems to be more superficial and designed to sound improvised. 

Gabriel Tacchino, an artist new to me, recorded the works between the mid-1960s and early-1980s, and he seems to be quite at home.  Sound is good, with the early digital recordings sounding better than the analog.  That written, these are 1980s transfers; perhaps EMI can do new ones.  Anyway, a quite nice set worthy of more than a few listens.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Drasko on July 08, 2009, 03:09:40 PM
I really like Tacchino in Poulenc. He is very swift and unsentimental, trés sec. The pianist whose playing most reminds me of Poulenc's own. But I don't think those 83 pieces are complete piano music, I have 102 pieces on 3 CDs (plus one CD concertante works and one CD with two pianos stuff):

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Tacchino/Pretre Aubade is fantastic.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: George on July 08, 2009, 07:36:10 PM
Quote from: Drasko on July 08, 2009, 03:09:40 PM
I really like Tacchino in Poulenc.

Me too. I have that set that Todd spoke of and it is excellent.

Anyone heard his Saint Saens Concertos on Vox? (http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Saens-Music-Piano-Orchestra-Complete/dp/B001F8NMJ2/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: George on July 08, 2009, 07:38:04 PM
Quote from: Grazioso on April 20, 2009, 03:56:44 AM
You may find this of interest:

(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/28/b9/346ec060ada0b70bda169110.L._AA240_.jpg)

Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe, which, like much of his work, seems to blend the ancient and the modern. A beautiful piece, recorded to the usual exemplary ECM standards.

Indeed, that one's a keeper for sure.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 09, 2009, 06:15:38 AM
Quote from: Drasko on July 08, 2009, 03:09:40 PMBut I don't think those 83 pieces are complete piano music, I have 102 pieces on 3 CDs (plus one CD concertante works and one CD with two pianos stuff)



Interesting, I don't know Poulenc's output well, so I assumed the twofer was complete.  Who knows, maybe I'll go for that bigger set sometime and trade-in my smaller one . . .
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 10, 2009, 07:53:02 AM
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I love Schubert's solo piano music, particularly the sonatas, but also some of the smaller works.  But how about all of the dances?  The relatively few I've heard on disc and in recital have all been nice, some more than that, but until recently I never really gave much thought to listening to all of them.  Dozens of works comprising hundreds of dances could be a long slog, even if they are from the pen of Schubert.  And who would be a good guide for such an undertaking?  Michael Endres recorded one of the better extant sonata cycles in the 90s, and he also recorded the complete dances around the same time.  Yes, he would do.

And do nicely.  Endres obviously has an affinity for Schubert, and it shines through in every work.  No, he can't make every piece sound profound or great or even remarkable, but the better pieces in the set are superb.  I can't really pinpoint the best works in such a large collection, though in general the "later" works do tend to be more sophisticated.  I will say that Schubert's single Diabelli variation sounds just about how one would expect it to.  Throughout the set, gorgeous melodies abound, and Endres delivers them with assurance.  Too, Endres' rhythmic sense is well nigh flawless throughout.  And his tone is perfectly sumptuous and subtle.  No, these are not Schubert's greatest works, and the set is not mandatory listening for even devout Schubertians, but it is thoroughly enjoyable.  Endres confirms his formidable Schubert credentials.

Top-notch sound.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 16, 2009, 09:51:48 AM
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I rather enjoy the Spanish solo piano music I have sampled thus far, however limited the number of composers.  Albéniz (especially), Granados, Falla, Turina – all wrote some pretty spiffy music for 88 keys.  And of course others have written music inspired by the Iberian Peninsula.  So I decided to try Joaquín Rodrigo's solo piano music, all of which fits neatly onto two CDs.  There aren't exactly gobs of recordings of the complete works, so I went with the first such compilation, recorded by one Sara Marianovich for Sony Spain in 2001 to celebrate the composer's centenary.  The then young Ms Marianovich (she's still not exactly old) apparently worked with, and played for, Mr Rodrigo, so one can conclude she was and is well versed in the music.

The set contains twenty works written between 1923 and 1987.  Many of the works are comprised of multiple small movements.  In other words, it's basically a collection of miniatures.  That's quite alright, particularly given the quality of the music.  In brief comments by the composer, he mentions how he tried to avoid Albéniz's style and purposely wrote smaller, clearer works.  And so they are.  Many of the pieces display a beautiful simplicity devoid of all virtuoso flashiness.  Some of the music is slow and almost static at times, but it is the more powerful, the more contemplative for it.  There are some snazzier pieces, too, that display some of the rhythmic freedom his fellow countrymen also displayed.  Some of the earlier pieces sound of their time; that is, they have a slightly "modernist" sound, though they avoid expressionist angst.  They're more impressionist.  At times, one can hear Rodrigo's influences.  Albéniz ends up being unavoidable, as does Turina.  In the Tres Evocaciones one can hear distant echoes of Debussy.  These are all good things.

Ms Marianovich plays splendidly.  Her dexterity and command seem quite strong, and she plays with a broad tonal palette and great sensitivity.  Of special interest is her quite playing.  It's really good stuff.  Sony provides some fine sound, though it can be a bit bright at times.  It's too bad there aren't many more recordings available by this pianist – I'd love to here her in Debussy, for instance.  An altogether successful purchase.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 31, 2009, 12:43:33 PM
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I so enjoyed my earlier discovery of Albert Roussel's three symphonies that I knew I should try something else.  Since I rather fancy piano music, it seemed natural to try that.  Roussel's piano music is even harder to come by than his orchestral music.  I ended up going with a 1979 Solstice Records disc devoted to what is reported as the composer's complete piano works, though I don't know if that's the case.  What I do know is that music is generally light, crisp, clear, light-hearted and a bit slight.

Only a half dozen works are included, and many of those are suites and collections.  The first work, Des Heures Passent.. is a nice little collection of pieces, and each one successfully depicts the title – things like Joyeuses and Tragiques.  The Rustiques is similar.  The Suite and Sonatine and Prelude and Fugue strike me as more formal and better structured, but even so I can't say these are anything other than lightweight pieces.  The disc closes with Three Pieces, all untitled, and all three display similar traits to the other works.

This disc offers some nice if slight works.  Perhaps another pianist could make them sound more substantive that Alain Raës does, but then again maybe not.  Sound is definitely not particularly good, but then it's not particularly bad.  Overall, this is a nice disc, but not a major find.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 31, 2009, 08:17:10 AM
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Federico Mompou is been a composer I've long thought about looking into.  Sure, I've heard a piano piece here and there on the radio, and I think I may have a disc or two with his music as an encore, but I never sat down and listened to his music at length.  Now I have, and I'm glad I did.

Mompou being Spanish, I expected his music to sound similar, at least to an extent, to some of the other Spanish composers I've listened to, and, to an extent, it does sound similar.  But it also sounds unique.  When I spun disc one, which has the Música Callada, the impression I got was one of a Spanish Satie.  Generally slow, simple, and hypnotic, the collections of miniatures are my least favorite of the works in the set, but they are still good.  The remaining three discs are devoted to other collections of miniatures, including dances, preludes, and variations, including a compelling set based on Chopin's fourth prelude.  All of these works are more to my liking, have a bit more verve (though never in the same category as Albéniz), and display rhythmic and harmonic originality, all while remaining somewhat understated.  Flashy and vacuous the music is not.

The pianist here is the composer himself.  Mompou, despite being aged when he recorded the works, seems to play well, handling the trickier and faster passages with what sounds to be at least adequate control.  Perhaps more youthful virtuosi could play with more brilliance (I may very well find out), but the composer delivers the goods.  One can also surmise that Mompou has the meaning of the music down.  Alas, the early 70s Ensayo sound is too metallic, harsh, and bright.  It's not as bad as the likewise Antonio Armet produced recordings by Esteban Sánchez of the same period, but it's not up to date sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 07, 2010, 08:46:05 AM
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I've always had a soft spot for Erich Korngold.  Gorgeous melodies; impossibly lush harmonies; dense, rich textures: Korngold's music is so heavily romantic as to clog one's aural arteries.  He's the deep fried butter of classical music! 

Not having heard anything new from him in a while, I decided to give the Aron Quartett's recording of the complete quartets and piano quintet a try.  Now, I'm not a newcomer to the First Quartet, having enjoyed the Franz Schubert Quartett's Nimbus recording for over decade.  Still, I was glad to try a new ensemble.  (I never got around to the few other recordings out there.) 

The set starts with the Piano Quintet, and what a delightful piece it is!  The three traits I cited previously are all there in spades.  The piece sounds huge, as far as chamber pieces go, more like a chamber symphony than a chamber ensemble piece.  So dense is the music that great clarity of voices seems lost.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just sayin'.  It's a swooning piece.  And it's just wonderful.  The first quartet is a joy from start to finish no matter what, but the Aron differentiate themselves from the fine Franz Schubert ensemble by shaving minutes off the piece.  The result is more youthful and vibrant, though also lush.  The decadently lush approach of the earlier ensemble is more my speed, but I fancy the newcomer.  The Second Quartet is infected with dances, particularly (not surprisingly) waltzes, and what nicely exaggerated waltzes they are!  It also boasts one of the most lively, joyous scherzos ever, though it's called an intermezzo.  The Third Quartet is the latest work on the disc, and it is the most informed by both more modern musical ideas and Korngold's own film music.  Big on invention and lushness married to occasional tartness, it works quite well.

Yes, I really dig this twofer.  It reaffirms for me, as if reaffirmation were needed, Korngold's talents, and it brings some underplayed gems to light.  Throw in some superb sound and top notch playing from all involved, and it's a winner.  I wouldn't doubt if it ends up one of my favorites for the year.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 25, 2010, 07:15:56 AM
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Over the years I've picked up a variety of discs of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, and I've always enjoyed what I heard.  The Bachianas Brasileiras, the piano music, the string quartets: All are supremely enjoyable.  So when I stumbled upon the CPO recording of his complete symphonies, conducted by Carl St Clair and played by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, for a reasonable price (ie, cheap), I decided to give it a try. 

I am most certainly glad I did.  This set offers an invigorating seven disc journey through lesser known, though not necessarily lesser, music.  To be sure, not all of the works are equally good, but the best of the best are very good indeed.  All of the symphonies come across as a pastiche of styles, if not necessarily other works.  One can hear some Brahms, some Wagner, some Beethoven, some Mahler, and in the Third and Fourth symphonies, some Ives.  (Actually, I don't know if one is hearing an Ivesian blending of multiple genres and styles in the same work, or just Villa-Lobos arriving at a similar approach.)  Back to the Third and Fourth, and also the Fifth – they represent Villa-Lobos' "War Symphonies", though here the war is the Great War, not the even worse one from a couple decades later.  In addition to Ivesian blending, there's great intensity and focus.  They are quite something.

But there's more than war.  There are two good old fashioned "big" symphonies: the not quite an hour Second, and the over an hour Tenth.  They are quite different.  The Second is wonderfully melodious and filled with beautiful string writing, and it's a bit immature when compared to the later works.  The Tenth is a gigantic oratorio that blends Brazilian influences, including wordless chorus and Tupi Indian texts, and Old World influences, including text by Jesuit Jose de Anchieta, in a compelling package.  I'm not saying for sure that this homage to Sao Paulo was influenced by Mahler's 8th, but the use of decidedly different texts, vast scale, and even the organ, seems to imply just a bit of influence.  No, it's not quite as masterful as Mahler's 8th, but it's still quite good.

The other symphonies run the quality gamut from good to exceptional, and generally speaking, the later works are more readily identifiable as being by Villa-Lobos; they blend influences deftly and ultimately sound like Villa-Lobos and no one else.  Throw in a couple nice short works and a lush, romantic Suite for Strings, and this is quite a fine set indeed.  Excellent playing and conducting, and generally superb sound round out a most attractive package.  Definitely one of my purchases of the year.  Great stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Lethevich on February 25, 2010, 07:45:09 AM
I second your opinion of the very high quality of Korngold's chamber music. His string sextet and piano trio are also top-drawer :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: abidoful on February 27, 2010, 10:50:32 PM
Quote from: Todd on July 31, 2009, 12:43:33 PM
(http://www.solstice-music.com/img_articles/gde/recto80.jpg)

This disc offers some nice if slight works.  Perhaps another pianist could make them sound more substantive that Alain Raës does, but then again maybe not.  Sound is definitely not particularly good, but then it's not particularly bad.  Overall, this is a nice disc, but not a major find.
Wow- thats interesting, i guess Roussel is worth exploring (he has been on my mind for sometime now- never heard a single piece by him)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 16, 2010, 11:29:01 AM
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A couple years ago I sampled the first volume in the Danel Quartet's one day to be complete cycle of string quartets by Mieczysław Weinberg.  It was one of my favorite discs of 2008, so surely I had to try the subsequent volumes.  So I have.

The second and third volumes contain the quartets 7, 11 & 13 and 6, 8 & 15 respectively.  Rather than go into specifics, a few brief generalizations will suffice to describe the music.  The quickest though not completely accurate way to describe the music is as DSCH-lite.  Weinberg was a disciple of Shostakovich, and it shows.  All of the quartets sound quite a bit like the older master, and some might even be taken as lost works.  This isn't a criticism so much as an observation.  (Since I love the Shostakovich quartets, I have no problem with other works that sound similar, provided they are of high quality.)  The writing in these quartets never rivals the intensity of DSCH, though the sophistication does.  One can also discern a similar change over time from tonal, dissonant and ultimately structurally conservative early works to more complicated, exploratory later works (like the nine movement 15th).  One can detect a more subtle and sophisticated use of Jewish music, and some of the music sounds more influenced by other folk music, at least in a very indirect way. 

The Danel Quartet, whose Shostakovich cycle is my favorite modern (ie, up-to-date digital) cycle, does extremely well in this music.  They handle all the densest, most complex music easily, and they always sound attractive, no matter how harsh the music.  This is intense Russian music delivered with French sensibilities.  Superb sound just adds to the allure of both volumes.  Another couple of winners from CPO.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 26, 2010, 11:47:07 AM
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The under-recorded pianist Andrea Lucchesini has not let me down yet.  Whether playing Beethoven, Chopin, or Liszt, he has delivered the goods.  So it only made sense for me to try his recording of Luciano Berio's piano music on Avie.  Throw in the fact that Lucchesini worked extensively with the composer while he was composing the Sonata, and one could assume he would be intimately familiar with the composer's idiom.  (This assumption is only reinforced by the fact that Berio wrote Lucchesini and his wife and the bride's parents piano four hands works as wedding gifts.) 

Berio's piano works are generally knotty and dense, with notes aplenty, and few hummable melodies to speak of, yet his music is "lighter" and less daunting than the piano works of, say, Pierre Boulez.  And though shorn of tunes in the standard sense, there is some attractive music in the mix.  As to individual works, the Sonata has hints of, of all composers, Ravel, in repeated notes reminiscent of Gaspard.  One may even be able to detect whiffs of Prokofiev buried in the mix.  Long stretches of quiet, repetitive music is mixed with thrilling flurries of notes.  The Six Encores are small, almost Webern-sized works, and are surprisingly varied.  The third, for instance, is beautiful and almost neo-romantic, and all are surprisingly accessible.  One needn't be a glutton for modern music to appreciate even the most "modern" of these pieces.  Rounds, Sequenza IV, and Cinque Variazioni are heavier fare.  Touch and Canzonetta, the wedding gifts, are short, seemingly simple, but still compelling and surprisingly modern.  No sweet, romantic bon-bons these.  All told, the disc offers a healthy dose of quite fine works.  I dare say the Sonata and Sequenza IV are substantially more than that.

The fine music is aided by Lucchesini's playing.  His tone is as attractive as ever, and his technique is easily up to the challenges of the music.  The man cannot, it appears, make an ugly sound, and can make gnarly music sing.

A supremely fine disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: bhodges on March 26, 2010, 11:56:34 AM
Thanks for that good description.  This looks quite interesting, since I don't know any of Berio's piano pieces, and don't recall ever hearing any of Lucchesini's recordings.

--Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 29, 2010, 01:25:49 PM
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Having rather enjoyed Roussel's orchestral music, I figured it made sense to try his opera Padmâvatî.  Surely the lovely, lush writing displayed in the symphonies would reappear.  And so it does.  But.

First to the suitably operatic story.  Lucky Indian regent of some sort Ratan-Sen is married to the exquisitely beautiful Padmâvatî.  She so smokin' hot that she keeps covered, presumably to prevent men from going bonkers upon seeing her.  Or something like that.  Then the Mogul leader Alaouddin bursts on the scene.  He's been told of Padmâvatî's legendary beauty, and he wants to see for himself.  After some cajoling, he gets to see her.  Yep, she's smokin'.  And so Alaouddin goes bonkers.  He wants her.  There will be war.  Shenanigans ensue.  Ratan-Sen ends up dying, and the heroine commits suttee at his funeral.  So the story is there.

The music is there, too.  It's lush.  It's beautiful.  It's "exotic," or at least it's a Frenchman's slightly impressionistic take on music of the mysterious East.  The winds are deployed quite nicely, and the strings are quite fine.  There's some nice wordless choir work, and then the choir will repeatedly call out for Shiva, and there's dance music, and so on.  It's a fully formed stage work.  Some of the music veers into a modern realm, but more in a Debussy than a Schoenberg kind of way.  Nothing surprising so far.

Now to the singing, playing, conducting, sound.  EMI used marquee names for the three main roles.  Marilyn Horne is the title character, and she does well so far as I can tell.  Nicolai Gedda is Ratan-Sen, and if perhaps he doesn't sound like he's at his peak here, he's still nice.  Jose Van Dam fits the role of Alaouddin well.  Michel Plasson and his French orchestra (from Toulouse) both do well, creating lovely sounds and playing in a secure manner.  The early digital sonics are better than the recording date (1983 as far as I can tell) would suggest.

The issue for me is the work as a whole.  Such a dramatic story deserves more intensity, or at least a more vibrant overall feel.  Maybe it's the performance, maybe it's the score, I don't know.  It just never really catches fire for me.  Even though it's relatively short (under two hours), the time doesn't fly by.  Rather, beautiful moments come and go, and less compelling stretches fill the gaps.  It's not bad, not at all, but it doesn't measure up to even Leo Delibes' Lakme, to choose a similar work.  Perhaps Christoph Eschenbach can be persuaded to conduct the work, given his success (for me) in the orchestral works of the composer.  As it is, this is a disappointment for me.  The lack of an English language libretto, even online, didn't help.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: MN Dave on March 30, 2010, 09:43:55 AM
Always a pleasure reading these, Todd.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 09:47:38 AM
What Dave said, Todd.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Opus106 on March 30, 2010, 10:13:39 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 29, 2010, 01:25:49 PM
First to the suitably operatic story.  Lucky Indian regent of some sort Ratan-Sen is married to the exquisitely beautiful Padmâvatî.  She so smokin' hot that she keeps covered, presumably to prevent men from going bonkers upon seeing her.  Or something like that.  Then the Mogul leader Alaouddin bursts on the scene.  He's been told of Padmâvatî's legendary beauty, and he wants to see for himself.  After some cajoling, he gets to see her.  Yep, she's smokin'.  And so Alaouddin goes bonkers.  He wants her.  There will be war.  Shenanigans ensue.  Ratan-Sen ends up dying, and the heroine commits suttee at his funeral.  So the story is there.

This is perhaps an irrelevant quibble, but facts of history must be set right: Ala-ud-din Khilji was, as the name suggests, from the Khilji dynasty; the Moghuls arrived about 200 years later. :) And it's Ratan Singh. Of course, if all the information you have are through the liner notes, then shame on EMI for not getting the facts right.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Opus106 on March 30, 2010, 10:23:56 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 30, 2010, 10:13:39 AM
This is perhaps an irrelevant quibble, but facts of history must be set right: Ala-ud-din Khilji was, as the name suggests, from the Khilji dynasty; the Moghuls arrived about 200 years later. :) And it's Ratan Singh. Of course, if all the information you have are through the liner notes, then shame on EMI for not getting the facts right.

I just visited the Wikipedia page for the opera and learnt that the libretto is based upon a work with the incorrect information. Well, shame on Théodore-Marie Pavie, then. ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 01, 2010, 02:34:18 PM
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Good old reliable Bohuslav Martinů.  Over the years I've sampled a decent numbers of his works, and while not all have been home runs, nary a one has been bad.  His best stuff is top tier for me.  So I came to his complete works for violin and piano with high expectations.  Said expectations were heightened further since violinist Bohuslav Matoušek is one of the artists.  His cycle of Martinů's works for violin and orchestra, paired with Christopher Hogwood and friends, is superb, so surely this would be at least good.

My expectations were more or less met.  The sixteen works spread across four discs range from juvenilia from Martinů's teen years to (comparatively) late in life works of more substance.  That written, this set is filled with a few didactic works not really meant for the stage.  Anyway, the earliest works, including two violin sonatas, are romantic in nature, and the influence of others – most notably Franck and Dvořák – is easily heard.  The works are enjoyable in any event.  A bit further on the works begin to become more structurally rigorous, more neo-classical, and have that Martinů sound that is hard to describe, at least for me.  And here's the thing: the didactic works ain't so bad.  The Rhythmic Etudes are just plain nice sounding, and at times fun.  Ditto the Seven Arabesques and Five Madrigal Stanzas.  The later sonatas are much more substantial and original than the earlier ones, and the other works all tickle the ear.  I cannot say that the works reach the same heights as the violin sonatas of Beethoven or Bartok or perhaps even Schubert, but they are extremely fine.  How fine?  Well, a couple times, when one disc ended, I just automatically plopped in the next disc.  I don't exactly do that all the time.

The playing on the set is to a nice, high standard.  Mr Matoušek plays well, and his accompanist Petr Adamec is more than up to snuff.  Sound is variable, with some recordings a bit more distant that others, and all of the recordings a bit more reverberant than my ideal, but overall Martinů Hall serves the music well enough.  A winner.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Guido on April 03, 2010, 03:10:19 AM
Quote from: Lethe on February 25, 2010, 07:45:09 AM
His ... piano trio (is) also top-drawer :)

Really? Much though I love Korngold, the piano trio is the work of a 12 year old and astonishing thoiugh that is, its not one of his better chamber works - the best of course being the Suite for piano left hand, two violins and cello.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 20, 2010, 07:39:06 AM
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Krystian Zimerman playing Strauss, now there's something I thought I should get around to hearing, so I bought the DG Galleria reissue of Strauss' and Respighi's Violin Sonatas played by Mr Zimerman and Kyung Wha Chung.  Aside from hearing Mr Zimerman perform more chamber music, this disc also offered the first chance to hear this music.  Really, when I think Strauss I think huge orchestral works, and when I think of Respighi at all, it's usually about Pines of Rome, and how little I like the piece. 

This is a fine disc.  Both pieces are unabashedly romantic in nature, the Strauss in a youthful, smaller than normal scale kind of way, and the Respighi in an almost gaudy, oversized sort of way.  The Strauss is filled with beauty everywhere, and the slow movement is filled with tender – perhaps too tender – music and both Chung and Zimerman deliver rich, tonally lustrous playing.  The Respighi almost makes Korngold seem reserved in comparison, and the writing isn't as elegant as Strauss' (no surprise, really), but it is easy enough to listen to, and can almost be seen as a guilty pleasure.  Again, both Zimerman and Chung play splendidly.

I can't say that either of these violin sonatas rates among my favorites, but both are quite enjoyable, and hearing two top flight performers play them is nice.  Throw in excellent sound, and this is a nice little disc, one to return to from time to time.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: abidoful on April 21, 2010, 01:06:19 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 20, 2010, 07:39:06 AM
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Krystian Zimerman playing Strauss, now there's something I thought I should get around to hearing, so I bought the DG Galleria reissue of Strauss' and Respighi's Violin Sonatas played by Mr Zimerman and Kyung Wha Chung.  Aside from hearing Mr Zimerman perform more chamber music, this disc also offered the first chance to hear this music.  Really, when I think Strauss I think huge orchestral works, and when I think of Respighi at all, it's usually about Pines of Rome, and how little I like the piece. 

This is a fine disc.  Both pieces are unabashedly romantic in nature, the Strauss in a youthful, smaller than normal scale kind of way, and the Respighi in an almost gaudy, oversized sort of way.  The Strauss is filled with beauty everywhere, and the slow movement is filled with tender – perhaps too tender – music and both Chung and Zimerman deliver rich, tonally lustrous playing.  The Respighi almost makes Korngold seem reserved in comparison, and the writing isn't as elegant as Strauss' (no surprise, really), but it is easy enough to listen to, and can almost be seen as a guilty pleasure.  Again, both Zimerman and Chung play splendidly.

I can't say that either of these violin sonatas rates among my favorites, but both are quite enjoyable, and hearing two top flight performers play them is nice.  Throw in excellent sound, and this is a nice little disc, one to return to from time to time.
Agreed- one of my fav. recordings. And the Respighi sonata is the only Respighi i have enjoyed...!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 22, 2010, 11:48:09 AM
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I figured it was about time that I delved into some old liturgical music again, so I decided to try some more sacred music penned by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.  My guide would be the ever reliable Paul McCreesh.

The disc includes both Biber's Mass in B flat for six voices and his Requiem in F minor.  However, apparently in accordance with period practice (I'll leave that to experts), brief compositions by other composers are included, including some orchestral movements and polyphonic a cappella pieces.  The other composers include Georg Muffat, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Abraham Megerle, Orlando de Lassus, and the ubiquitous Anonymous. 

Anyway, the Mass is quite nice.  It's a bit sprightly and upbeat.  No dour, heavy music here.  It's also nicely small scale.  Here Biber's pieces have movements by others intermingled, and if it can lead to a sense of discontinuity, it works well enough.  The real attraction for me is the Requiem.  It's decidedly weightier, as befits the subject matter, but it, too, is infused with energy not always found in such works.  It's dramatic and tense without being too ponderous or draining.  At under thirty minutes, it's also taut.  And as a bonus, the extra movements by other composers (Anonymous and Lassus) flank the work, rather than mix with it. 

Singers and instrumentalists all acquit themselves nicely, and Mr McCreesh, a real favorite of mine, seems in his element.  The recording is spacious and warm creating a blended, not especially detailed sound that works well in this context.  A superb disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 26, 2010, 07:58:59 AM

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About a decade or so ago I went through a brief phase of buying recordings of works by Erwin Schulhoff, which was augmented by a couple recordings later on.  I sampled chamber works and orchestral works, and even his opera Flammen, a modern, jazz-era retelling of the Don Juan story with a bit of Faust thrown in.  Much of Schulhoff's music is jazz infused or jazz inspired, and some is Dadaistic as well.  Some of the jazz inspired works are quite good – the Hot Sonata for saxophone and piano is a real favorite of mine, for instance – but it is for strings where he shines most, whether one considers his works for string quartet or sextet.

I recently got an itch to try more of his music, and since I haven't tried any of his piano music, I decided to go for some.  I settled on a budget twofer on the mighty Phoenix Edition label with Margarete Babinsky the soloist, paired with Maria Lettberg and Andreas Wykydal for some of the works.  Alas, this set is a dud.

One might be tempted to say the problem is the music itself, and that may very well be the case, but I'm inclined to think it's the performances.  The set includes both more "formal" works like two of the sonatas, as well as collections of miniatures.  The sonatas fare best.  Ms Babinsky displays fine technique and clean articulation, and the sonatas come across as nicely serious, if perhaps a bit disjointed and of less than, say, LvB quality.  In other words, the sonatas sound emphatically OK. 

The other works, or collections of works, have titles like Burlesken, Grotesken, Ironien (for piano four hands), Vortragsstuke (including an almost two minute silent movement predating Cage's 4'33" by many years), and a set of jazz improvisations for two pianos.  All of them share one thing in common: all sound mostly dull and heavy handed.  Only in the jazz improvisations, and then only rarely, do the pieces sparkle with life.  That's not to say that the pianists play poorly.  It just seems that they aren't in their element.  Where is the bite and sparkle and boogie?  And even though the jazz improvisations do sound a bit better at times, they don't sound jazzy.  To be sure, Schulhoff's other jazz inspired works sound a bit formal to be proper jazz, but performances in other recordings have more life and jazz-like energy.  In some ways this brings back memories of the Schoenberg Quartet's recording of Schulhoff's string quartets in comparison to the Petersen Quartet's recordings.  The Schoenberg Quartet play well, but their recording is leaden, dull, lifeless and ponderous.  (Awful doesn't begin to describe it.)  The Petersen, in contrast, are vital and sharp and buoyant.  I get the feeling Babinsky and company are the pianistic equivalent of the Schoenberg Quartet. 

In addition, the sound is rather poor for a recording made in 2008.  The high frequencies are noticeably rolled off for some reason.  As a result, definition and bite are a bit lacking, though dynamics and lower register heft are not. 

Blech.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2010, 08:02:28 PM
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Yowza!  I'd never heard the Missa Salisburgenis until now, and all I can say is Yowza!  This vast, proto-Mahlerian choral work from the seventeenth century knocked my socks off.  Apparently authorship isn't certain, but Heinrich Biber is the generally accepted author.  If so, this could be his magnum opus. 

A gigantic mass setting, with multiple choirs and groups of instruments, and plenty of trumpets, everything about this is, well, it's grand, perhaps bordering on over the top.  That's understandable since it's meant to celebrate Salzburg's 1100th anniversary as a Christian center, something that doesn't come along every day.  Accordingly, the mass has a largely celebratory feel.  No dour, heavy, somber mass here.  No!  It's party time.  The trumpets blare, the choirs unleash heavenly paeans to the Lord, the strings produce lustrous sounds.  And while grand, perhaps even grandiose, the music is also more or less straight-forward.  One needn't marvel at the compositional mastery (though one can) to enjoy the work.  It's enough to just let the music envelope whatever listening space is in use.  The performance is fully up to the great event, to boot.  Singers and instrumentalists all perform superbly.  Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Reinhard Goebel and the Musica Antiqua Köln join forces, along with hired guns I must assume, and it sounds like a great match.

The only potential issue with the disc has to do with the sound.  Recorded in a large church, this large work takes full advantage of the space, but that means there are some balance issues.  The trumpets are largely in the back of the church, so as to not overpower everything else, but this makes them sound very distant.  (In addition, the opening movement reveals this distance, and one is tempted to turn the volume way up, but the eruption of the Kyrie reveals the size of the forces and can threaten to deafen the listener.)  Individual singers can sound small and distant and everything runs the risk of being overpowered by the choirs.  The distant perspective also results in less detail than I generally enjoy, but the compromises are small and the overall benefits significant. 

This is a great work and great recording. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 02, 2010, 04:51:30 PM
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Having a hankerin' for some more early Baroque music, I decided to try the now super-cheap recording of three oratorios by Giacomo Carissimi led by Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort and Players, formerly on the Meridian label, now on the mighty Brilliant Classics label. 

Each of the three oratorios is a based on biblical stories, as the titles indicate: Jephthah (with an organ intro written by Frescobaldi), The Judgment of Solomon, and Jonah.  Each of the works has a light, theatrical feel, and each is well proportioned.  Not one of the works seems too long, and each one moves along at a nice clip.  The small forces for each works also lend a very intimate air to the proceedings.  Dare I say, given the serious nature of the works, that the recordings sound fun?  They do.  And the sound of birds in the background of Jephthah  even adds a nice, if unplanned touch.  (This was not recorded in a sterile studio).  As expected, McCreesh and his forces generally do fabulously, with only one of the sopranos not sounding maximally appealing to my ears in Jonah.  Sound is spacious and blended, with only occasional hardness giving away the mid-80s recording vintage. 

A delightful disc.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 06, 2010, 11:45:13 AM
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I like modern music.  I am enjoying vocal works more as time goes by.  Why not try something that combines both?  As luck would have it, Stephen Hartke has written just such music, and given how much I've liked the other discs of his music that I've heard, I figured I should give this one a shot.

The disc contains two works.  The first, Tituli, is written for five male voices, violin, and two percussionists.  The seven movements are based on different, fragmentary, really ancient Latin, Etruscan, and Greek texts – ancient as in BC composition dates – covering topics like the First Punic War, sacred law, oracles, and so on.  Hartke himself performed some of the translations, and if the texts can be a bit wanting in their translated form, in the context of the music they are quite entertaining.  The first thing to note about this piece is that it is slow and quiet and soothing.  Had a rough, stressful day?  This may calm you down some.  The instrumental writing is generally spare (how could it be otherwise?) and while nicely "modern," it doesn't overpower the singing. 

The second work, Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain, for four male voices (one of which is a countertenor) is an English translation of a Japanese poem about being awed by Notre Dame cathedral during, yes, a rainstorm.  The text is ecstatic in a Messiaen sort of way, and so is the setting, though with four voices, there isn't much in the way of grandeur.  The work is notably more vibrant that Tituli, and surprised me in how affecting it is.

No, this isn't the best music by Hartke I've heard, and it isn't something I'll listen to very frequently, but it is quite good and offers a nice, calming detour.  The Hilliard Ensemble sings superbly, as one would expect, and ECM delivers fine sound. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2010, 07:12:51 AM
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It's been a while since I last tried some Cristóbal de Morales, so it seemed a good time to try some more.  Paul McCreesh seemed a good guide, so I went with the Brilliant Classics reissue of the DG recording of the Mass for the Feast of St Isidore of Seville. 

First things first: the music is not all by Morales.  Rather, this is a reconstruction of how a celebration for St Isidore may have gone in the 16th Century, which means there are musical preludes and interludes composed by various other composers, a motet by Francisco Guerrero, and some Gregorian chant along with the mass by Morales.  The mass setting is not a standard liturgical mass, either; it is a parody mass.  So, all told, only about half the music is given over to music by Morales. 

Now to the music itself.  The accompanying musical pieces and Gregorian chant are all nice, but Morales is really the main attraction, and it's abundantly clear that his music is more than a cut above the other music, with only Guerrero's motet approaching the same level of perfection.  Whenever the glorious polyphonic choir starts up one is transported to a world of unyielding sonic beauty and grace, with the harmonies and melodies washing over the listener in a most pleasing way.  Alas, one must return to the more mundane music of the celebration before enjoying more Morales.  Fortunately, CD players come with program functions, so one can bypass all the music by others and focus only on Morales. 

So I suppose I must gripe mildly about the inclusion of lesser music, but I cannot help but reveling in the glory of the main attraction.  Sound is like many other McCreesh recordings in that it is a bit distant, creating a blended sound, but that's quite alright.  All players and singers do a superb job.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 15, 2010, 10:45:39 AM
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I needed another Morales fix, and I figured it made sense to try the Tallis Scholars in this repertoire, so the disc of the Missa Si bona suscepimus seemed the way to go.  This time the disc centers around a Morales mass without interruption, but the work is flanked by a couple smaller works by other composers. 

Most important is the opening work, called Si bona suscepimus, by one Philippe Verdelot.  This small work serves as the thematic inspiration for Morales' mass setting.  The small work is quite appealing, with beautiful harmonies and melodies – I can hear why Morales chose to write a parody mass based on the piece.

The mass itself is predictably beautiful and displays Morales' mastery of polyphony, though in a more restrained subtle way than in some of the other works I've heard.  It doesn't quite create the nearly hypnotic beauty and otherworldly feel of some of Morales' other work.  It seems more earthbound, as it were.  That's not really a criticism so much as an observation.  The piece still hits the spot.

The closing work on the disc is Andreas Christi famulus by Thomas Crecquillion, a name new to me.  Apparently, this work used to be attributed to Morales, and it's easy to understand why: it sounds eerily close to Morales' style.  As a result, I think it is supremely fine, and I may very well be investigating more music by Mr Crecquillion.

Excellent sound and superb singing round out another fine disc anchored by an extraordinary work by Morales.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 21, 2010, 07:53:08 AM
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I've been on a mini-Biber binge this year, so I decided to add to add one more recording.  Since I really liked Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr's recording of the great Rosary Sonatas, I thought I ought to give Andrew Manze, John Toll, and Nigel North, collectively known as Romanesca, a shot in the Violin Sonatas.  I'm immensely glad I did. 

As with the Rosary Sonatas, the eight violin sonatas are scored for different mixes of instruments, though here the variety is wider.  Organ, harpsichord, lute, theorbo: all get there shot, sometimes more than one at a time.  A couple of the sonatas even use scordatura for the violin as well – shades of the Rosary Sonatas.  The music is generally vibrant, often exciting, and at times just plain fun.  Sometimes one gets the feeling that Biber was writing purposely showy, virtuosic music, but that's quite fine in this context.  No unduly solemn music here.  (Apparently Biber also lifted some tunes in one of the additional included works as a way of (possibly) mocking rival composers.)  Oh, and those other works.  In addition to the sonatas, a solo lute piece is thrown in, and yes it is fine, as well as a couple other sonatas, and a passacaglia for solo violin that was an additional Rosary Sonata that was never finished.

Messrs Manze, Toll, and North all acquit themselves quite nicely indeed.  Sound, too, is quite fine.  This is one of my purchases of the year.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 01, 2010, 10:24:34 AM
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I needed a bit more religion, so I figured I might as well sample some music by Tomás Luis de Victoria.  I settled on the new release of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by the Tallis Scholars.  As expected, it's good stuff.  The harmonies and melodies are quite beautiful, and not a little haunting in some cases.  There's a bit of variety in sound as well since the works are written for different sizes and mixes of ensemble, from five to eight voices, with a general tilt toward the higher end of the spectrum.  There's also a Lamentation for Maundy Thursday by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, a name new to me, that's of equally high quality. 

While I enjoyed the disc quite a bit, I must say that I am noticing a trend.  I seem to like Cristóbal de Morales more than any other Renaissance composer I've heard, and any comparisons, whether intentional or not, always favor him.  The only potential exception for me thus far is Palestrina.  Anyway, that doesn't so much detract from the quality of this release as show how good Morales is.

Sound and singing are top notch.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: karlhenning on July 01, 2010, 10:29:42 AM
Very interesting, Todd; I need to check de Morales out.  I've often felt similarly about de Victoria (comparisons, without devaluing others, favoring de Victoria).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: petrarch on July 01, 2010, 11:26:13 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 01, 2010, 10:24:34 AM
I seem to like Cristóbal de Morales more than any other Renaissance composer I've heard

The Pie Jesu Domine closing segment in the Sequentia from Morales' Missa Pro Defunctis sung by Jordi Savall's vocal ensemble La Capella Reial de Catalunya brings tears to my eyes. Outstanding 2 minutes of music.

The original CD is rare and expensive:
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Reissued more recently in a 3-CD box:
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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 16, 2010, 09:36:16 AM
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This is my first exposure to the music of baroque composer Marin Marais.  I didn't even know the name until a few weeks ago, when I decided to try some Jordi Savall recordings and noticed that Marin Marais shows up several times in Savall's discography.  I opted for the Suitte d'un Goût Etranger for no other reason than it offered more music than the other discs.

This twofer turned out to be quiet fine.  The suite is a collection of dances for Viola de Gamba and various other instruments in various combinations, Jordi Savall playing the Viola de Gamba and, presumably, leading the ensembles.  Apparently, Marais is something of a labor of love for Savall, and it shows.  Savall's playing strikes me as supremely fine, though I could be wrong given that my collection has no other recordings of Viola de Gamba to compare to.  (No, I'm pretty sure his playing is of extremely high quality.)  All of the other artists, including the fine harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï, play superbly and everyone seems to be in sync.  There's also a somewhat leisurely overall feel to the music making; no one seems out to outshine the other players, and everyone seems to luxuriate in the music.  Perhaps this is the one, true, "authentic" approach, or perhaps not, but I enjoy it.  Indeed, I think I shall try some more Marais.

Sound is amazing.  It is a bit close, and some hard breathing can be heard, but it is incredibly detailed and warm sounding.  No etched, harsh brightness is to be heard at any time.  Each instrument shines through with timbral distinction and individuality.  If only all chamber recordings were this good.

Top notch stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 20, 2010, 08:44:12 AM
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After years of hearing only (some of) his keyboard works, I figured I should try something a bit larger in scale from François Couperin.  I settled on Les Concert Royaux as played by Le Concert Des Nations and led by Jordi Savall.  It ain't too shabby. 

The disc contains four chamber concerts written for the Sunday entertainment of no less a personage than Le Roi Soleil.  The works can be thought of almost as French Brandenburg Concertos, though they are decidedly lusher and calmer, indeed calming, in nature.  They don't sound as rigourously structured, either, and the instrumentation changes markedly between movements, but it seems an apt comparison.  Really, these are quite fine works, and Savall and crew play with admirable virtuosity, albeit in a (presumably suitably) languid way.  It does seem like the kind of music one could enjoy whilst also enjoying Sunday brunch. 

Sound is as good as it gets.

Another peach from Savall and crew.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 20, 2010, 09:16:41 AM
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Repeated cravings for Heinrich Biber's music keep popping up, and I just got to satisfy the cravings.  To satisfy the most recent craving, I bought this disc of Battalia à 10 and Requiem à 15 in Concerto performed by Jordi Savall and his musicians.  Yet again, Maestro Biber's music is hard to resist.  Nay, impossible to resist. 

The disc opens with the small Battalia à 10, which is an early baroque musical depiction of battle, but one that is more focused on delivering light (at least at times), lively entertainment than something heavy-duty.  As with many other works I've heard, Biber shows his mastery of mixing and matching instruments in unusual combinations.  And he shows himself to be ahead of his time.  The second movement weaves eight then popular tunes together in a most dissonant form.  It sounds very much like something Ives would have written, but it's a few hundred years older.  Astonishing.  Then there's some snappy pizzacati later on that one could swear would have been penned by Bartok.  The entire little work is a delight first note to last, and is startlingly, well, modern.

The main work, the big old honkin' Requiem, is not as ear opening, and does not necessarily match up to some of Biber's other choral works, but it is something to hear nonetheless.  Written for the death of Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph, the work is not as dark and grim as some requiems.  Rather, it strikes me as more of a serious, almost stately, celebration of life and the heavenly rewards due such a personage as the Archbishop.  That doesn't mean the work sounds trite or pandering in any way; it's just another way to write a requiem.  The work is somewhat gimmicky, if you will, in that the forces are divided into five different spaces in the cathedral.  The resulting sound is unique, and the spatial effects quite compelling.  The gimmick works.

This disc is another winner.  Biber is fast becoming my go-to composer for early Baroque music.  Nary a bad work have I heard, and each new disc makes me want to hear more.  What more can one ask for, other than more?

Savall and crew do a fine job, as expected, and sound is sumptuous.  Why, oh why, can't all recordings sound at least this good?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 26, 2010, 11:56:20 AM
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I've been listening to a fair amount of Renaissance and early Baroque music lately, so I figured I should sample something from a different era.  I decided to try something earlier.  I settled for some ballades by Guilluame de Machaut as performed by Ensemble Musica Nova on the Aeon label.  The disc includes twelve works by Machaut and a work by that most prolific of composers, Anonymous. 

The ballads on this disc are all pretty much about courtly love, and they are quite fine examples, showing that at least one subject matter hasn't changed in the last seven centuries.  The works are polyphonic, but they don't sound as sophisticated as the works of the Renaissance and later masters.  That written, most of the melodies are quite appealing, if a bit strange sounding to modern ears.  The instrumental accompaniment is spare and very antique sounding; for those who find Baroque era instruments too modern sounding, the ancient flutes, harps, and vieles add a sound you just really don't hear very often.

Sound is good if perhaps a smidgeon bright, and the performers all seem to do a good job, though I have nothing to compare to at this point.  While this isn't music I'll listen to frequently, it's something I'll pop in from time to time to chill.  Not bad, not bad at all.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 02, 2010, 07:38:25 AM
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Jordi Savall is turning out to be as reliable a guide of early and/or lesser known baroque music as Paul McCreesh.  It's hard to think of a bad disc from either artist.  The latest Savall disc to catch my ear is the second book of pieces for viola de gamba by Marin Marais.  This disc contains two long suites, one dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Lully, and one dedicated to Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (whose first name is apparently a mystery).  Both offer varied instrumentation for the various movements, both alternatively boogie or move along languidly in an early 18th Century sort of way, and both display high levels of virtuosity married to plain old good taste.  No, it's not Earth Shakingly great music, but it is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

Sound is perhaps a bit too close, offering perhaps a bit too much insight into breathing patterns, but is otherwise SOTA. 

Yep, another superb disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 18, 2010, 11:46:53 AM
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Continuing on with ancient liturgical works, I decided to try some Guillaume Dufay for the first time.  I settled on the Pomerium recording of the Mass for St. Anthony of Padua and Veni creator spiritus.  It ain't none too shabby.  Both pieces move along slowly and mostly rather quietly, with attractive melodies and quite fine singing.  It is a very calm, and calming, piece.  It's like profound 15th Century chill music.  When I think of near-ish contemporaries, I cannot say that I find Dufay quite as compelling as Morales or Palestrina, but that is setting the bar pretty high. 

The singing is all quite fine, and the sound is warm and blended and generally very good. 

A nice little disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Clever Hans on October 18, 2010, 01:33:22 PM
Quote from: Todd on October 18, 2010, 11:46:53 AM

Continuing on with ancient liturgical works, I decided to try some Guillaume Dufay for the first time.  I settled on the Pomerium recording of the Mass for St. Anthony of Padua and Veni creator spiritus.  It ain’t none too shabby.  Both pieces move along slowly and mostly rather quietly, with attractive melodies and quite fine singing.  It is a very calm, and calming, piece.  It’s like profound 15th Century chill music.  When I think of near-ish contemporaries, I cannot say that I find Dufay quite as compelling as Morales or Palestrina, but that is setting the bar pretty high. 

The singing is all quite fine, and the sound is warm and blended and generally very good. 

A nice little disc.

Dufay has variety, secular chansons and motets as well as masses. Personally, I love earlier Franco-Flemish polyphony. All these discs are pretty amazing and up to date, plus you have the Gothic Voices selections on The Garden of Zephirus, The Medieval Romantics, etc.

(http://www.signumrecords.com/images/sigcd023.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aGDBGVi1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PmXNzDNSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/34/a7/96f7e10e22a0a0dfcbaee110.L._AA300_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61lza17DBSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51l1aNxEm%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)

This one received a great review in Early Music. Haven't picked it up yet but intend to.
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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 23, 2010, 02:11:05 PM
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For my first purposeful foray into solo organ music, I decided to start with Maurice Duruflé's complete works.  They all fit nicely onto a single disc, in this case the CPO recording of one Friedhelm Flamme playing on the Mühleisen Organ.  It seems I found a good place to start.  The music is all easily accessible.  Nothing is too stern or hard or stereotypically organ-y (by which I mean uncompromisingly religious and heavy).  Indeed, the sound world is a rather dreamy, romantic one.  There's a warmth and beauty to the music that makes one want to simply sit and listen to the music.  That's what I did.  I can't say that I have a favorite work on the disc; I enjoy them all. 

Mr Flamme's playing strikes me as rather impressive.  The registration produces some intriguing sounds, and the recorded sound is superb, with plenty of color and room energizing bass.  I cannot say that this disc makes me want to listen to nothing but organ music, nor do I think the organ will supplant the piano in my listening, but it got me off to a nice start.  New wonders await, I'm sure of it.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 31, 2010, 06:29:07 PM
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Jordi Savall and crew have done it again, this time introducing me to the music of one William Lawes, a 17th Century English composer of some note.  So noteworthy was he that he apparently earned the nickname "Father of Musick."  I don't know if I'd say he's quite that good, but his music is quite nice in a mid-1600s English sort of way.  First things first, the music displays a high degree of craftsmanship and not a little contrapuntal mastery.  Second, the music is surprisingly languid, at least as performed here, belying the rather turbulent times in which the music was written.  (Lawes bought the farm during the Civil War, so he was no stranger to the danger of the time.)  The small ensembles are meticulously blended while allowing each instrumental voice a bit of breathing room.  This is intimate music to be cherished.  Third, the sound is top flight, as is to be expected from this source.

All told, this is a very fine twofer.  I confess that I prefer the similar type of music from Marin Marais, who is more refined and opulent, but Mr Lawes makes a most welcome addition to my collection.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 05, 2010, 09:45:56 AM
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I've never quite warmed up to the music of Max Reger.  Granted, I've not listened to a lot of it, but it's fair to say that I've noticed a few recurring traits in his music.  First, his music strikes me as painstakingly crafted, with each note in its proper place.  As an exercise in compositional meticulousness it is impressive, but as a more, um, musical, experience, it's a bit less impressive.  Second, the dude knows how to write a fugue.  Really, he's right up there with the best, you know, Bach and Beethoven.  Well, maybe not quite that good, but darned close.

As part of my initial explorations of organ music, I figured I should at least give Reger a shot, particularly considering the man wrote a good amount of music for the instrument.  I must say that the traits described above once again shine through.  Every work on this ninth volume is pretty much what I would have expected, just for the organ rather than another instrument or ensemble.  The variations on God Save the King sound interesting, if not especially compelling.  The excerpts from Op 65 are very serious and formal, but not especially ear tingling.  The Chorale Preludes are a bit more interesting, but again retain a certain stiff formality.  The closing Chorale Fantasia is a masterful fugue, to be sure, and while at times it is intriguing to follow the musical lines, it just didn't get my musical juices flowing.  None of the music is bad, it's just not my thing.

Josef Still sure sounds like he knows how to play the organ quite well, the instrument sounds nice enough, and the sound is none too shabby.  Still, I can't say this makes me want to rush out to buy a lot more of Reger's music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2010, 10:39:18 AM
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Next up in my exploration of organ music is a disc of works by Charles-Marie Widor.  There's a decent selection of recordings out there, so I somewhat randomly settled on this sixth volume of the complete works on MDG.  The organist is Ben van Oosten, and he plays the Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Sernin, in Toulouse.  The works on the disc are the Romane Symphony and the Suite Latine.

If the symphony is meant to sound like a romantic symphony transcribed for organ, it works.  The formal four movement structure has all the elements one might associate with a work of a French composer inspired by the model of Schumann.  In addition to the "symphonic" structure, the organ as played and recorded, offers a superb range of sound, credibly approximating strings and winds, indeed, the whole shebang.  That written, the work is a bit on the slow side, and it did hold my attention quite as effectively as Durufle's works.  The suite is similar, though here, in the nature of a suite, the movements are more varied and seemingly unconnected.  Of special interest for me are the nicely severe Lamento and the Ave Maria Stella, which at times reminds me of Bruckner transcribed for the organ.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Oosten's playing and sound are both quite fine, and there's a decent chance I may sample more music by Widor in the future. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 27, 2010, 03:37:21 PM
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Not having any Giovanni Pergolesi in my collection, it seemed almost a no-brainer to try the new budget three disc set of Pergolesi's music conducted by Claudio Abbado.  The set comprises all three recent releases by the now aged maestro and the Orchestra Mozart, yet another new, young (and period) ensemble he has helped to build.  The works included in the set are all liturgical, save the Violin Concerto with Giuliano Carmignola as the soloist.  The set opens with a very nice Stabat Mater.  There's much to enjoy in this Baroque meets Classical work, but I have to say it just didn't catch my fancy like, say, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater.  The Violin Concerto follows, and it, too, is a nice enough work.  The first of three (!) Salve Reginas concludes the first disc, and again, it's quite pleasant.  Nothing earth-shaking, nothing profound.

Then I listened to the second disc.  It opens with a brilliant missa brevis, the Missa S. Emidio, inspired by, apparently, a trembler that struck Naples.  It's a corker!  Though written around the time Haydn was born, it sounds like a prototype for all Classical era liturgical works, only it's better than more than a few similar works.  The melodies are captivating from start to finish, the use of the larger forces compelling as can be.  Though short, it packs a wallop.  It's much my favorite work in the set.  It even sounds in parts like it inspired Mozart, by which I mean it sounds like Mozart may have stole some ideas.  The second Salve Regina follows, with Sara Mingardo the soloist, and it is in a different category than the first one.  The music is more compelling and the soloist a bit better.  A couple lesser works fill out the disc, though they are both executed in most musical fashion. 

The third disc is much like the first in that it has multiple liturgical works, and most of them are quite nice, if not especially noteworthy.  The concluding Dixit Dominus is, for me, the best of the lot. 

So, a nice enough mixed bag, with two fine works, one of them a great, or near great work.  Abbado and crew all perform quite well, which is no surprise, and the sound quality is high grade indeed.  All this and it comes in DG's new, lush Prestige Edition packaging, for those who care about such things. 



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 08, 2010, 02:10:17 PM
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About two discs into Helmut Walcha's set devoted to most of Bach's organ music it became clear that I would need another set to compare it to.  Walcha's interpretations didn't seem to lack for much, it was just so obvious that I had hit upon the apex of organ music that I figured additional interpretations were needed.  I took the easy way out and opted for another substantial box set, in the form of Simon Preston's slightly more comprehensive set from the 80s through the end of the last century.

Bach has long been one of my favorite composers, as he seems to be for most classical fans, and he is usually at or near the summit of every genre in which he wrote.  (Quick, name another composer who wrote better music for solo violin or cello.)  In keyboard music he's in the same realm as Beethoven and Debussy for me.  In liturgical music he's up there with Morales, Palestrina, Haydn, and Mozart.  But in organ music, based on what I have heard thus far (not all of which I have written about), he stands alone.  He is to the organ what Scarlatti is to the harpsichord or Chopin is to the piano when it comes to writing 'naturally' for the instrument, and his musical sensibilities are timeless and well nigh perfect.  This is not too surprising.

Working through both sets it became clear that my two favorite sets of works are the Trio Sonatas and the Organ Mass, and they are of course quite different.  The Trio Sonatas are lighter and more purely entertaining.  Both organists play superbly, but my preference here is for Preston, who plays with more verve and freedom.  The great Organ Mass, though, demands the serious mien and impeccable taste of Walcha, who delivers a performance that left me mesmerized.  Most of the rest of the works being Preludes, Toccatas, Fugues, and Chorales, and various combinations thereof, it's hard to pinpoint this or that specific work and say that it is better than the others, or that Walcha surpasses Preston, or vice versa.  That written, the works are not of uniform quality – some are merely astounding while others are stupefyingly great.  To my ears, Walcha delivers the better overall set, playing more seriously and with more attention to form, though Preston's more staccato heavy style and greater rhythmic variegation offers different rewards.  Sonically, both sets are quite good, though Preston's much more recent set is in better sound, and definitely delivers more in the low frequencies.  Still, it's surprising that Walcha's set holds up as well as it does; the 1956 stereo recordings are really quite amazing sounding. 

So far, for me, the only composer who is anywhere near the same level is Olivier Messiean, and his music is, um, rather different in style.  Looks like Bach is the man in organ music.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Opus106 on December 08, 2010, 11:06:40 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 08, 2010, 02:10:17 PM
Most of the rest of the works being Preludes, Toccatas, Fugues, and Chorales, and various combinations thereof, it's hard to pinpoint this or that specific work and say that it is better than the others

I hope you don't mean to include the Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582, in such a list of sundry works.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 10, 2010, 08:25:41 AM
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For some reason I just never got around to listening to Vagn Holmboe's music.  I figured it was time to rectify that, so I decided to buy the Dacapo recording of the four Sinfonias for string orchestra, which when combined in a specific order become Chairos.  I'm not sure this was the best way to get to know Holmboe's music.

The four works, ranging between ten and twenty minutes each, all sound quite similar.  Using only strings limits what the music can do, and while Holmboe is quite adept at solo writing, throwing in a nifty pizzicato, writing some nicely dissonant music for the upper strings and heavy and ominous music for the lower strings, it all ends up sounding pretty much the same; it becomes tedious to listen to.  None of the works are bad, but neither are they especially compelling.  When rearranged into Chairos, the same thing holds true, but for over an hour.  It's a pretty hard slog.  I don't see myself listening to this music too terribly much going forward, by which I mean I probably won't listen to it again.

Sound and playing are extremely fine.  If only the music were more compelling.  And why, I wonder, did Dacapo decide to release this as a twofer, one disc with the sinfonias, and one disc with Chairos?  The tracks could simply have been programmed to play the bigger work.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on December 10, 2010, 11:37:13 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 10, 2010, 08:25:41 AM
  None of the works are bad, but neither are they especially compelling. 

That has largely been my experience with Holmboe. However, I do think the 8th Symphony is quite a powerful score, and would suggest you try it out if you're willing to give him another chance.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 19, 2010, 07:26:36 AM
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Late Romantic French organ music.  Now that I gotta hear.  Since Jeremy Filsell's recording of Louis Vierne's complete Organ Symphonies is now available on the cheap on Brilliant Classics, I figured it was worth a shot.  There are certainly some nice things here, and some things not so nice.  Nice things first.  These works do indeed sound like large scale symphonies transcribed for organ.  The lovely instrument produces a tantalizingly wide array of sounds, credibly (in so far as is possible) imitating orchestral sections.  There's a romantic sweep to much of the music.  One is reminded more of (laid back) Brahms or Schumann or Magnard than music from earlier periods, let alone later periods.  I cannot say that one work really stood out for me, but all are nice enough.

But, I must say that two things detracted from the set for me, and one may be the cause of the other.  The symphonies all sounds a bit too much alike and it's not particularly energetic much of the time.  It's lovely, but it can sound like sonic wallpaper.  This may be because of the way it was recorded.  I've heard relatively dry, close organ recordings, and more distant recordings, and I tend to prefer slightly more distant recordings, but this one takes things to extremes.  It sounds like the microphones were placed as far away from the instrument as possible, with the engineers adding extra reverb for good measure.  Some of the decays at the end of movements seem to take several minutes.  (I exaggerate, yes, but not as much as the statement implies.)  Too, there is way too much hall noise.  And it's of the low frequency, hear everything in the cathedral variety.  It detracts from the proceedings.  Everything sounds mushy and too blended together.  I suspect this interferes with the music. 

Anyway, this set is not a great success, but I may end up investigating another recording of some of the music.  Something rather good is there.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 30, 2010, 09:33:22 AM
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It just seems to make sense that Brahms would write good organ music.  His absolute mastery of form, his unyielding seriousness, his devout dedication to music of days past (while still being innovative): Yep, he seems a good fit.  And so he is.  The works may be few in number, but they are of high quality.  The influence of Bach seems present quite a bit, but there's more there than that.  I was continually reminded of the opening movement of the First Symphony at times, not because the organ music sounds anything like it, but because there is that same forceful, forward moving, inevitable drive to a good portion of it.  Some of the music is rather attractive, thankfully, and the fugues are written at a Bachian level it seems to me.  I cannot say that I like Brahms as much as Bach in organ music, but he's the best of the romantic era composers I've heard thus far.

Rudolf Innig's playing strikes me as superb, though I don't have anything to compare it to.  Sound is just about perfect.  The perspective is neither too close nor too far, which allows the full scale of the music and instrument to be captured (well, to an extent, I guess), the timber sounds natural, and the low frequencies pack a wallop without overpowering the rest of the music.  A rather nice disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on December 30, 2010, 05:31:08 PM
*Hmmm...scratching chin...mulling over*
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 01, 2011, 01:15:48 PM
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Generally speaking, I'm a fan of Olivier Messiaen's music, but unlike with many other composers, I have to be in the right mood to listen to his music.  (This is not the case, with, say, Mozart or Debussy.)  The length, the scale, the droning: it can be too much at times.  But at other times it hits the spot.  Knowing that Messiaen was an organist, and that he composed for the instrument over decades, I figured I get a nice overview of his composing career, but that it might take me a while to listen to all of it.  I was half right. 

The works do seem to reflect his career as a whole, with some of the earlier works easily accessible, and some of the later works long and harder to get into.  I started with the Prélude, and was greeted with a wash of color and sound.  I'm not sure what end the music has, but I was hooked then and there.  I jumped around the set, though I left the dense Livre d'orgue and the long Livre du Saint Sacrement until the end.  No other composer creates the sounds Messiaen does, with only Marcel Dupré offering something close.  At times it seems as though Messiaen just wanted to create novel sounds.  A few of the pieces also exploit the ability of the organ to holds notes for extended periods, with some notes and chords stretching on for crazy long periods of time.  Yes, there is droning, and yes, some of the pieces seem to go on and on, but in most cases his organ music displays that same giddy ecstasy that many of his other pieces display, and that makes it hard to stop listening.  His organ music is certainly unique, and thus far only Bach readily surpasses Messiaen's output for me.  I listened to entire set in barely a week the first time through; I couldn't wait to hear what came next.

Olivier Latry plays splendidly throughout, and the Notre Dame organ is one of the most glorious sounding I've yet encountered.  Great stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 18, 2011, 08:01:04 AM
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Marcel Dupré wrote a whole lot of organ music, so I figured I should try some.  Naxos and MDG are both recording his entire output, but here I decided that Naxos had the advantage because of the nice low price (about $7 a disc, shipping included, at Amazon Marketplace).  I really just picked two discs at random, having little idea what to expect.

What I got was some virtuoso organ music with plusses and minuses.  The plusses first: Dupré could play the instrument well, and he could write for it well.  There are many moments on both discs where the instrument and artist produce some unique and captivating sounds.  Dupré was not afraid to exploit the extremes of the instrument, and the combinations of sounds that it could produce.  (One can detect more than a whiff of Dupré's influence in Messiaen's organ music.)  Some of the passages possess dazzling output from the manuals and the pedals.  Dupré even managed to write an interesting set of variations on Adeste Fidelis (aka, O Come All Ye Faithful), which appears on volume four. 

Now the minuses.  The music can blend together if taken in large doses.  For me, particularly on the second run-through, the music started to become a sort of sonic wallpaper.  It's lovely and accomplished, but it just doesn't grab my attention as fully as, say, Bach's organ music.  Really, that's the only musical minus.  The other minus has more to with the sound of both recordings, which while not bad, is a bit distant and tends to add to the sonic wallpaper effect. 

The playing from both artists is quite good, and the instruments sound quite fine, though I could have done with better recordings.  I'll be sampling more of Dupré's organ music, but at this point he's not quite up there with the best for me.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: abidoful on January 19, 2011, 12:18:41 PM
Why is everybody talking about organ works?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Lethevich on January 19, 2011, 05:13:15 PM
If you want something a little different from Dupré, try vol.3 in the Naxos series (works for organ and orchestra) - it's rather more lively than much of Dupré's organ output, which is largely funtional, meditative music based around chorales and such.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 06, 2011, 09:38:24 AM
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Why not?  I found Rudolf Innig's traversal of all of Mendelssohn's organ works for a pittance (around $20), Innig delivered a fine disc of Bach's organ music, and I do enjoy a bit of Mendelssohn's music from time to time, so it seemed safe enough to splurge.   

First things first, this is apparently a really complete set, with the final version of the six organ sonatas and the early versions of the same works.  Throw in a couple discs of fragments and short works, and this set appears to contain every last note Mendelssohn wrote for organ.   

Second things second, Mendelssohn was not really a great composer for the organ.  His six sonatas are quite enjoyable, but they also strike me as somewhat lightweight and, if not forgettable, they do not stay with one like, say, Bach's music for the same instrument.  I found the early versions of the sonatas entirely dispensable, and doubt I will spend much time listening to them again, and only a handful of the smaller works really caught my attention, most particularly the striking Allegro in D minor.  I will say that almost all of the works sound fluid and graceful and definitely have a Mendelssohn sound, as it were. 

Rudolf Innig plays splendidly throughout, and the sound is quite good.  I'll probably explore an additional version or two of the organ sonatas, but for the most part Mendelssohn's organ music presents a case where a complete set is not needed one bit.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 15, 2011, 07:24:33 AM
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Holy crap!  Does Bach have a rival in the realm of organ music?  Well, maybe.  I'd read that even Bach himself made it a point to hoof a pretty great distance to hear Dietrich Buxtehude in person, and after listening to two sets of the complete organ works of the Northern European master (Is he Danish? Is he German?  Who cares?), I can hear why.  That I ended up listening to two sets rather than one indicates that, for me at least, Buxtehude's got it; much as with Bach, I determined very early on that one set just would not do.  The music is so good and so diverse that I had to hear more than one take. 

Anyway, whereas Bach's organ music for me represents formal perfection, Buxtehude's music seems a bit more lively and unpredictable, almost as though the composer wrote down and refined improvisations after he played them.  I doubt that's the case, but whatever the case, there's a freedom and exuberance to much of the music.  With gobs of smaller works and pretty much no big ones, it's fun to listen to Buxtehude just simply because one needn't wait long for a different piece written for a different purpose.  The music can be somber at times, devout at others, and is almost always colorful, and it's always original and energetic.  It's quite easy to hear Buxtehude's influence in Bach's music.  Ultimately, Bach is still the greater organ composer, and his works do strike me as more "perfect," but it's clear that there is at least one other super-heavyweight in this arena.

The two sets are both rather long in the tooth now.  The Kraft set is from the 50s and shows its age.  There is some distortion, some instances of tape damage, and some pretty heavy-handed edits.  Walter Kraft's playing is very serious, a bit leaden here and there, but is generally excellent.  The organ sounds pretty good, but it cannot compare to the roughly contemporaneous Bach recordings of Helmut Walcha.  René Saorgin's set for Harmonia Mundi is from the 60s, is in better sound, and uses different instruments throughout.  All of them sound fantastic, and the most ancient of all, from the 15th Century, is a charmer.  Saorgin's playing is a bit smaller in scale than Kraft's, but it's also freer rhythmically and makes the music sound more improvisatory.  I prefer the Saorgin, though I do enjoy the Kraft.  One thing is for certain, I will be sampling more Buxtehude.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on February 15, 2011, 07:54:45 AM
Or Swedish - as he was born in what today is Sweden, but was then a part of Denmark.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bulldog on February 15, 2011, 10:10:33 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 15, 2011, 07:24:33 AM
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Holy crap!  Does Bach have a rival in the realm of organ music?  Well, maybe.  I'd read that even Bach himself made it a point to hoof a pretty great distance to hear Dietrich Buxtehude in person, and after listening to two sets of the complete organ works of the Northern European master (Is he Danish? Is he German?  Who cares?), I can hear why.  That I ended up listening to two sets rather than one indicates that, for me at least, Buxtehude's got it; much as with Bach, I determined very early on that one set just would not do.  The music is so good and so diverse that I had to hear more than one take. 

Anyway, whereas Bach's organ for me represents formal perfection, Buxtehude's music seems a bit more lively and unpredictable, almost as though the composer wrote down and refined improvisations after he played them.  I doubt that's the case, but whatever the case, there's a freedom and exuberance to much of the music.  With gobs of smaller works and pretty much no big ones, it's fun to listen to Buxtehude just simply because one needn't wait long for a different piece written for a different purpose.  The music can be somber at times, devout at others, and is almost always colorful, and it's always original and energetic.  It's quite easy to hear Buxtehude's influence in Bach's music.  Ultimately, Bach is still the greater organ composer, and his works do strike me as more "perfect," but it's clear that there is at least one other super-heavyweight in this arena.

The two sets are both rather long in the tooth now.  The Kraft set is from the 50s and shows its age.  There is some distortion, some instances of tape damage, and some pretty heavy-handed edits.  Walter Kraft's playing is very serious, a bit leaden here and there, but is generally excellent.  The organ sounds pretty good, but it cannot compare to the roughly contemporaneous Bach recordings of Helmut Walcha.  René Saorgin's set for Harmonia Mundi is from the 60s, is in better sound, and uses different instruments throughout.  All of them sound fantastic, and the most ancient of all, from the 15th Century, is a charmer.  Saorgin's playing is a bit smaller in scale than Kraft's, but it's also freer rhythmically and makes the music sound more improvisatory.  I prefer the Saorgin, though I do enjoy the Kraft.  One thing is for certain, I will be sampling more Buxtehude.

I also prefer Saorgin to Kraft.  Concerning sampling more Buxtehude, I'd be interested in your take on the Bryndorf series on DaCapo; she's much more celebratory than Saorgin (a good or bad feature depending on personal preferences).

One more thing.  I congratulate Todd for starting this thread and keeping up with it.  Also, congrats. to the membership here for respecting the thread and not trying to change its thrust or nature.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 26, 2011, 01:56:15 PM
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John Dowland and William Byrd aside, my collection woefully lacks for music by English Renaissance composers.  For instance, I have nary a recording of music by Thomas Tallis!  I decided to rectify this situation some by sampling some keyboard works of Orlando Gibbons played by a much younger Christopher Hogwood.

It ain't a bad disc.  The three Cabinet Organ pieces are quite nice, the harpsichord pieces even more so, what with their general rhythmic verve where called for.  But the pieces for Spinet are probably nicest of all.  Whether slow or a bit spritelier, they sound crisp, inviting, and tickle the ear, without the wear that can accompany a harpsichord recording.  I can't say that Gibbons is my favorite Renaissance composer (that would be Cristóbal de Morales), or even my favorite English Renaissance composer (that would be Dowland, at least so far), but this disc makes me think it may be a good idea to try a bit more from Mr Gibbons. 

Playing is rather fine, and sound is quite good, though the harpsichord, as is so often the case, is too closely miked.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Oldnslow on April 28, 2011, 08:53:43 AM
Todd---do you know Glenn Gould's famous recording of Gibbons and  Byrd? It's wonderful
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2011, 09:02:11 AM
Quote from: Oldnslow on April 28, 2011, 08:53:43 AMTodd---do you know Glenn Gould's famous recording of Gibbons and  Byrd? It's wonderful



No, I don't, but that's mostly because Bach aside, I don't really care much for Gould.  I may consider this recording, though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on April 28, 2011, 09:20:44 AM
I second Gould's Gibbons/Byrd recording. It's totally unHIP of course, but it's the recording that got me interested in early keyboard music in the first place, and I still like to listen to it.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Oldnslow on April 28, 2011, 04:08:16 PM
As I think Szell said of Gould, "That nut's a genius."  For Gould to explore Gibbons and Byrd 50 years ago on the piano is pretty remarkable.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: petrarch on April 29, 2011, 12:19:27 AM
Quote from: Oldnslow on April 28, 2011, 04:08:16 PM
For Gould to explore Gibbons and Byrd 50 years ago on the piano is pretty remarkable.

This is part of a much longer video I have somewhere where he plays from Gibbons and Byrd to Webern:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WULDLz-WUxM
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mandryka on April 29, 2011, 02:18:58 AM
Thanks for that Gould vid: I hadn't seen it before.  I guess this is the DVD you have in mind:

[asin]B000089QEE[/asin]

I will get that.

Sokolov plays a half hour long sequence of music by Byrd, music representing a battle-- all on youtube I expect.

Try the Sokolov: it's  fun.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 29, 2011, 10:05:08 AM
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I needed something new and fresh, and seeing that Naxos had releaseds a new disc of new music by reliable Leonardo Balada, I figured I'd go for it.  The disc contains three of the composers Caprichos – suites, apparently – written between 2004 and 2007.  As with many of his post-avant garde works, the music is influenced heavily by other genres, here Latin dance music, jazz, and Spanish folk music.  Sounds tempting!

The disc opens with Caprichos Number 2, for violin and double bass and orchestra.  The influence is Latin dance music.  Sure enough, the dance elements are obvious, and expertly crafted.  But there's much, much more to this music that danceability.  The orchestration is novel – You like prominent harp?  I like prominent harp! – the writing tonal yet dissonant and decidedly contemporary.  It's both immediately accessible and thought inducing.  It is not easy listening music, yet it's music that's easy to listen to. 

Next up is the jazzy Caprichos Number 4, with the double bass taking the spotlight.  If anything, this is even better.  Mr Balada is certainly familiar with jazz, yet this is not "jazz".  It is very formal and meticulous, yet lively.  Balada has pulled off this trick before.  Special mention must go to soloist Jeffrey Turner, principal double bassist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  He's got mad skills.  He does things with the double bass I don't believe I've heard before.  Nothing sounds challenging for him.  And dig the up-close sound; things were a-rattlin' in my listening room when this piece was being played a bit too loudly. 

Finally, there's the Caprichos Number 3, a tribute to volunteers during the Spanish Civil War.  A bit more somber and intense than the other pieces, and understandably so, it still displays perfect blending of folk influences, novel orchestration, tasty dissonance, verve, and attractive melodies.  Here the solo instrument is the violin, and Andres Cardenes plays rather well. 

All of the instrumentalists sound highly skilled and play that way, the Pittsburgh Sinfonietta plays superbly (as I would guess it would given that some of its members are part of the PSO), and Lawrence Loh directs things most excellently.  My only complaint is that the recorded sound is artificially bright.  I can live with that.  A superb release.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 04, 2011, 11:27:40 AM
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I don't think I've heard music by Bax that I didn't enjoy, and this disc continues that trend.  A half dozen chamber works fill out the disc, and each is quite good.  The earlier works – two works for clarinet and piano and one for clarinet, piano, and violin – are all romantic and vibrant and lushly beautiful.  The late Clarinet Sonata and Piano Trio both continue on in the romantic vein, but they are richer and more advanced, rather like the composer's symphonies.  And the little folk tale for cello and piano is a charming work.  This is one of those discs where I just hit play and let it go.  No reason to listen to only one or two works.

The Gould Piano Trio and clarinetist Robert Plane play splendidly, and the sound is excellent.  A most delightful disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 09, 2011, 09:29:55 AM
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I was recently thinking to myself that I really needed to try some Dutch Renaissance and/or Baroque music.  Who better to sample than Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck?  This nifty little disc of various keyboard works by said composer, and played by one Siegbert Rampe, seemed just the thing.  It's a mix of works played on organ, harpsichord, virginal, and clavichord.  On top of that, four of the organ works are performed on the oldest organ still in use, a relatively small little contraption from 1425. 

Well, the whole disc is excellent from start to finish.  The disc opens with the four works played on the ancient organ, and it and they sound smaller than organ works often due, but the registration is unique and quite attractive.  The music is pretty good, too, all vibrant and smooth.  The smaller keyboard works all sound exceptionally fine.  The harpsichord works, here recorded in a pleasingly natural way rather than too close and too bright, are buoyant and rather fantasia-eqsue or improvisational sounding.  All of the works are, really, rather like Buxtehude's music.  Anyway, the clavichord sounds absolutely delightful and the virginal sounds musical, with a bit less mechanical noise than I've heard in the few other virginal recordings I've heard.  The last works, played on a rather larger organ, are pretty much the same as all the others, but one must be careful when listening, because the sound blasts forth, fully revealing how small in scale all the preceding instruments were.

Mr Rampe plays most excellently, and the sound is top notch.  I think I will have to explore more Sweelinck.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: premont on May 09, 2011, 10:12:01 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 09, 2011, 09:29:55 AM
I think I will have to explore more Sweelinck.

This is almost too good to be true, recorded on harpsichord as well as a large number of historical organs by some of the most outstanding Dutch keyboard players.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Jan-Pieterszoon-Sweelinck-S%E4mtliche-Werke-f%FCr-Tasteninstrumente/hnum/5650697
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Marc on May 09, 2011, 11:24:34 AM
Quote from: premont on May 09, 2011, 10:12:01 AM
This is almost too good to be true, recorded on harpsichord as well as a large number of historical organs by some of the most outstanding Dutch keyboard players.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Jan-Pieterszoon-Sweelinck-S%E4mtliche-Werke-f%FCr-Tasteninstrumente/hnum/5650697

WOW!
Great tip!
Thanks, mr. P.!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on May 09, 2011, 11:37:05 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 09, 2011, 09:29:55 AM
I think I will have to explore more Sweelinck.

I have 2 Sweelinck discs that I enjoy:

1. The Naxos disc of harpsichord music, played by Glen Wilson; and

2. more eccentrically, the selections on Andrew Rangell's "Bridge to Bach" album, which includes several Sweelinck hits on a varied program of early Baroque keyboard music played on a modern piano.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: premont on May 09, 2011, 12:28:36 PM
Quote from: Velimir on May 09, 2011, 11:37:05 AM
I have 2 Sweelinck discs that I enjoy:

1. The Naxos disc of harpsichord music, played by Glen Wilson; and


This is among my top five Sweelinck keyboard music CDs.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 25, 2011, 07:30:46 AM
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About eight or nine years ago I picked up a disc of music by Bechara El-Khoury that included a variety of contemporary orchestral works, including one evocatively titled The Ruins of Beirut.  It was and is good, if not exactly ground-breaking stuff.  I decided it had been long enough that I should try another disc of music by this Franco-Lebanese composer (and poet).  Alas, the disc is not as successful.

The works were all written in the 1980s, when Mr El-Khoury was in his 20s.  Even so, the accomplished Pierre Dervaux conducted all of the works of this young man in concert in the 80s.  (The disc is sourced from micro-label Forlane).  There's a Méditation poétique for violin and orchestra, a piano concerto and two shorter Poèmes for piano and orchestra, and a couple Sérénades for string orchestra.  The violin concerto is so-so in a generically neo-romantic cum modern way.  The works for piano and orchestra are perhaps a little less than so-so.  Same with the string orchestra works.  I listened to the disc twice, and both times I came away with nothing.  I basically spent a couple hours of my life listening to background music.  El-Khoury certainly can create a lush sound, but it's derivative.  One hears some Ravel, some Prokofiev, even some Messiaen, and in the piano writing one hears a lot of Rachmaninoff.  But one listens in vain for something interesting; compelling, original ideas are in short supply.  The orchestra plays well enough, the violinist, too, and Abdel Rahman El Bacha – he of bland and mechanical Beethoven – even acquits himself nicely enough.  Sound is small in scale and slightly glassy and boxy. 

A forgettable disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 28, 2011, 08:30:44 AM
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Over the years I have heard a lot of exquisitely beautiful music.  There are moments and whole works of astounding beauty from composers like Debussy and Faure and Delibes, Mozart and Schubert and Mendelssohn, and others.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, is more beautiful than the Invitatorium from Cristóbal de Morales' Officium Defunctorum.  It is eleven minutes of sonic beauty that cannot be surpassed.  How can this be, coming as it does from a piece of music dependent on only a few voices and discreet instrumental support?  Well, it is surely attributable to the genius of the composer.  The entire six movement work is almost indescribably beautiful, but the heavenly second movement is one of those pieces that compels me to breathe shallowly, abandon any and all thoughts of anything else, and listen to every note with unyielding attention.  And I'm not exaggerating in any way.  It is difficult to overstate the impact this music has had on me on repeated listens.  Very few pieces of music achieve this.  It is a wonder of art.  Apparently the work was first performed in Mexico, after the composer's death, to commemorate the death of Charles V, and the manuscript remained there.  Talk about sequestered treasure.  It is a great work, there is no doubt.

Also undoubtedly great is the five part Missa Pro Defunctis.  Based on the liner notes, this is the same work that Raúl Mallavibarrena and his Musica Ficta recorded on the Cantus label, but it sounds radically different.  It relies more on male voices and sounds darker.  The melodies sound different, and the way the different parts weave together sound different.  As in the Mallavibarrena recording, the voices and instrumental support blend together in perfect harmony, and it is a glory of beauty first note to last.  Given how different the two versions sound, the only sensible approach is to listen to and cherish both.

After such a great first disc, it is not surprising that the discs given over to the other two composers aren't quite as good.  Don't get me wrong, there is much to enjoy and savor in the discs, they just aren't quite at the same level.  The disc given over to eleven Cantica Beatae Virginis by Tomás Luis de Victoria is to my ears the better of the two discs.  Victoria strikes me as every bit as masterful as Morales in terms of formal structure and such, but his music lacks that indefinable something that makes Morales that much better.  That means that listening to the disc of Victoria's music is merely a great pleasure, as beautiful melodies and exquisite accompaniments tickle the ear.  The sixteen works on the disc devoted to Francisco Guerrero are likewise beautiful and display a high level of formal mastery, but as has been my previous experience, Guerrero isn't quite as good as the other two composers.  Of course, that's just to my ears, and ultimately I'm the lucky one because I get to listen to all the works.

Sound is quite good, though it doesn't quite match more recent outings by Savall and crew, and the Catalan and his players and singers all deliver at a predictably high level.  A great collection with at least two masterpieces of the highest order.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 28, 2011, 12:31:54 PM
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Frederick Delius isn't exactly new to me, but I can't say that I've listened to a whole lot of his music until now.  I have a Naxos Historical disc of Thomas Beecham leading a few works, and I have a nice disc of works for piano and cello, paired with works by Grieg, played by Julian Lloyd Webber and Bengt Forsberg.  I like to revisit them from time to time, the latter especially.  When I saw the recent issue of all of Beecham's "late" EMI Delius recordings along with a disc of music by other English composers at a nice, low price, I figured I might as well give it a shot.  It should be nice, I figured.

The five discs of music devoted to Delius all have one thing in common: they are almost unyieldingly pleasant.  They all sound lovely, and they all are mostly calm.  No real rough stuff here.  On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring is probably the nicest of the works, but Summer Evening is pretty nice, too.  Heck, most of the music is pretty nice.  Only A Village Romeo and Juliet really wears out its welcome, due mostly to the length of the work, but also partly due to the text, which is not exactly the most brilliant in the English language.

The sixth disc is given over to works by other composers.  The Triumph of Neptune, by Lord Berners, is a clunker, sounding like fourth rate cartoon music, but the other works are all nice enough.  Bax's The Garden of Fand strikes me as the best of the bunch, though I must say that it is not quite Bax's best work.

Sound is obviously dated, though the 1940s recordings sound better than I thought they would.  Playing is generally quite good.  A nice set of nice music at a nice price, but that's about as far as it goes. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 05, 2011, 07:32:00 AM
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In the Violin Babes thread I posted a shot of violist Jitka Hosprová.  Until now I had no idea if she was a good violist or not.  Turns out she's pretty good.  Really good, actually. 

The disc starts with a work I'm familiar with, Bohuslav Martinů's Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra.  I did an A-B-C comparison between Ms Hosprová's recording, Josef Suk's recording with Vaclav Neumann, and Bohuslav Matousek's recording with Christopher Hogwood.  (Ms Hosprová conducts the Prague Chamber Orchestra on her recording.)  Of the three I prefer Messrs Suk and Neumann, but Ms Hosprová holds her own with Matousek and company, and really isn't that far off from Suk/Neumann.

Anyway, to the new works for me.  First up is the Viola Concerto of Zdeněk Lukáš.  It's a dandy.  Mr Lukáš's work is all modern, yet it's tonal and approachable.  At times it sounds inspired by Martinů, but it's not at all derivative, or at least not from only a couple easily identifiable sources.  There's enough dissonance and rhythmic verve and complexity and just plain good sounding tunes to make for many fine listens.  It may be the best work on the disc.  The other new work for me is Carl Stamitz's Viola Concerto.  A nice little classical work, it offers a stark contrast to the other two works.  It sounds very Mozart-y, which is not in any way a criticism.  How could it be?

Ms Hosprová plays splendidly throughout, and her band does as well.  Sound is close, beefy, and warm.  Overall, a most enjoyable disc.  I do rather hope Ms Hosprová gets to record Bartok's Viola Concerto one day.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 29, 2011, 07:41:52 AM
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What an enjoyable work!  Reinhold Gliere is another of those composers I've neglected to listen to up to now.  However, a few weeks ago, my local classical station played a work by Mr Gliere (the Red Poppy Suite, I believe, but I can't recall for sure), and it was pretty good, but what really caught my ear was how the DJ said he really liked the Third Symphony, though he did caution about its possibly forbidding length.  Now that seemed to me to be the ticket.  I poked around on Amazon and found the Edward Downes version for a nice price and snapped it up. 

The work is long and sprawling and lush and dense and beautiful.  It very much fits its time, what with works by Scriabin and Strauss and Zemlinsky being written around the same time.  It's a glory of mashed up musical ideas and soundworlds.  I hear Wagner and Strauss and Ippolitov-Ivanov and Scriabin and Rimsky-Korsakov all blended in a meandering programmatic work inspired by ancient tales of heroism.  The huge orchestra is generally utilized quite well, with rich, sumptuous string writing, big blasts of brass here and there, and nifty wind writing.  Yes, it is a bit sprawling, and from time to time some passages seem to go on too long, but so what?  This is an enjoyable work if not a towering masterpiece. 

Mr Downes and his BBC band do quite well and sound is very good and matches the spaciousness of the piece.  I don't know if I need another version of the work, but I will need another spin of the disc.  In fact, I'm listening again as I type this. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2011, 01:05:55 PM
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A while back I tried Chairos, aka Sinfonias I-IV, by Vagn Holmboe, and was underwhelmed.  Determined to push on, I figured I could try his string quartets.  It's not uncommon for composers to do some of their best work in this genre.  Besides, the Kontra Quartet's cycle is available for a pittance. 

Alas, the string quartets, too, are underwhelming.  Oh, sure, they sound modern and vaguely serious, but they just sort of blend together.  I listened to the cycle twice, and a couple times, when I went to put in a new disc, I didn't know which one I listened to last or which to try next.  Nor did I really care.  I did not have a similar experience when first listening to, say, Shostakovich's similarly large output of string quartets the first few times.  Or Haydn's even larger output, for that matter.  I guess the works get more sophisticated as the set progresses, but not one stands out from the somewhat gray mass of sound.  I have a hard time thinking that I will revisit these works.

Sound is generally okay, though it can be a bit steely in the earlier recordings.  The Kontra Quartet do seem to play well and in a committed fashion, but I just don't care much for the music.  I can't like everything.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on December 13, 2011, 03:53:04 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 12, 2011, 01:05:55 PM
. . .  I have a hard time thinking that I will revisit these works.

Sound is generally okay, though it can be a bit steely in the earlier recordings.  The Kontra Quartet do seem to play well and in a committed fashion, but I just don't care much for the music.  I can't like everything.

Good on you for giving so much new stuff (to you) a go!

I understand all these sounding like they fade into a unform grey on an initial listen.  And of course, maybe it's simply true that these will never do much for you.  But if you're game two, three years hence, pay them a fresh visit; you may find more variety than has impressed you on this go-through.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 04, 2012, 08:59:45 AM
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I've been vaguely aware of Don Carlo Gesualdo for a while.  Recently, Alex Ross wrote a couple articles in The New Yorker that really piqued my interest.  A Renaissance OJ Simpson who was also batshit crazy should have written some interesting music.  Okay, okay, I was intrigued for non-musical reasons.  So?  Yes, I needed to sample some of Gesualdo's Madrigals.

To the music: It ain't too shabby, but it's not what I was expecting.  The articles by Mr Ross made it seem as though the music would be disconcerting or hard to appreciate for its chromaticism.  Not so.  Perhaps I've listened to a wide enough variety of music that nothing seems especially "difficult", but nothing was shocking or hard to get into.  The disparate vocal lines are quite captivating, if not perhaps as compelling as the polyphony of Morales or Victoria.  Apples and oranges.  Even the texts are better than average.

The only thing that I can't really get into on this disc is the use of countertenors.  I don't like countertenors.  I never have, and to the extent my opinion has changed over the years, it's to like them less as time passes.  Don't get me wrong, Delitiæ Musicæ perform splendidly.  I just don't like countertenors.  So I should probably look into a different recording using women for the high parts, presuming they exist.  Sound is excellent.  A nice disc that makes me want to explore more.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on January 04, 2012, 09:11:23 AM
The Gesualdo chromaticism mainly kicked in from the 4th or 5th Madrigal book IIRC. La Venexiana recorded both of those for Glossa, and it probably would be more of your thing.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 04, 2012, 09:19:14 AM
Quote from: The new erato on January 04, 2012, 09:11:23 AMLa Venexiana recorded both of those for Glossa, and it probably would be more of your thing.



Duly noted.  I think I shall try the fourth book.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on January 04, 2012, 09:29:49 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 04, 2012, 08:59:45 AM
. . .  A Renaissance OJ Simpson who was also batshit crazy [....]

Is that a vote of confidence in Simpson's reason? ; )
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 26, 2012, 08:39:19 AM
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This is more like it!  My first foray into the perhaps slightly demented world of Carlo Gesualdo's music was successful, but not as successful as it could have been due to the reliance on nothing but countertenors for the high parts.  This 2000 recording by La Venexiana of the fourth book of madrigals by the murderous Don has one countertenor and relies on the ladies for the high parts for the most part.  Wise choice.

All of the singers, lutists, and the harpsichord player acquit themselves quite well in this set.  The startling chromaticism I've read about is definitely on display, though it's not particularly startling.  In some ways, it seems like it meshes an older style (Machaut, say) with polyphonic trends of the day.  The music falls quite easily on my ears.  Indeed, the whole disc sounds quite marvelous.  The texts, a bit dark at times, are pretty good, too.  This is some good stuff.  I think I need some more.

Thanks to the new erato for suggesting this one.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: mc ukrneal on January 26, 2012, 10:20:56 PM
Quote from: Todd on August 20, 2010, 09:16:41 AM
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Repeated cravings for Heinrich Biber's music keep popping up, and I just got to satisfy the cravings.  To satisfy the most recent craving, I bought this disc of Battalia à 10 and Requiem à 15 in Concerto performed by Jordi Savall and his musicians.  Yet again, Maestro Biber's music is hard to resist.  Nay, impossible to resist. 

The disc opens with the small Battalia à 10, which is an early baroque musical depiction of battle, but one that is more focused on delivering light (at least at times), lively entertainment than something heavy-duty.  As with many other works I've heard, Biber shows his mastery of mixing and matching instruments in unusual combinations.  And he shows himself to be ahead of his time.  The second movement weaves eight then popular tunes together in a most dissonant form.  It sounds very much like something Ives would have written, but it's a few hundred years older.  Astonishing.  Then there's some snappy pizzacati later on that one could swear would have been penned by Bartok.  The entire little work is a delight first note to last, and is startlingly, well, modern.

The main work, the big old honkin' Requiem, is not as ear opening, and does not necessarily match up to some of Biber's other choral works, but it is something to hear nonetheless.  Written for the death of Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph, the work is not as dark and grim as some requiems.  Rather, it strikes me as more of a serious, almost stately, celebration of life and the heavenly rewards due such a personage as the Archbishop.  That doesn't mean the work sounds trite or pandering in any way; it's just another way to write a requiem.  The work is somewhat gimmicky, if you will, in that the forces are divided into five different spaces in the cathedral.  The resulting sound is unique, and the spatial effects quite compelling.  The gimmick works.

This disc is another winner.  Biber is fast becoming my go-to composer for early Baroque music.  Nary a bad work have I heard, and each new disc makes me want to hear more.  What more can one ask for, other than more?

Savall and crew do a fine job, as expected, and sound is sumptuous.  Why, oh why, can't all recordings sound at least this good?

I find your listening comments quite interesting, and I decided to pick one that you listened to that piqued my intererest. So I picked a composer I knew nothing about, but had other discs out in case I liked him and wanted more, landing on Biber (and being at Berkshire didn't hurt either). It's been a while since you played this, but I really love it. Your description of the second track is what really caught my attention and you've described it perfectly - Astonishing! The idea of an old piece being modern in some way really got my attention. Fascinating disc in fantastic sound. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 23, 2012, 06:49:16 PM
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I've never really listened to too much Luigi Boccherini.  The little I'd heard always struck me as a lightweight alternative to Mozart and Haydn.  Then about a month ago or so, for no particular reason, I picked up an early '90s recording of some string quartets and quintets played by the Petersen Quartet.  This particular ensemble, long a fave of mine, always plays with high energy.  Music and musicians get along well.  The pieces display verve, polish, and eminent good taste.  Nothing strikes me as daring or formally perfect as similar works by Haydn or Mozart, but then I didn't expect that to be the case.  (Really, who could?)  No, this well played and generally well recorded set is good for just sitting back and listening to, just because. 

The Jordi Savall-led disc is an altogether different animal.  He and his forces deliver on Boccherini's formidable charm and polish, but they take it one further and imbue some of the music with more gravitas than one might expect.  It still comes across as Haydn-lite in some regards, but the supremely masterful playing and dedication shine through.  These are more serious and more significant pieces.  The two sinfonias are just dandy, but the Fandango that opens the disc and La Musica Notturna di Madrid which end it are more sophisticated and inventive.  On top of all of that is some of the finest recorded sound I've ever heard.  Possibly the finest.  The opening Fandango comes as close to sounding like live music as I have heard in a long time. 

I don't think I'll be going on a Boccherini binge, or anything, but these two sets make welcome additions to my collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: kishnevi on May 23, 2012, 08:26:24 PM
Quote from: Todd on May 23, 2012, 06:49:16 PM
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I've never really listened to too much Luigi Boccherini.  The little I'd heard always struck me as a lightweight alternative to Mozart and Haydn.  Then about a month ago or so, for no particular reason, I picked up an early '90s recording of some string quartets and quintets played by the Petersen Quartet.  This particular ensemble, long a fave of mine, always plays with high energy.  Music and musicians get along well.  The pieces display verve, polish, and eminent good taste.  Nothing strikes me as daring or formally perfect as similar works by Haydn or Mozart, but then I didn't expect that to be the case.  (Really, who could?)  No, this well played and generally well recorded set is good for just sitting back and listening to, just because. 

The Jordi Savall-led disc is an altogether different animal.  He and his forces deliver on Boccherini's formidable charm and polish, but they take it one further and imbue some of the music with more gravitas than one might expect.  It still comes across as Haydn-lite in some regards, but the supremely masterful playing and dedication shine through.  These are more serious and more significant pieces.  The two sinfonias are just dandy, but the Fandango that opens the disc and La Musica Notturna di Madrid which end it are more sophisticated and inventive.  On top of all of that is some of the finest recorded sound I've ever heard.  Possibly the finest.  The opening Fandango comes as close to sounding like live music as I have heard in a long time. 

I don't think I'll be going on a Boccherini binge, or anything, but these two sets make welcome additions to my collection.

I have that Savall recording, and Night Music is indeed rather special.  However, overall I prefer the series of three CDs by Biondi/Europa Galante,  the first one of which includes the Fandango and the Night Music quintets;  Virgin has now re-issued two of the CDs together in its budget line of double CDs.  If you ever do feel like expanding your Boccherini,  I suggest them.  And there's also a series on Brilliant devoted to the string quintets (Magnifica Comunita is the name of the ensemble),  but that seems to have stalled out after about 8 installments.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 20, 2012, 07:21:05 AM
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Hans Rott went bonkers and died of consumption in his 20s.  His life is a perfect romantic tragedy.  How could one not want to at least sample his big ol' honkin' Symphony in E Major?  With a new recording from Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt RSO out, I figured I should give it a shot.

As I listened to the first two movements, one word came to mind: Wagner.  As I listened a bit more, another word popped into my head: Bruckner.  Finally, the word Mahler joined them, though for a different reason.  But it is Wagner who permeates the work.  At times it's like listening to discarded excerpts from Lohengrin, or early sketches for Das Rheingold.  The way the brass is (excessively) deployed, the string figurations, the huge, bombastic tuttis – the influence of old Dick is omnipresent.  Bruckner's influence is also obvious in some of the writing, but not the same extent.  And Mahler, well, Mahler is not an influence; rather, one can hear where Mahler got some of his ideas.  The third movement here – Frisch und lebhaft – sounds like a veritable sketchbook for Mahler's Second.  In short, this is a large scale, bombastic, hefty, but quite derivative work.  It's not bad, but I'd rather listen to the other three composers listed, or to other late romantics, than to Rott's First.  The two movements from the B major Suite for Orchestra leave a similar impression.  I've listened to the disc twice, and will make sure to listen again a couple more times this year, but I seriously doubt that this disc will get much more than that.

Järvi and his band acquit themselves quite nicely, and the sound is generally good, though it seems to lack low frequency heft.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Oldnslow on June 20, 2012, 06:50:41 PM
Todd, do you know the three symphonies of Rickard Wetz (CPO)? Very Brucknerian, and I like them quite a bit......
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 21, 2012, 08:19:33 AM
Quote from: Oldnslow on June 20, 2012, 06:50:41 PMTodd, do you know the three symphonies of Rickard Wetz (CPO)? Very Brucknerian, and I like them quite a bit......



I do not.  I may have to look into Mr Wetz a bit.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 09, 2012, 11:11:23 AM
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Until now I pretty much avoided Georg Philipp Telemann's music.  Most comments I've seen are that his music is uninspired if well crafted.  Well, a disc of Paris sonatas as played by Gustav Leonhardt and associates is included in the Sony Leonhardt box-set, and well, I must say that I rather enjoyed what I heard.  The works are masterfully crafted.  They are nice to just listen to.  So then I decided to try something else, opting for the reissue Reinhard Goebel leading the Musica Antiqua Köln in the Tafelmusik.  I got the same impression.  The writing is meticulous, delightfully melodious, and just plain fun to listen to.  No, I cannot say that Telemann rises to the same level as Bach or Biber, but then, not everyone has to, and based on these recordings, he strikes me as far more interesting than Vivaldi.  I can't say that I'm going to rush out and buy dozens of discs of Telemann's music, but another disc or two can't hurt.

Playing and sound for both sets are exemplary.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Scarpia on August 09, 2012, 11:22:48 AM
My favorite Telemann is this

[asin]B000000SMK[/asin]

I also have a nice recording of the Paris Quartets by Sonnerie on Virgin, but that would duplicate the recording you already have.  I agree that Telemann is very rewarding to listen to.  He was a master of beautifully crafted counterpoint.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: John Copeland on August 10, 2012, 03:22:01 AM
Quote from: Todd on June 20, 2012, 07:21:05 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CxZy-JixL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


Hans Rott went bonkers and died of consumption in his 20s.  His life is a perfect romantic tragedy.  How could one not want to at least sample his big ol' honkin' Symphony in E Major?  With a new recording from Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt RSO out, I figured I should give it a shot.
As I listened to the first two movements, one word came to mind: Wagner.  As I listened a bit more, another word popped into my head: Bruckner.  Finally, the word Mahler joined them, though for a different reason.  But it is Wagner who permeates the work.  At times it's like listening to discarded excerpts from Lohengrin, or early sketches for Das Rheingold.  The way the brass is (excessively) deployed, the string figurations, the huge, bombastic tuttis – the influence of old Dick is omnipresent.  Bruckner's influence is also obvious in some of the writing, but not the same extent.  And Mahler, well, Mahler is not an influence; rather, one can hear where Mahler got some of his ideas.  The third movement here – Frisch und lebhaft – sounds like a veritable sketchbook for Mahler's Second.  In short, this is a large scale, bombastic, hefty, but quite derivative work.  It's not bad, but I'd rather listen to the other three composers listed, or to other late romantics, than to Rott's First.  The two movements from the B major Suite for Orchestra leave a similar impression.  I've listened to the disc twice, and will make sure to listen again a couple more times this year, but I seriously doubt that this disc will get much more than that.
Järvi and his band acquit themselves quite nicely, and the sound is generally good, though it seems to lack low frequency heft.

>:(  It's not that bad and not as bombastic and derivative as the reviewer suggests.  The Bruckner and Wagner influences are indeed very evident in Rotts symphony, even some Brahms, capturing in its entireity the Zeitgeist of a musically changing, artistically rich Vienna.  This is probably why Brahms called his music 'vulgar' - because it was a quality tabloid in a room full of broadsheets.  I do agree though, that the sound quality in the recording could be better.  For anyone who wants to hear a better rendition with greater dynamic range and clarity, Segerstam with the Norrkopingers is still the best release out there.  This Jarvi disc is not even in my top three Rott performances, live and otherwise.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 10, 2012, 06:16:12 AM
Quote from: Scots John on August 10, 2012, 03:22:01 AMThis is probably why Brahms called his music 'vulgar'



I'm sure Brahms knew why he called it vulgar.  Can't say I disagree completely with that verdict.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 13, 2012, 07:28:00 AM
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Hilary Hahn is pretty adventurous as far as A-listers go.  I mean, in the last few years she's recorded Schoenberg and Ives.  Of course, she produces and owns here own recordings now, and then licenses them to DG, so she can afford to explore as much as she wants to.  It looks like she wanted to do something new and, per the liner notes, improvisational. 

So Ms Hahn schlepped her violin up to Iceland (Silfra being a rift in the tectonic plates up in that remote land), and proceeded to work with Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, a German composer/pianist/prepared pianist.  With the assistance of a producer who has worked with Björk, among others, the two of them recorded a bunch of short pieces that were apparently all first takes and all improvised.  There's lots of little percussive sounds, courtesy of the prepared piano, and presumably some other objects and instruments just lying around.  It's all very Cage-y.  Hahn shrinks her sound, and she was also clearly recorded very close up.  And the two musicians jam.  It works pretty well.  It's not the greatest thing I've heard, but there is no predictable flow, and some of the music is novel, or close to it.  I can't say this is the most original thing I've heard, because literally the whole time I was listening, I kept thinking this sounds like Sigur Rós unplugged.  Maybe there's something in the water up in Iceland. 

Very nice if obviously manipulated sonics. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 24, 2012, 06:30:55 PM
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Another hit from Biber.   Seven more works for violin and assortment of other instruments, each one vibrant, almost insanely inventive, beautiful, and just plain fun to listen to.  Should classical music ever be this much fun?  Yes, yes it should.  Push comes to shove, the Mystery Sonatas and Violin Sonatas are probably better, but these are top flight.  Reinhard Goebel and his Musica Anitqua Köln play superbly, and sound is generally excellent, if perhaps a bit hot here and there.  Biber is definitely my go-to guy for pre-Bach baroque, and the heaviest hitter between Cristobal de Morales and old JS. 

I guess I'm a Biber believer. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 21, 2012, 04:13:54 PM
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A month or two ago, I picked up David Greilsammer's Naïve recording of two Mozart piano concertos and was most impressed.  Here's a young-ish pianist – he's 35, though the recording is a few years old – who plays with distinct style and made me listen to the old works with fresh ears, as it were.  He plays with great clarity, beauty, and, above all, delicacy.  He's no barn-storming virtuoso, or at least not in Mozart.  I decided to hear him play something else, and this disc of two rarities and one war horse fit the bill. 

I'd never read of, let alone heard, Alexandre Tansman until I found this disc.  His second piano concerto, from 1927, in its world premiere recording, opens the disc.  It's very much of its time and place, with two influences looming quite large: Gershwin and Ravel.  There are also a few hints of jazz, more than a few dashes of Prokofiev, and lush, inventive orchestral accompaniment.  Greilsammer plays the music quite well, displaying the traits I mentioned earlier.  There are no thundering crescendos, no dizzying flashes of brilliance.  Instead, there is control, precision, and subtle expression when playing diminuendo.  If the work doesn't match up to Ravel qualitatively, it's quite good nonetheless, and Greilsammer shows his stuff.

Nadia Boulanger's 1912 Fantaise for Piano and Orchestra follows.  This live recording also appears to be a world premier recording.  The work is darker, richer, and heavier to open, with strains of late 19th Century romanticism permeating the music.  It's hard not to hear the influence of César Franck, and the orchestration sounds a bit dense, but the work has an immediate appeal somewhat lacking in the Tansman.  The piano part is not especially dazzling and is rather formal, which may make sense given the composer.  Again, Greilsammer shows his stuff throughout, and here he generates some heat and volume when needed.

The disc closes with Rhapsody in Blue.  Greilsammer plays in more overtly virtuosic fashion here, as suits the piece, and he gracefully backs off to give the limelight to other soloists where appropriate.  The whole thing works quite well, I must say.  (Okay, this isn't new for me, but the other works sure are.) 

So Mr Greilsammer seems like the real deal.  I see that he has another Mozart disc coming out, on Sony, this month, as well as some other discs.  I have more to hear.  Based on what I've heard so far, I do hope I get to hear him in Schubert and Debussy, and even Rachmaninov and Ligeti. 

Steven Sloane and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France lend superb support for Mr Greilsammer, and sound is excellent throughout. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 02, 2013, 12:59:10 PM
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I'm not quite sure how, but up until now I've never bought, nor even heard, as far as I can remember, the Violin Sonatas, even the famous Third, of George Enescu.  This is particularly odd in light of the fact that I really dig the composer's orchestral works and his masterful opera Oedipe.  Anyway, I finally got a recording, and I must say that I am most satisfied.  The first two works are meaty, somewhat heavy, but always attractive and substantive violin sonatas.  Sort of mildly updated Brahms, which is plenty fine by me.  The great Third is, well, great.  Infused with folk and/or ethnic influences, the piece is dense, allows for virtuosic display for the violinist (especially Enescu himself, I'm guessing), is decidedly large in scale, and is immaculate in design.  I'd say it's Brahms meets Bartok, but that's not right at all; it's Enescu to the core.  A most enjoyable disc, in very nice modern sound.

As good as the music is, probably the bigger thing here for me is the discovery of violinist Antal Szalai.  The young man has chops aplenty, with a big ol' fat tone, and warmth and beauty to spare.  I looked up his recordings, and there is little else that really grabs my attention now, but if and when he records something more up my alley, I shall investigate further.  Pianist Jozsef Balog is pretty darned good, too. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 02, 2013, 01:41:28 PM
Quote from: Todd on March 02, 2013, 12:59:10 PM
As good as the music is, probably the bigger thing here for me is the discovery of violinist Antal Szalai.

Whoa whoa whoa. Any chance his biography mentions coming from a musical family? I saw an older violinist named Antal Szalai "and His Gypsy Band" playing at a Hungarian nightclub in Sydney, Australia a few years ago. Yes, that's a very peculiar combination - there's a Hungarian nightclub in Australia, and I was at it - but Antal Szalai was quite good and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a connection between the two. As opposed to there being two classically-trained Hungarian violinists named Antal Szalai a generation apart.

Naturally, the cembalom (dulcimer) player did a song blindfolded and the evening ended in crazy old Hungarian ladies trying to dance with the clarinetist as everybody drank and sang their favorite folk-tunes in unintentionally Ivesian fashion.

(http://www.cairns.com.au/images/uploadedfiles/editorial/pictures/2008/08/13/Cairns-WebWide-CP14AUG08P999-CC113634-TIMEOUTAUG.jpg)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 02, 2013, 02:21:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 02, 2013, 01:41:28 PMAny chance his biography mentions coming from a musical family?


No, and the English Wikipedia page doesn't mention it, either, though that doesn't really mean a whole lot.  Whatever the case may be, the younger Mr Szalai (he's 32) is pretty darned good.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 05, 2013, 12:37:41 PM
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Got a couple listens to this under my belt, and well, it is a different type of disc. 

The first work, a piano concerto entitled Echoing Curves, is played here by Andrea Lucchesini, a master of Berio's idiom, and conducted by the composer himself.  This is the reason I bought the disc: I wanted to hear how Lucchesini handled the concerto given how well he does in the solo stuff.  Well, as expected, he doesn't seem to have any problems navigating the music, but truthfully, I find the music less compelling than the solo stuff.  The piano part is given over to lots of trills and ostinato underpinning occasional flourishes, and the orchestral music is very modern, in a disappointingly generic way.  Sure, it's well crafted, etc, but it just doesn't work for me.  I don't dislike it, but I don't like it, either.  Meh.

Turns out the next work was the real reason to get the disc, because haven't you asked yourself what Schubert's Tenth Symphony might have sounded like?  You see, Berio took the sketches for D936a and, in his word, set out to "restore" it.  (Restoration, completion; po-tay-to, po-tah-to.)  The work is called Rendering.  For the most part this sounds just like a missing Schubert work, and a very substantial one, hinting at what might have been.  It is grand, larger in scope and ambition than even the Great C Major, lovely, and filled with tunes aplenty.  It also starts moving toward a Mendelssohnian and, dare I say it, even (early) Wagnerian type soundworld.  There are obviously gaps, which Berio backfills with his own music, and surprisingly enough, it works well.  When it comes to the outright Schubertian music, I can't say how much is Schubert and how much is Berio, but I can say that I like it. 

The concluding work is a mushing together of four transcriptions of Ritirata notturna di Madrid by Boccherini.  Brief and a bit gaudy, it's not bad at all.  In fact, it's pretty good.

But the Schubert is the reason for me to keep this disc.

The LSO play very well, and Tony Faulkner's recorded sound is what one expects it to be.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 24, 2013, 12:14:20 PM
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I needed me some more 20th Century string quartets, so I decided to try the pair from one Jesús Guridi on Naxos.  I've spun the disc twice now, and I must report that while there is certainly nothing exceptionable about the composer's music, there is nothing exceptional about it, either.  The music is melodic and attractive, and it's well crafted, infused with folk music (real or faux, I do not know), and some nice contrapuntal writing, but I find it basically impossible to remember anything about the music other than broad impressions.  No movement, no passage stuck out for me, and no tune stuck in my aural memory.  The music also seems a bit out of place chronologically.  The name I thought of immediately was Dvorak, which for a contemporary of Bartok doesn't seem entirely right.  That's not to say that Guridi needed to write works like Bartok, it's just that Guridi's music reminds me of older styles.  Perhaps I'll investigate more of the composer's music, perhaps I won't, but I'm not in a hurry to do so.

The Breton String Quartet play superbly and sound is excellent.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 06, 2013, 08:19:58 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ehvJ-jPNL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)

[asin]B009ZEHNH0[/asin]


Just shy of two years ago, I picked up some madrigals by Don Carlo Gesualdo, the crazy, wife murderin' fiend from Venosa.  The set was from Naxos, and it was good, but not quite good enough.  Then on The new erato's suggestion, I tried the fourth book of madrigals from La Venexiana on Glossa, and was bowled over.  This past summer I picked up the complete set from Quintetto Vocale Italiano on Newton Classics, but so far I haven't made it past the first book: the singing and sound are not my cup of tea, though I will return to the set eventually.  However, I decided to try La Venexiana's recording of the fifth book of madrigals and La Compagnia del Madrigale recording of the sixth book, released just this year, both on Glossa.  Let me just say that I was bowled over again.

As great as the fourth book is, Gesualdo's truly astounding adventures in harmony and dissonance begin in the fifth book and culminate in the sixth book.  The density and complexity of the works match or surpass those of polyphonic masters like Morales or Victoria or Palestrina, and some melodies are striking in their beauty and intensity.  This is evident in the fifth book, and what holds true for the fifth book holds truer for the sixth.  It helps that both ensembles are more than up to the task of delivering these works, and Glossa's production values are typically stellar.  Both discs are corkers.  Perhaps I was too hasty in not including them in my 2013 purchases of the year post, though posts can be edited . . .



(I'm beginning to think that Glossa may be a corporate agent of the devil.  Even on their "weak" discs, the production values are crazy high, and the performers are world class.  Yes, only the devil could throw together an outfit that makes me want to pay traditional premium prices for new recordings, thus thinning my wallet.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on December 06, 2013, 08:24:00 AM
I guess you know your next port of call then, the first 5-voice book of Marenzio with La Compagnia del Madrigale, I think even higher of it than of these Gesualdo discs.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 06, 2013, 08:26:43 AM
Quote from: The new erato on December 06, 2013, 08:24:00 AMI guess you know your next port of call then, the first 5-voice book of Marenzio with La Compagnia del Madrigale, I think even higher of it than of these Gesualdo discs.



Dammit, stop! 

First, I need to finish up with the big ol' box of Sweelinck Psalms by the, um, Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 19, 2014, 09:31:51 AM
https://www.youtube.com/v/GwgpsEQUTr4


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411hmjoSnDL._SY300_.jpg)


After years of neglect, I recently became a big fan of YouTube.  There are so many recordings of largely forgotten artists in standard repertoire, and just as important, there is so much modern repertoire, that one can listen and listen and listen and never hear the same thing twice - unless that is desired.  I've been sampling quite a bit of modern music I might not otherwise listen to, but Pascal Dusapin's Seven Etudes for Piano is the first modern work I've listened to on YouTube that really caught my fancy.  There is only one recording of the work that I can find, the one by Ian Pace, and the seven videos on YouTube are from that set.

The work is magnificent.  It is unabashedly modern – nay, contemporary – but it is easily accessible in a way that, say, Boulez is not.  One can also hear many different influences.  There are hints of jazz, Scriabin, Mompou, Debussy, the Darmstadt school, Messiaen, and others, but Dusapin's music is wholly his own.  Ian Pace acquits himself well, and if sound is a bit less than ideal, given the source, it conveys the quality of the playing and the music.  I may very well have to buy a copy of the disc.  I do hope other pianists take up the work.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mandryka on August 01, 2014, 11:44:17 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 19, 2014, 09:31:51 AM
https://www.youtube.com/v/GwgpsEQUTr4


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411hmjoSnDL._SY300_.jpg)


After years of neglect, I recently became a big fan of YouTube.  There are so many recordings of largely forgotten artists in standard repertoire, and just as important, there is so much modern repertoire, that one can listen and listen and listen and never hear the same thing twice - unless that is desired.  I've been sampling quite a bit of modern music I might not otherwise listen to, but Pascal Dusapin's Seven Etudes for Piano is the first modern work I've listened to on YouTube that really caught my fancy.  There is only one recording of the work that I can find, the one by Ian Pace, and the seven videos on YouTube are from that set.

The work is magnificent.  It is unabashedly modern – nay, contemporary – but it is easily accessible in a way that, say, Boulez is not.  One can also hear many different influences.  There are hints of jazz, Scriabin, Mompou, Debussy, the Darmstadt school, Messiaen, and others, but Dusapin's music is wholly his own.  Ian Pace acquits himself well, and if sound is a bit less than ideal, given the source, it conveys the quality of the playing and the music.  I may very well have to buy a copy of the disc.  I do hope other pianists take up the work.

I've been playing Dusapin's second quartet, it's enormous, in 24 sections,  and is called for reasons I don't fully understand, Time Zone. It's very good - I'd be surprised if you didn't enjoy it (in truth I prefer it to the Etudes I think.) You can hear Ferneyhough's music exerting an influence, Ferneyhough is turnng out to be a favourite composer. There's a recording by Arditti.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 01, 2014, 12:01:33 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on August 01, 2014, 11:44:17 AMIt's very good - I'd be surprised if you didn't enjoy it (in truth I prefer it to the Etudes I think.)



I do.  I've had the Arditti recording for quite a long time now.  I believe it is called Time Zones to reflect the 24 standard time zones on earth.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: torut on September 13, 2014, 10:33:48 PM
Quote from: Todd on August 13, 2012, 07:28:00 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61GfLydNoML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Hilary Hahn is pretty adventurous as far as A-listers go.  I mean, in the last few years she's recorded Schoenberg and Ives.  Of course, she produces and owns here own recordings now, and then licenses them to DG, so she can afford to explore as much as she wants to.  It looks like she wanted to do something new and, per the liner notes, improvisational. 

So Ms Hahn schlepped her violin up to Iceland (Silfra being a rift in the tectonic plates up in that remote land), and proceeded to work with Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, a German composer/pianist/prepared pianist.  With the assistance of a producer who has worked with Björk, among others, the two of them recorded a bunch of short pieces that were apparently all first takes and all improvised.  There's lots of little percussive sounds, courtesy of the prepared piano, and presumably some other objects and instruments just lying around.  It's all very Cage-y.  Hahn shrinks her sound, and she was also clearly recorded very close up.  And the two musicians jam.  It works pretty well.  It's not the greatest thing I've heard, but there is no predictable flow, and some of the music is novel, or close to it.  I can't say this is the most original thing I've heard, because literally the whole time I was listening, I kept thinking this sounds like Sigur Rós unplugged.  Maybe there's something in the water up in Iceland. 

Very nice if obviously manipulated sonics.

Thanks for the review. It's very interesting. I listened to it today and liked it a lot. The pieces are mostly minimalist. I have not heard this kind of prepared piano before. It sounds sophisticated and well controlled compared with the Cage's, but I felt the power and the fun are diminished a bit, which is not a problem since the goals are different.

Hahn is certainly an advocate of new music. For the album In 27 pieces, 26 contemporary composers were commissioned short encore pieces for violin and piano, and the last piece was chosen from more than 400 entries for the contest. I greatly enjoyed this album. The composers are Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Somei Satoh, Du Yun, David Lang, Bun-Ching Lam, Paul Moravec, Antón García AbrilAvner Dorman, David Del Tredici, Mason Bates, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Gillian Whitehead, Richard Barrett, Jennifer Higdon, Christos Hatzis, Jeff Myers, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Valentin Silvestrov, Kala Ramnath, Lera Auerbach, Tina Davidson, Elliott Sharp, Michiru Oshima, James Newton Howard, Nico Muhly, Søren Nils Eichberg, Max Richter.

[asin]B00EPD3B2W[/asin]
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 02, 2016, 09:21:23 AM
Bump!

I've been thinking about doing something like this with all the new listens I've been doing this year. Mind if I post thoughts here, or if this is "your" thread I'll happily keep doing so elsewhere (like in the Holmboe & Tubin threads in January).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 02, 2016, 09:43:19 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 02, 2016, 09:21:23 AMMind if I post thoughts here, or if this is "your" thread I'll happily keep doing so elsewhere (like in the Holmboe & Tubin threads in January).



Post away.  I hope I'm not the only person interested in exploring new music from time to time.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 02, 2016, 10:39:39 AM
Thanks; here goes nothing!

This week I've been diving into the back-catalogue of Lyrita Records, more or less alphabetically.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD226.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD249.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD250.jpg)

First up: an exploration of Lennox Berkeley, a composer I'd previously known only from a couple small chamber pieces and an excellent orchestration of Poulenc's Flute Sonata. That Poulenc arrangement might still be my favorite Berkeley - but the Serenade for String Orchestra gives it a run for its money. The Serenade is a short piece, only about 13 minutes, and a totally winning one. There's a whole great English tradition of this kind of easygoing but deeper-than-expected string music, and Berkeley's contribution is one of the best I've heard so far. If it was coupled on a disc with Vaughan William's Tallis Fantasia and the Elgar string stuff, it would not suffer too much in the comparison.

"Mont Juic" is a suite of Catalan folk dances jotted down and orchestrated with considerable panache (in fact, maybe a bit too much panache) by a young Berkeley and his equally youthful friend, Benjamin Britten. Britten wrote the last two, Berkeley the first two. There's not a clear difference between their contributions, aside from Britten drawing the lucky straw and writing up the slow, sad, more-interesting third dance. This is a fun piece. The all-Berkeley Divertimento did not really stick in my memory.

I listened to the piano concerto on Monday, as a big fan of pianist David Wilde, but already can't remember anything about it except that the slow movement was fairly pretty and well-scored. So far I've only listened to Symphony No. 1, not 2 or 3, but No. 1 is the sort of basically-conservative yet slightly-gnarly-so-as-to-prove-its-unwimpiness music that a lot of British composers turned out in the 1930s-50s. Dave Hurwitz compares it to Roussel but that makes no sense to me - it lacks the joie de vivre and memorable tunes. The same goes for the First Symphony by...

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD203.jpg)

...Arnold Cooke, but he can be forgiven that, because he was a student of Hindemith's. I really liked Cooke's admirably concise Third Symphony, and will maybe write about it later. The Suite to Jabez and the Devil, while maybe not quite as colorful as it sounds, is nevertheless plenty extroverted and entertaining, and if you're hoping the devil will pull out a country fiddle and play a tune, you're in luck.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD243.jpg)

My favorite discovery of the week so far, by far, is Frank Bridge's Dance Rhapsody, a truly exuberant piece from early in his career (1908) which is all masquerades, fizzing glasses of Veuve, and big bubbly tunes. Its episodes are fairly clearly delineated, too, so you always have a handle on the piece's structure. Dance Poem takes more of a sour turn - the last section is actually marked "Disillusion" - but if you want a cynical take on a Viennese waltz, there's only one standard-setter and that's by Maurice Ravel. Dance Rhapsody is the keeper, a ton of well-made fun.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SRCD241.jpg)

Overall, though, the composer who's most promising as a potential new personal favorite is John Ireland. Simply put, I liked everything here. The piano concerto may not be the most promising example of its kind, but the Legend, which has a piano soloist playing a fairly minor supporting role, is much more atmospheric and intriguing, with a beginning that bodes well for the disc. The Satyricon overture's a lot of fun, and the Symphonic Studies are decent enough filler (orchestrated by Geoffrey Bush). Boult and the LPO are mighty fine throughout. In fact, all these composers are quite lucky to have attracted Lyrita's support, since the label seems to have invariably hired good-to-great conductors and top-notch London orchestras. Plus very well-engineered for their times.

My explorations will no doubt continue. For now, taking a break to try some things discussed on previous pages of this thread. The Bax string quartets are indeed very enjoyable.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on March 02, 2016, 11:01:43 AM
Quote from: torut on September 13, 2014, 10:33:48 PM
Hahn is certainly an advocate of new music. For the album In 27 pieces, 26 contemporary composers were commissioned short encore pieces for violin and piano, and the last piece was chosen from more than 400 entries for the contest. I greatly enjoyed this album. The composers are Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Somei Satoh, Du Yun, David Lang, Bun-Ching Lam, Paul Moravec, Antón García AbrilAvner Dorman, David Del Tredici, Mason Bates, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Gillian Whitehead, Richard Barrett, Jennifer Higdon, Christos Hatzis, Jeff Myers, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Valentin Silvestrov, Kala Ramnath, Lera Auerbach, Tina Davidson, Elliott Sharp, Michiru Oshima, James Newton Howard, Nico Muhly, Søren Nils Eichberg, Max Richter.

[asin]B00EPD3B2W[/asin]

My publisher, fellow composer Mark Gresham, submitted a vn/pf piece for the Hilary Hahn Encores composition contest.  His Café Cortadito won an Honorable Mention, and is included as a bonus track on the Japanese release of Deutsche Grammophon / Universal UCCG-1642/3.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 08, 2016, 10:28:23 AM
(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/HCD32728.jpg)

Moór was a favorite composer of Pablo Casals, who frequently tried to program his music. But 90 minutes after this CD ended, I honestly can't remember a single thing about it. I think both the concertos had scherzo movements, and I know it was all written in an 1870ish romantic idiom. Also, uh...well, the guy clearly had great taste when he was picking painters to paint his portrait, right? Here's another one:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Em%C3%A1nuel_Mo%C3%B3r.jpg)

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/ODE1281-5.jpg)

Magnus Lindberg's post-2010 style has been a big shift toward a more old-fashioned tonal language and an emphasis on making the orchestra sound splendiferous. True to form, these three pieces sound fantastic, especially the endings, which he seems to have a gift for. (I mean the last 2-3 minutes of each piece, not just the literal conclusion.) At its conclusion, the cello concerto seems to turn back the clock and reach a sudden place of romantic-era lyricism.

My problem is that I don't know how, or if, these works are organized. They seem to exist moment-to-moment, as compelling soundscapes, like a tasting menu of tiny plates of food that's meant to provide your palate with something new and different at every course. What brings the tasting menu together as a coherent whole? Well...I don't know. Maybe this is the kind of music where you need to read the score to "get" it. But I don't much like music where you need to read the score to have a chance with it.

Fortunately, Lindberg's music is compelling enough to avoid that trap entirely. I think the concerto, in three movements but played without pause, might be my favorite of this trio, even though Era is the most old-fashioned (there's a R. Strauss quote in there, and it starts out imitative of the Sibelius Fourth).

Great playing and sound. The composer was present at the recording sessions.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CHAN10891.jpg)

I'm skipping the Britten, a sort of Frankenstein creation assembled by Colin Matthews after Britten died. The Finzi is Five Bagatelles, arranged for string orchestra and clarinet. The Bagatelles are certainly charming and pleasant enough - mostly slow, all pretty, wouldn't be a bad choice to play before bedtime. (Though it is too fast and too varied to be Delius!)

Arnold Cooke's first clarinet concerto begins so unobtrusively - quietly, with the clarinet spinning a melody-that-doesn't-seem-like-a-melody - that at first I thought we were still on the Bagatelles. (The Cooke work is for string orchestra only.) Again, the student of Hindemith thing seems like a really important trait.

To be continued......
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 09, 2016, 10:22:22 AM
(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.573402.jpg)

Luiz Costa turns out to be a late romantic composer through-and-through; the trio is from 1937 and features Germanic-type melodies accompanied by a fluid piano part. (For the most part, the violin and cello have the melodic lead, and they often play together, rather than in conversation.) It's undeniably an attractive piece, and I respect it all the more for being so modest in scale (19 minutes). Although the booklet notes praise the adagio as being super gorgeous, I thought it was just OK. Work ends decisively in the C minor key - no happy ending here.

Dukas student Claudio Carneyro's piano trio (1928) has a short intro and then jumps straight into a quasi-fugue. And then we get a beautiful Francophile violin aria. In general, this is a piece built of interesting, unusual parts, like an "Interludio Romanesco" and a funky Rousselian theme-and-variations "on Syrinx." The giant first movement dwarfs the other too - unsurprisingly, since the fugue turns out to be its primary theme. Not only is this fun to listen to, it's also admirably and brazenly wacky. Not a masterpiece, but certainly sticks out among the usual "obscure music" crowd.

Sergio Azevedo will soon turn 50, and his Hukvaldy Trio (2013) advertises its inspiration in a bunch of Janacek sketches, but you really can't glean Janacek from it very easily. There are flashes of his style occasionally (7:15ish), and also hints of the kind of rustic East European folk music that Szymanowski, Bartok, and others have mined. Starting around 14:00 we get a minute of Shostakovich, too. Honestly, this is a pretty cool piece overall. I cite all those comparisons to previous composers to give you an idea, but Azevedo seems to have an interesting voice, and the Hukvaldy Trio is unusually successful at the ol' "old meets new" style. This is the only Azevedo piece available on Naxos Music Library.

Good, not great, playing by the Trio Pangea [sic], and good, not great, recorded sound. Carneyro seems like a fun composer to get to know, and I like the Azevedo trio too; Costa's work is pedestrian. It's very interesting that not one of these composers is working in a "Portuguese" style: one is clearly Germanic, one clearly French, one clearly inspired by Moravian and Carpathian folk style.

As a follow-up...

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/adw7238.jpg)

...I decided to try Claudio Carneyro's piano work "Poemas em prosa" (Poems in prose). This was a bit of a mistake. The two-minute intro is a Schumannesque melody, but rhythmically square and with a totally dull thud-thud melody-echoing left-hand accompaniment. A couple of later sections might stand on their own as encores, but not interesting ones. Oops.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on March 09, 2016, 10:29:04 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 08, 2016, 10:28:23 AM
(Though it is too fast and too varied to be Delius!)

(* chortle *)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 09, 2016, 10:39:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 08, 2016, 10:28:23 AM
My problem is that I don't know how, or if, these works are organized. They seem to exist moment-to-moment, as compelling soundscapes, like a tasting menu of tiny plates of food that's meant to provide your palate with something new and different at every course. What brings the tasting menu together as a coherent whole? Well...I don't know. Maybe this is the kind of music where you need to read the score to "get" it. But I don't much like music where you need to read the score to have a chance with it.

I am a big proponent of knowing works from score if you have the training to read scores and want to use them both to study the composer's language and to help you judge the performance. But I don't think there is any style of music that requires knowing a score more than any other; besides which, copyrighted modernist scores of a composer like Lindberg (if even readily available) would likely set you back a hundred dollars or more. Perhaps in a case like Lindberg's, repeated listenings are needed to grasp the architecture. Be that as it may, the work of his I've previously heard makes me think that this is a CD I'd like to have.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 11, 2016, 08:14:44 AM
Cross-posting;

Quote from: Brian on March 11, 2016, 07:31:30 AM
First-ever listen to this Pulitzer Prize winner: Caroline Shaw's Partita for 8 Singers.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/NWAM041.jpg)
WOW. I feel like a revolution just happened in my ears.

I mean, the Partita isn't exactly revolutionary. It uses a lot of techniques that have been pioneered and gimmickized elsewhere: nonsensical spoken-word text, bustling conversation alternating with vocalise, gasping, eerie vocal effects (in mvt. 2 the men become a didgeridoo). Except that here, after the prologue math lecture (!) ends, the next 24 minutes are sheer magic, a carpet ride through a sound-place that I didn't know could exist. It's joyous, exultant, unhinged, bewitching. Wow, did I love that listen. Might be the most exciting new thing I've heard this year. (Sorry, Brahms  :P .)

Searching GMG, it looks like Rinaldo, GSMoeller, and a couple other people are fans of this work. Ken B had the best description of all, one I can't top:

Quote from: Ken B on December 06, 2014, 08:06:40 PM
TD, Caroline Shaw, Partita for 8 Voices

Which I really like.  It's like Philip Glass and Virgil Thomson got together and rewrote Stimmung.

---

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on March 09, 2016, 10:39:43 AMBut I don't think there is any style of music that requires knowing a score more than any other;
There are a number of pieces from the 1960s on forward that I've listened to with total incomprehension, only to learn that it was based on some sort of mathematical principle or otherwise inaudible organizational mechanism...

The Lindberg disc is good, I do recommend it. I'm excited for the NYPO/Gilbert's next CD, which comes out in April - new symphonies by Christopher Rouse.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 11, 2016, 08:38:35 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 11, 2016, 08:14:44 AM
I'm excited for the NYPO/Gilbert's next CD, which comes out in April - new symphonies by Christopher Rouse.

That should be interesting. I heard a broadcast of the 3rd Symphony some time ago and liked it (discussed it on the Rouse thread). I find Rouse very uneven, but this one sounded solid to me.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 09:13:03 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 11, 2016, 08:38:35 AM
I find Rouse very uneven . . . .

I do as well. In fact, the one piece I can endorse without qualification is Gorgon, which uses the hammer to even greater effect than Mahler 6, and is about as over-the-top as any music I know. One thing I find amazing about Rouse is that he apparently composes with rock music blaring or the Jerry Springer show on. When I was a composition major at Oberlin in the class of 1970, Rouse was one year behind me and his interest in rock music at the time made him appear kind of suspect among the students. Of course, he became Christopher Rouse, and let's just say I didn't . . . .
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on March 11, 2016, 09:27:18 AM
Hah!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 11, 2016, 09:31:30 AM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 09:13:03 AM
One thing I find amazing about Rouse is that he apparently composes with rock music blaring or the Jerry Springer show on.

Well, the great composers have traditionally drawn from the pop culture of their times. And so have the not-so-great composers...
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on March 11, 2016, 10:05:45 AM
Bloom where you're planted, they say . . . .
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 11, 2016, 10:17:31 AM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 09:13:03 AM
I do as well. In fact, the one piece I can endorse without qualification is Gorgon, which uses the hammer to even greater effect than Mahler 6, and is about as over-the-top as any music I know. One thing I find amazing about Rouse is that he apparently composes with rock music blaring or the Jerry Springer show on. When I was a composition major at Oberlin in the class of 1970, Rouse was one year behind me and his interest in rock music at the time made him appear kind of suspect among the students. Of course, he became Christopher Rouse, and let's just say I didn't . . . .
Wow. Can't imagine getting music from your brain to paper while there's other music blaring in the background. That must require a mental facility that my brain is missing.

I love the Flute Concerto, or at least, did the last time I heard it. Now listening again to confirm. There's a particularly touching story about the Flute Concerto, from recording magnate Robert von Bahr:
Quote from: Brian on November 23, 2014, 07:26:07 PM
Here is BIS CEO Robert von Bahr talking about the Flute Concerto:

"OK, time for a personal confession. When I was laid up on the cut-up table for an operation for pancreatic cancer (which, after the very extensive operation, it was ascertained that I didn't have in the first place...) I had negotiated with the doctors' team that I was allowed to listen to something when they put me under - against regulations - this because the operation itself was quite risky and I was stubborn. So I chose the Christopher Rouse Flute Concerto, played by my wife, Sharon Bezaly, the Royal Stockholm PO under Alan Gilbert as the piece I wanted to be the last thing I heard, should I not wake up. In a similar situation I would still choose that piece, a requiem over a small British boy that was tortured to death by two other small boys - a horrible thing. The music is simply fantastic and something I would urge anyone to really listen to, but with closed eyes and mobiles turned off. Music at its very best."
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 10:35:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 11, 2016, 10:17:31 AM
Wow. Can't imagine getting music from your brain to paper while there's other music blaring in the background. That must require a mental facility that my brain is missing.

I love the Flute Concerto, or at least, did the last time I heard it. Now listening again to confirm. There's a particularly touching story about the Flute Concerto, from recording magnate Robert von Bahr:

Well, though I don't think so, maybe I'm misremembering about composing to rock music. I can't find any confirmation right now, other than the fact that Rouse was always strongly devoted to rock, and that's how I remember him (though I never knew him at age 18 other than to say hello). But from the NYTimes: "Asked about their daily routines, the four advisory composers could say only what worked for them: in Mr. Rouse's case, composing while half-listening to the ''Jerry Springer Show.'' Television, he explained, kept his adrenaline level up."

I have that flute concerto and will try it again.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 10:37:50 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 11, 2016, 09:27:18 AM
Hah!

Now, Karl . . . .
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 11, 2016, 11:17:08 AM
I haven't met Karl in person, but I hope that he really does laugh in one single, gigantically loud Hah!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 11, 2016, 01:00:54 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 11, 2016, 11:17:08 AM
I haven't met Karl in person, but I hope that he really does laugh in one single, gigantically loud Hah!

Only on special occasions.

(But you're probably off to Seattle by now.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 21, 2016, 12:34:56 PM
First time ever listening to music by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.554295.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.554456.jpg)

According to the booklets, Boismortier wasn't a court musician, or a virtuoso, nor did he receive many commissions - he was writing purely for profit. Well, bully, I say. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

Ballets de Village is accordingly a series of ultra-charming, high-energy rustic suites, here performed on an eclectic range of period instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy and the musette (which is the droning thing that sounds a lot like a bagpipe). The "Simphonie francoise" is less colorful, because it's limited to a more conventional ensemble, but it still shows a lot of imagination (there's a movement called "Choeur imaginaire"). I love the sarabande flute trio.

The next CD starts with a chaconne from Daphnis et Chloe, which Le Concert Spirituel later recorded in full for the Glossa label (sadly this is not streaming on NML). This is more glorious baroque music - honestly, I think anybody who loves listening to Rameau, or Handel's Water Music, would love this stuff. "Fragments melodiques" brings back the hurdy-gurdy and musette, and have I mentioned that Le Concert Spirituel is a wonderful-sounding HIP band? Like the OAE or Anima Eterna, their ensemble sound is am attraction on its own.

The Fragments are another suite of simple pleasures and bright, chipper, major-key amusements, showing considerable invention and populist joviality. (Was Boismortier the 1700s Johann Strauss?) (Knowing the low reputation Strauss has on this board, maybe I shouldn't say that!) I'd love to hear our French GMGers explicate the piece called "Entrée des génies élémentaires". Not knowing anything of the plot of the opera from which it is taken - an opera Google has no information or synopses on - I can only assume it's about a bunch of clever children, or maybe the first-year wizards at Hogwarts. ;)

Bunches of fun.

One side note: there's a pleasant irony to the location of the old church (Notre Dame des Bon Secours) in which these two CDs were recorded. It's in the 14e, Paris - right along Rue Giordano Bruno.

Having enjoyed this stuff, I decided to try a bit of Boismortier's flute music. There's a solo suite on this album:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BIS-CD-1259.jpg)

In E minor, and more formal/Bachian than the orchestral music. Slight at only 10 minutes, but it's hard to listen to anything Sharon Bezaly does and be unsatisfied.

Now, Boismortier also wrote a few "concertos" (quintets) for five flutes! This seems like a truly unique instrumentation, and I decided I had to hear at least one or two of 'em. There is a Concert Spirituel album on Naxos, and Accent has a formidable all-star HIP lineup including a Kuijken and a Hantai, but I decided to go with this...

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BIS-CD-8.jpg)

...because that cover photograph is just plain ridiculous. I mean, geez. And it's not Clas Pehrsson's most ridiculous album art, oh no, not by a long shot:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BIS-CD-334.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BIS-CD-335.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BIS-CD-202.jpg)

Uh, anyway, back to Boismortier, right?

That first Pehrsson disc up there has "Concertos" 4 and 6. Each is 8 minutes long and in minor keys (B minor and E minor). Here they're played on recorders. The first starts with a canonic adagio, a pretty superb movement of music that at 2:25 is precisely the right length. The rest is a little more generic - and the sound of five recorders can get monotonous.

Overall, though, I'd say this exploration is a rousing success. The orchestral music seems most promising!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on March 21, 2016, 01:00:55 PM
Just guessing, but "génies élémentaires" could be "spirits of the elements", "elementals", like the ones you summon in role playing game (Faust tries them as well when treating with Mephistopheles in guise of a black poodle)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 21, 2016, 01:49:21 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 21, 2016, 12:34:56 PM
I'd love to hear our French GMGers explicate the piece called "Entrée des génies élémentaires". Not knowing anything of the plot of the opera from which it is taken - an opera Google has no information or synopses on - I can only assume it's about a bunch of clever children, or maybe the first-year wizards at Hogwarts. ;)

Dude, how's your French?

http://operabaroque.fr/BOISMORTIER_VOYAGES.htm
http://imslp.org/wiki/Les_Voyages_de_l'Amour,_Op.60_(Boismortier,_Joseph_Bodin_de)

Hogwarts wizards enter on pp. 77 of the imslp score (Act Two), though what the hell they're doing there I have no idea. In the opera, Cupid comes to earth in disguise and visits a village, a town, and the court to find someone who loves him sincerely. Apparently it wasn't a success and wasn't repeated.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on March 21, 2016, 02:06:15 PM
It's apparently a scene where one lover consults an astrologer and in his grotto or cave the elementals appear:

On voit arriver les Génies élémentaires, Sylphes [air], Gnômes [earth], Ondains [water], Salamandres [fire].
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 21, 2016, 02:12:00 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on March 21, 2016, 02:06:15 PM
It's apparently a scene where one lover consults an astrologer and in his grotto or cave the elementals appear:

On voit arriver les Génies élémentaires, Sylphes [air], Gnômes [earth], Ondains [water], Salamandres [fire].

Ah. Once we put our heads together, all mysteries are solved.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 21, 2016, 06:12:11 PM
Thanks! 'Tis a luxury having a cultured community like this that will read my listening-habit-ramblings.

(Also, I do love early 1700s opera/ballet scenarios. They're so relentlessly fanciful.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on March 21, 2016, 06:22:04 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 21, 2016, 06:12:11 PM
Thanks! 'Tis a luxury having a cultured community like this that will read my listening-habit-ramblings.

We'll send our bill.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on March 22, 2016, 03:05:50 AM
Let fancy play without relent!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on May 26, 2016, 11:18:22 AM
"One work that you'd like fellow GMG members to discover." (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,25805.0.html)

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/SOMMCD034.jpg)

Jean-Michel Damase is a French composer born in the 1920s and still around. He was pointed out to me by GMG's own vandermolen. The '50s Piano Sonata is objectively weird: a blend of Bartók, jazz, and (at the ends of the last two movements) a little bit of easy-listening nicety. I kinda liked it, most of the time, while recognizing that it's kind of a bizarre piece. The 1977 Eight Etudes are overtly jazzy, but not as aggressively fake-jazz as Kapustin's stuff. There's a light touch, and they're just plain fun. I'd love to have them in my repertoire if I was playing piano on Saturday nights at a wine bar. The 1991 Sonatine ain't Ravel, and it could have been written in 1921, but it's okay.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/HCD31550.jpg)

Damase's Concertino for Harp and Strings, on the other hand...yikes. Simplistic, amateurish orchestration; basically only one melody repeated ad infinitum over 13 minutes. Bad, bad, bad. Sylvia Kowalczuk is a good performer, though, and the conductor's name is fun.

Next up: recommended by EigenUser, "Ars Moriendi":

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/BCD9257.jpg)

Starts out with the same chord repeated over and over, very slowly. At 2:05, I was reaching to turn the piece off in frustration when the cello finally entered doing something else, which caused a rush of happiness just because finally, something happened! Over the rest of the 25 minutes, things do happen with regularity, and some of them are things/harmonies that I like a lot, but not enough to listen twice. The ending came as a relief, honestly. I wish I could pluck out a few excerpts to form a mini-string quartet.

Next up: recommended by Bruce. Surely I've heard this piece before, right? I must have listened in college a couple times?! If so, it's disqualified from this thread. Tsk tsk.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CA-21004.jpg) (http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/INNOVA758.jpg)

Left: Bang on a Can (45:30); right: Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble (20:43)...slightly different track timings.

Groovy  8) As many GMGers know, the performers can move from one phrase to the next, or repeat, at their will, and the result is a huge allowance for spontaneity and repetition. Bang on a Can takes 45 minutes and GVSU takes 21, but that doesn't mean Bang on a Can is playing more slowly - this is a pretty fast, upbeat, high energy piece, and in some places you really appreciate it when the intensity dials back just a little bit. I will say that, by the end, I was ready for the experience to be over.

Putting the GVSU recording on immediately afterwards - 70 minutes of Riley! - was risky, but in different performances this essentially becomes a different piece, and the GVSU scoring is more percussive, more immediate. This is in-your-face, but, like, a nice person getting in your face, not a mean person. Patterns emerge and fade much more quickly, and all in all there's an electrical energy that only seems to intensify. If you only have 20 minutes to spend with a minimalist masterpiece, you sure ain't missing out. In fact I think I prefer it this way... (GVSU's Music for 18 Musicians is terrific too.)

Nominated by North Star:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/HMA1957166.jpg)

Abel Decaux's Clairs de lune. After the frantic hyperactive energy of In C, the slow, soft, impressionistic Decaux is as opposite as you can get. It's also stunningly modern for four miniatures that were done by 1907. They remind me of Schoenberg's little piano pieces, or very late Scriabin, or maybe some of the Debussy etudes.

Speaking of giant contrasts, here comes Rinaldo's pick:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/PC10124.jpg)

Never heard of Albicastro before at all. But this is sheer baroque bliss. Ahhhh  0:) 0:) 8)

Tomorrow!
- Britten's cello sonata
- Arnold's Ninth Symphony (going out of order here; I recently first-listened to 1-4)
- Marenzio's "Solo e pensoso"
- Schoeck's "Elegie" (this might be disqualified from the thread too; I may have heard it before)
- Schmitt's Symphonie concertante
- Hovhaness's Symphony No. 50 "Mount St. Helens"
- Machaut's Nostre Dame Mass
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 26, 2016, 11:39:03 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 26, 2016, 11:18:22 AM
(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/HCD31550.jpg)

Damase's Concertino for Harp and Strings, on the other hand...yikes. Simplistic, amateurish orchestration; basically only one melody repeated ad infinitum over 13 minutes. Bad, bad, bad. Sylvia Kowalczuk is a good performer, though, and the conductor's name is fun.


Somehow the idea of hearing Gershwin on the harp is more than I think I can handle (though he might be interesting on a quartet of contrabassoons), so I'll leave it to you. But as for my own pick, much as I love the Marenzio, I wish I had changed that to the Shapero Symphony or Meyer Kupferman's Little Symphony. Or for that matter the thrilling "Caressant l'Horizon" by the young Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. Make of that what you will.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on May 27, 2016, 12:21:33 PM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 26, 2016, 11:39:03 AM
Somehow the idea of hearing Gershwin on the harp is more than I think I can handle (though he might be interesting on a quartet of contrabassoons), so I'll leave it to you. But as for my own pick, much as I love the Marenzio, I wish I had changed that to the Shapero Symphony or Meyer Kupferman's Little Symphony. Or for that matter the thrilling "Caressant l'Horizon" by the young Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. Make of that what you will.
I listened to the Shapero Symphony a few weeks ago, but did not connect with it on that first listen.

Today I'll skip over the nominations of Schmitt and Henning, because these aren't "new" works to my ears. Well, I might listen anyways, but not to write a tome about...  8)

From Dancing Divertimentian: Britten's cello sonata

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/00028942185920.jpg)

I liked this. I don't have much to say about it, honestly, but I liked it. The list of Britten I like is maybe shorter than it ought to be (Simple Symphony, Grimes, cello suites, piano concerto, Carols) but this will have a spot on the list too, now.

Now it's Mirror Image's turn:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.553540.jpg)

The first movement seems to be an attempt to write a "vivace" movement that's as quiet as possible. Its mood is kind of dithery: emotionally ambiguous, not ready to commit to a mood, which seems to be a common Arnold thread. Another common thread in the Arnold symphonies I've heard (now 1-4 and 9): I just don't get them. The third movement here is called "Giubiloso," which is a lie, because like most of the Arnold I've heard, it's mostly melancholy and bitter about some unspecified hurt. Maybe he was just depressed.

I loved my first listen to the Arnold guitar concerto, and of course the folk dances are a lot of fun. But so far the symphonies have defeated me continuously. The only movement of the Ninth that makes sense to me, the only movement that seems successful, is the finale, a lento lamento that stretches to 23 minutes but somehow doesn't feel as glacial as it is. Although it does feel derivative; essentially, it's the last 4 minutes of Tchaikovsky's Sixth [which gets quoted-ish at 12:30 and again near the end], or the last 4 minutes of the first movement of Shosty's Sixth, stretched out to six times the length. This is not to doubt Arnold's sincerity! He is sincere as hell. But there's not much in the first three movements that impels me to return, compared to the two works cited above, or, say, Bruckner's Ninth. Not sure of my feelings about the re-entry of the percussion and woodwinds at the end of the symphony.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/DOR-90154.jpg)

Marenzio. Fear not, Sfz, I also listened to the Deller Consort version. This is almost unbearably gorgeous music - so beautiful. I'm struck by the fragility/vulnerability of the voices at the start of the Deller performance; I'm also struck by how "new" the music sounds. Well, it doesn't sound like it was written yesterday, but in places (and in the Deller version moreso) it sure doesn't sound 425 years old.

I really, really need to learn more about this kind of music, being essentially 100% clueless on it.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/NCA60186-215.jpg)

The main thing that this journey through the "One work that you'd like fellow GMGers to discover" thread has taught me is just how crazy-diverse our tastes are. There's a GMGer interested in everything. Schoeck's Elegie is a Mahlerian song cycle, but with a tiny chamber ensemble of what sounds like a dozen players, instead of an orchestra. The longest song is 4 minutes long; many are 60-70 seconds. There's a lot of variety and I love the lullaby-ish ending. As so often with these two days of listening, the piece has been well outside my comfort zone but rewarding, or at least diverting. Guess I need to keep exploring!

(Schoeck is a good composer; I've admired some of his chamber music for a few years.)

Ken B's nominee:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.553833.jpg)

Now, this is a genre of music that I know diddly squat about. Nada. Zip. So my impressions are spectacularly ill-informed things like (a) it's pretty, (b) it feels kinda long, (c) damn, it takes these guys a LONG time to finish saying the word "Kyrie"!

Bizarre to think about the huge timespan between Machaut and Marenzio. It's roughly the same as the timespan between us and Beethoven's First Symphony.

The last adventure for this week, cuz I'm gonna need to close my listening on some kind of Old Favorite after all these ear workouts:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.559717.jpg)

Hovhaness's Symphony No. 50 "Mount St. Helens"
Best to think of this as a set of symphonic poems, maybe, atmosphere pieces rather than examples of tight development. The music is consistently old-fashionedly tonal, "attractive" (ugh. does that word mean anything?), and intermittently even catchy. The volcano interruption is depicted mostly by timpani, timpani, brass fanfares, and also timpani. It's fun! A goofy low-calorie dessert symphony before the weekend arrives.

Still, before the weekend proper, I think I need a right proper symphony - something bracing, icy-cold, stripped down to the bare bones of strict classical form. Something ferocious but tautly controlled, catchy but uncompromising. Something that I might nominate for the title of "One work that you'd like fellow GMGers to discover", if I had to choose.

Something like J.W. Kalliwoda's Fifth Symphony. See y'all later  8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 04:57:08 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 12:21:33 PM
I listened to the Shapero Symphony a few weeks ago, but did not connect with it on that first listen.

Then please keep trying. But the Bernstein, not the Previn.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mirror Image on May 27, 2016, 05:02:39 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 12:21:33 PMNow it's Mirror Image's turn:

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.553540.jpg)

The first movement seems to be an attempt to write a "vivace" movement that's as quiet as possible. Its mood is kind of dithery: emotionally ambiguous, not ready to commit to a mood, which seems to be a common Arnold thread. Another common thread in the Arnold symphonies I've heard (now 1-4 and 9): I just don't get them. The third movement here is called "Giubiloso," which is a lie, because like most of the Arnold I've heard, it's mostly melancholy and bitter about some unspecified hurt. Maybe he was just depressed.

I loved my first listen to the Arnold guitar concerto, and of course the folk dances are a lot of fun. But so far the symphonies have defeated me continuously. The only movement of the Ninth that makes sense to me, the only movement that seems successful, is the finale, a lento lamento that stretches to 23 minutes but somehow doesn't feel as glacial as it is. Although it does feel derivative; essentially, it's the last 4 minutes of Tchaikovsky's Sixth [which gets quoted-ish at 12:30 and again near the end], or the last 4 minutes of the first movement of Shosty's Sixth, stretched out to six times the length. This is not to doubt Arnold's sincerity! He is sincere as hell. But there's not much in the first three movements that impels me to return, compared to the two works cited above, or, say, Bruckner's Ninth. Not sure of my feelings about the re-entry of the percussion and woodwinds at the end of the symphony.

Arnold's 9th, for those not familiar with his musical language, can be a tough nut to crack, but there's, of course, always the possibility that you just don't like the music, which is completely understandable. Personally, I think the whole symphony is successful and it's my favorite symphonic utterance from this quite well-known Brit. Sometimes we have to look past the flaws in the writing (whatever those may actually be to a given listener) and accept the music as it is. (Sorry to end the last sentence on a preposition, but I just couldn't help it.) ;)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:22:49 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 12:21:33 PM
Now, this is a genre of music that I know diddly squat about. Nada. Zip. So my impressions are spectacularly ill-informed things like (a) it's pretty, (b) it feels kinda long, (c) damn, it takes these guys a LONG time to finish saying the word "Kyrie"!

a) I think you will find the Deller Consort again (though not HIP) takes a far more vital approach, along with their motets by Perotin. But please stay away from the Peres, which is downright ugly.
b) Half an hour?
c) No different in essence than in the masses of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven. The 3-part structure (Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison) is standard, as a reflection of the Trinity.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:26:36 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on May 27, 2016, 05:02:39 PM
(Sorry to end the last sentence on a preposition, but I just couldn't help it.) ;)

But you did not. You ended it on a form of the verb "to be." Which is nothing, in my opinion, to worry about.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Ken B on May 27, 2016, 05:27:59 PM
Marenzio is quite wonderful. Almost no one has heard of him.

Machaut is passing strange. When I first heard it it sounded like an assault from another universe. I like the sense that this is both my culture and as remote from it as can be imagined, at the same time.  It's the first complete mass we have actually, and some of the earliest polyphony. Originality on an epochal scale.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mirror Image on May 27, 2016, 05:38:41 PM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:26:36 PM
But you did not. You ended it on a form of the verb "to be." Which is nothing, in my opinion, to worry about.

Whew...that was a close one. ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on May 27, 2016, 05:48:20 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 12:21:33 PM
From Dancing Divertimentian: Britten's cello sonata

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/00028942185920.jpg)

I liked this. I don't have much to say about it, honestly, but I liked it. The list of Britten I like is maybe shorter than it ought to be (Simple Symphony, Grimes, cello suites, piano concerto, Carols) but this will have a spot on the list too, now.

Cool, Brian! Glad it worked out.


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:58:54 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on May 27, 2016, 05:38:41 PM
Whew...that was a close one. ;D

Nothing wrong with ending sentences with prepositions, split infinitives, or other such phony rules. Professional writers do such things all the time. Use what sounds right to your ear.

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/grammar-myths-prepositions/
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Ken B on May 27, 2016, 06:03:57 PM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:58:54 PM
Nothing wrong with ending sentences with prepositions, split infinitives, or other such phony rules. Professional writers do such things all the time. Use what sounds right to your ear.

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/grammar-myths-prepositions/

The split infinitive prohibition is especially foolish, being deduced from a study of Latin and applied to English!

Ending a sentence with a split preposition is bad though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on May 27, 2016, 06:28:11 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 27, 2016, 06:03:57 PM
The split infinitive prohibition is especially foolish, being deduced from a study of Latin and applied to English!

Ending a sentence with a split preposition is bad though.
Hm, a split preposition. Like "anyfreakingwhere"?

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:58:54 PM
Nothing wrong with ending sentences with prepositions, split infinitives, or other such phony rules. Professional writers do such things all the time. Use what sounds right to your ear.

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/grammar-myths-prepositions/
This. The split infinitive, ending with preposition stuff is myths propagated by domineering language teachers.

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 05:22:49 PM
c) No different in essence than in the masses of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven. The 3-part structure (Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison) is standard, as a reflection of the Trinity.
This is true! But often Mozart, Haydn, etc. seem to achieve this by repetition of the words, rather than stretching each syllable out to 45 seconds  ;D ;D

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 04:57:08 PM
Then please keep trying. But the Bernstein, not the Previn.
The Bernstein is what I have (the gigantic box set).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 07:24:01 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 06:28:11 PM
Hm, a split preposition. Like "anyfreakingwhere"?

That's a split adverb . . . . "Beyoncétween" or "underwearneath" would be split prepositions.

Quote from: Brian on May 27, 2016, 06:28:11 PM
This is true! But often Mozart, Haydn, etc. seem to achieve this by repetition of the words, rather than stretching each syllable out to 45 seconds  ;D ;D

Be glad it's not 46.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on May 27, 2016, 07:42:56 PM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 26, 2016, 11:39:03 AM
Somehow the idea of hearing Gershwin on the harp is more than I think I can handle (though he might be interesting on a quartet of contrabassoons), so I'll leave it to you. But as for my own pick, much as I love the Marenzio, I wish I had changed that to the Shapero Symphony or Meyer Kupferman's Little Symphony. Or for that matter the thrilling "Caressant l'Horizon" by the young Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. Make of that what you will.

This is the Kupferman I'd like people to know:
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/s/ssp00119a.php

The reviewer is I think unjustly harsh, but it's a delightful piece, a kind of American counterpart to Prokofiev's Classic Symphony. I spoke with Kupferman briefly while I was in high school, and he said of the performance either that he liked the strings but not the winds, or he liked the winds but not the strings, I can't remember which. But he's a very good composer even though his name ends with an N.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Ken B on May 28, 2016, 06:11:33 AM
We need a new thread: Melismata: The Ultimate Evil
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 30, 2017, 06:53:54 AM
(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/RR-139SACD.jpg)

After very much enjoying two piano works by Adam Schoenberg, Picture Etudes and Bounce, on a recital a couple of years ago, I looked forward to his first orchestral album with great anticipation. The piano works suggested a composer with organizational skills, a deep understanding of music history, and a sense of fun.

Unfortunately, this new disc is pure cheese. Sidebar: since when is cheese an insult? Cheese is delicious. Few things on earth are better than cheese. In terms of "insults that are actually compliments," cheese has gotta rank way high up there. Imagine if we said music was "pure chocolate" but meant it denigratingly.

Anyway, I do mean to denigrate this disc. What's a better term than cheese? Hmm. Schlock. Puffballs. The American Symphony, composed after Obama got elected with stupid platitudes from the composer ("I was excited about ushering in this new era in our nation's history, and for the first time, I truly understood what it meant to be American." maybe there's a reason he's not an author), is so naive and treacly that Donald Trump's election, I hope, will erase it off the face of the earth. It might be Trump's most positive legacy. Lacking any kind of spine, and with the flat, undynamic engineering making it seem even more pasty-white, the piece reflects Young Schoenberg's studies with Corigliano and his respect for names like Copland and Glass, but without any sense of the longform structures any of them might have used to write a symphony.

"Finding Rothko" is better, including an aleatoric movement (!) that remains tenuously connected to old-school tonality, but it has a lot more in common with Jennifer Higdon's populist orchestral concert openers, rather than, say, "Rothko Chapel".

"Picture Studies" is the newest and most advanced work here, a response to a Kansas City Symphony commission for a "21st century Pictures at an Exhibition". The promenade is not gonna win anybody over - it sounds like the soundtrack to an indie Hollywood weepie starring Meryl Streep as a cancer-stricken matriarch - but there are some legitimately fun, descriptive movements describing various artists, including Kandinsky, Calder, and Miró. In place of The Great Gate of Kiev, though, we get Pigeons in Flight, which I think pretty much summarizes the relation of young Adam's orchestral music to the predecessors by whom he is so clearly inspired. Harsh, I know. This one disappointed me.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 31, 2017, 10:14:23 AM
(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/DSL-92211.jpg)

American Contemporary Music Ensemble presents:

Caleb Burhans - "Jahrzeit"

A plaintive work for string quartet written in memory of the composer's father (Jahrzeit is a time for remembering the dead and reciting the Kaddish), this has the sort of open harmonies and earnest melodic feeling that are commonly associated with American "folk" populist composers (see: Schickele writing under his own name). In the first few minutes, the piece threatens to get cloying, but eventually Burhans reveals a sort of progressive minimalism in which the music slowly moves downward in register to the end. A complex piece built to sound simple; time will tell if it rewards repeated listening, but it may well not.

Caroline Shaw - "In manus tuas"

That Caroline Shaw is a goddamned supergenius will never be in doubt, thanks to her amazing grab-you-by-the-ears-and-throw-you-into-the-next-century "Partita for Eight Voices," which might maybe be my favorite classical piece composed in my lifetime. "In manus tuas" is for solo cello, which forces her away from her greatest strength - hyperimaginative counterpoint and "conversation" - towards a style that evokes Bach and Tallis. This ain't the mindblowing earsplosion of "Partita", but it's a respectable little piece.

Caroline Shaw - "Gustave Le Gray"

Inspired by Chopin's mazurka Op 17 No 4 in A minor. This is both good news - that's one of the most extraordinary piano pieces ever - and bad news - let's face it, pieces "inspired by" and "translating" great masterworks are almost always less interesting than the original. (How many counterexamples are there, really? Variations don't count. Hindemith's Metamorphoses? Finale of Brahms Symphony No. 4?) Well, anyway, the same is true here. Lots of repeated notes, an extended direct quote of the intro in the middle of Shaw's rewrite, some more repetition. After 6:00 we finally get some of that Caroline Shaw goodness: the misdirection as to where a musical line is going, the restless addition of new motifs and rhythms. The piece feels like it was improvised by a great improviser who needed a few minutes to figure out what she wanted to do, but left the warmups in along with the "real" work.

Timo Andres - "Thrive on Routine"

This one's inspired by Charles Ives's morning routine of farming potatoes and practicing Bach. There's a movement called "Potatoes". As usual with the silliest contemporary composer "inspirations", it's best to ignore the movement titles rather than wondering what potatoes sound like, or why Ives's "morning" starts with such loud shrill notes (alarm clock?). I actually enjoyed most of this, to be honest. It's a little generic "American conservatory c. 2010," but it's not bad.

John Luther Adams - "In a Treeless Place, Only Snow"

Great title. Great pairing of two vibraphones, celesta, and string quartet. Like all of the John Luther Adams I've heard, this is basically a very slow, slow-moving, meditative minimalist piece. It's pretty, very well-scored for the various instruments, and knows when to adjust the dial to generate a little change (the piano moves in and out like a dream-dancer). But, as with all of the John Luther Adams I've heard, it's just too damn long. At 11 minutes, the piece would be very good; at 17, it's...

A disc of interesting listens, I'll say. I don't regret hearing any of them. But I do plan to return to Caroline Shaw's "Partita" immediately.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2017, 10:21:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 31, 2017, 10:14:23 AM
John Luther Adams - "In a Treeless Place, Only Snow"

Great title. Great pairing of two vibraphones, celesta, and string quartet. Like all of the John Luther Adams I've heard, this is basically a very slow, slow-moving, meditative minimalist piece. It's pretty, very well-scored for the various instruments, and knows when to adjust the dial to generate a little change (the piano moves in and out like a dream-dancer). But, as with all of the John Luther Adams I've heard, it's just too damn long. At 11 minutes, the piece would be very good; at 17, it's...

Interesting, thanks.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 25, 2017, 06:06:42 AM
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My first full disc devoted solely to the music of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, and my first disc played entirely by Lauma Skride, regular accompanist of her more famous sister.  The work was composed after a trip through Italy, rather like Liszt was inspired to write his second year of his Annees, and her music and style is very much of the time and place.  To be sure, the music is not of the same caliber of Liszt's masterpiece, but then I had no expectation that it would be.  It is generally a bit more intimate in scale, though it is not limited to being a set of salon pieces.  There are some sunny, vibrant passages, but there are also some darker, more introspective passages.  It is not surprising that one can hear the influence of her younger brother from time to time, with A Midsummer's Night Dream making an appearance a couple times, and a few passages sound rather like some Lieder Ohne Worte.  Mendelssohn-Hensel does have her own voice, and it is in that introspection mentioned before that one hears it most.  This is some fine music, and I wouldn't be averse to hearing another version of, especially from a very interventionist pianist.

Skride does an excellent job.  Her style is often very straight-forward, and her tone is generally pleasant, but she does not go in for histrionics.

Sound is excellent, as what one would expect from a major label release ca 2007.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 28, 2017, 06:20:45 AM
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I enjoy Sofia Gubaidulina's music from time to time, and I have sampled her work in a variety of genres - orchestral, choral, chamber, even accordion - but until now, I had never tried her piano music.  Marcela Roggeri recorded all of Gubaidulina's piano music, written in the 60s and 70s, in 2007 for Transart.  There's a Chaconne, Musical Toys, the Sonata, a Toccata-Troncata, and the Invention.  One can hear bits of Shostakovich and Ligeti in her writing, along with a healthy dollop of Bartok (especially in the Sonata), and an even healthier dollop of Prokofiev (in Musical Toys).  The mysticism and uncentered nature of some of her bigger works is not as evident here; the music tends to be more pointed.  The Chaconne and collection of miniatures Musical Toys are compact and Roggeri plays with great vigor and force, while never sounding unduly harsh.  The more substantial Sonata, complete with strings damped on the fly by hand and a bamboo stick dragged across the piano pegs, mixes quasi- or pseudo-folk elements, Prokofievian modernism, and jazz to good effect.  The short Toccata-Troncata, and especially the Invention, are tossed off with aplomb, the latter sounding somewhat improvisational in nature.

Roggeri acquits herself quite nicely here, and though I doubt these works ever achieve core rep listening frequency for me, I will be returning to this disc.  I may even opt to try another of the handful of discs out there devoted to the music.

Sound is close and clear, as usual with Transart, but there is a bit more weight here.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 30, 2017, 05:28:20 AM
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It has been a good long while since I last bought a new disc of Leonardo Balada's music, and since this ditty was available for five bucks, I snapped it up.  It contains five works composed between 1962 and 2010, with most penned in the 70s.  That means it covers all of Balada's compositional styles.  Per usual in this series, the composer's notes definitively explain what he wanted to do with each work. 

The disc opens with the Cumbres, from 1971, an avant-garde period work that explores the high reaches of most of the instruments in the ensemble and blends the instruments to create "electronic" effects.  It is not unlike some of Ligeti's music in some regards, and its brief length means the music does not overstay it welcome.  Next is the Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion, from 1973.  The opening sounds light and fun, in an avant garde way, and obviously evokes Stravinsky.  (The composer also mentions Poulenc.)  The single movement work more or less conforms to a fast-slow-fast style, and the second, slow portion is a bit more relaxed much of the time before reverting to a very Bartok First Piano Concerto style ending.  Again, Balada keeps the length of the piece just right for the music.  Listeners open to avant garde stylings are left wanting more.  The Concerto for Cello and Nine Players from 1962/1967 is from Balada's neo-classical style, and again Stravinsky is the first name that comes to mind.  That's not to say the work is derivative, just that it's stylistically similar to some Stravinsky.  The music's rythmic incisiveness and lean textures are most compelling, and the cello writing sounds daunting for the soloist and thrilling for the listener.  Next comes the Viola Concerto from 2010, which means it is avant garde infused with folk elements, though the folk elements are not always especially obvious to people unfamiliar with the source material.  What is obvious is that Balada like to explore the high registers of the viola here, and both the solo part and the orchestral accompaniment demand highly skilled players.  While not tuneful in the Mendelssohn or Tchaikovsky manner, it harks back to an extent to some string concertos from the first half of the 20th Century.  Given the paucity of concertos for the viola, I would think this would be taken up readily by violists, and it deserves a wide audience; it's some of the good stuff.  The disc closes with Sonata for Ten Winds from 1979.  Works for winds alone aren't generally my thing, so when I write that Balada's piece has some nice ideas and music in it but doesn't really work for me, that's down to my tastes.  Fans of wind ensembles may very well find a lot to love here.

Sound is immediate and clear, and performances are all excellent.  Another peach of a disc of Balada's music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 13, 2017, 05:19:52 AM
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A new to me ensemble playing a not new to me, but still obscure, composer: the youthful Alauda Quartet play the two string quartets of Roffredo Caetani in world premiere recordings.

The disc starts off with the Second Quartet, from 1907 when the composer was around middle age, and it is a conservative example of quartet writing for its time.  A thick, rich sound resplendent with beautiful harmonies and attractive melodies, the slow moving quartet sounds very fin de siècle Viennese, a merger of Brahmsian formal style with Zemlinskyian richness.  It's not a top tier composition, but it's a lovely one that makes for a fine piece on disc and likely in concert.  The First Quartet, Opus One, Number One, written when Caetani was only seventeen, lacks the same formal exactness of the later work, but it sounds similarly beautiful and even more conservative and indebted to composers who came before.  The one continuous movement unfolds at a slightly slow overall pace and sounds a mite too long, but nothing so bad as to cause one's attention to wander.

The Alauda Quartet plays splendidly, with superb intonation and ensemble playing and, at least as recorded, a warm sound.  Turns out cellist Elena Cappelletti has taken part in master classes with Korean cellist Sung-Won Yang, he of the Asian Invasion.  Since the group has already shown that they can play rich and romantic, a brand spankin' new Zemlinsky cycle would be most welcome, as would some French quartets of the period.  If they go more standard rep, I wouldn't mind hearing it, and if they go more obscure rep, I wouldn't mind hearing that, either.  Of course, they've already changed one member, so any recordings going forward may or may not sound a bit different.

Superb sonics, but St Andreas Church in Hannover is not sound-proof.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 13, 2017, 05:54:41 AM
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Here's a major label, major artist release I hadn't even seen until recently.  Since Amazon's pricing algorithm dropped it down to six bucks and Prime eligible, I went for it.  Howard Blake has written hundreds of pieces, and is most famous for his soundtrack work.  His magnum opus appears to be The Snowman, a British TV special, followed by The Duellists, one of the few Ridley Scott movies I've not seen.  The only films I've see where he composed the soundtrack are Flash Gordon (though all I remember are the Queen contributions), The Lords of Discipline, and Amityville 3-D.  Ahem.  I can't say that the last two soundtracks stuck with me, either.  It also turns out Mr Blake has been friends with Vladimir Ashkenazy for decades, has composed pieces for him before, and did so specifically for this album.  The two worked together to cobble together enough works for the disc, and Blake includes notes for all of the works, which range from teenage enthusiasms written in the 50s, including one work that was a gift for a girlfriend, up to the 2013 piece Parting, Op 650a. 

The first three pieces are from film work: Walking in the Air from The Snowman, Music Box from The Changeling, and Laura from The Duellists.  All three are pleasant enough and sound like piano transcriptions of film music.  They are anodyne and not particularly challenging.  They are the least interesting pieces on the disc.

Track four, Prelude for Vova [Ashkenazy] from 2012, is more obviously pianistic in nature.  It's not a virtuosic showpiece, but dynamics are utilized better, and there are passages where Ashkenazy shows that even in his late 70s (the disc was recorded in 2013), he could play well, as if anyone needed that reassurance.  The next piece, commissioned by Ashkenazy for a piano competition, is Speech After Long Silence.  It starts off also sounding anodyne, but adds some nice dissonant passages and ratchets up scale and volume and intensity and complexity until the satisfying coda.  If not a modern masterpiece, it's substantial enough that I wouldn't mind hearing it in person.  The next eight pieces are the first eight pieces of the two-decades in gestation twenty-four piece Lifecycle.  I'll leave it to the gentle reader to determine why there are twenty-four pieces.  Apparently, these early pieces were partly inspired by the composer seeing Ashkenazy play Scriabin in recital.  The pieces are not at all Scriabinesque, but they are again satisfyingly pianistic, and if not dazzling, they are serious and one can detect some serious influences (maybe some Grieg and Faure) along with some soundtrack sensibilities and some jazz.  Next, the disc switches to two works for two pianos, with Vovka Ashkenazy joining his father.  The Dances vary in style and content and are well done.  I can see these potentially entering the repertoire of piano duets.  Same with the Sonata, which is altogether more ambitious and intriguing.  Blake writes that he randomly selected Beethoven's Op 22 as a model, but that other than four movements, they have nothing in common.  That's true.  I'd say the music has more in common with Bartok or Prokofiev, with its rhythmic drive and somewhat angular phrasing and stark sound.  That written, there are some soundtrack-y elements that work their way in to the music.  Overall, this is the best piece on the disc and would definitely be nice to hear in recital, if only I went to duo recitals.  The disc closes with five short pieces, all around four minutes or less.  The substantial Piano Fantasy actually understays its welcome, and the remaining pieces are small in scale, intimate and soundtrack-y.

This disc won't receive many serious listens, the Sonata for Two Pianos possibly aside, but it would make for good background music, especially when guests who enjoy classical music come over.  A guessing game of sorts could be played to general merriment.

Sound is excellent and rich, if not completely SOTA.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 08, 2017, 05:20:41 AM
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Until this disc, I had managed to avoid the music of John Tavener.  I remember when The Protecting Veil was real hot stuff, at least in Gramophone, but it didn't interest me.  Truth to tell, the only reason I ended up with this disc is because it is part of the twelve-disc compilation of Steven Isserlis' RCA recordings.  The probability I would have bought this on its own was basically nil.

Part of my early aversion to sampling Tavener's music decades ago was my then aversion to liturgical music.  I'm over that, but I couldn't quite shake my prejudice when I started spinning the disc.  It opens with Svyati, a setting of a Russian Orthodox funeral text.  There's a solemn, dark feel to the choral singing, which is excellent, and Isserlis plays beautifully and somberly, and the work is more haunting and less New Age-y than I thought it would be.  Next up is Eternal Memory, for cello and string orchestra, written for Isserlis.  The solo writing is good and the playing is world-class, and though it might sound a bit derivative at times (eg, one might hear Dvorak, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, older polyphonic music), it works well and some passages are achingly beautiful and the sentiment behind the music seems genuine and profound.  The Akhmatova Songs, for cello and soprano, a rare but not unknown combo in my collection, follows.  The austere, purposely constrained yet expressive mix works well.  Patricia Rozario certainly can sing well and hit those high notes, and Isserlis offers perfectly judged support.  This is the best work on thie disc.  Next up is The Hidden Treasure, a putative string quartet, but one where the cello is very clearly the lead instrument, with prominent solo parts as well.  There's a vaguely "eastern" sound to some of the string writing, and a "mystical" aspect as well.  While the playing is all predictably excellent, the piece goes on too long at over twenty-five minutes.  The concluding Chant for solo cello lets Isserlis shine by himself.  Clearly, even not knowing about Isserlis' association with the composer, it would be clear that he was (and is) earnest and serious about and devoted to the music.

So, the music and the disc are pretty good, the Akhmatova Songs especially.  However, if I go for modern Eastern Orthodox-inspired music, I have to say that Sofia Guibadulina is much more my speed, with a more satisfying and daring musical language.  Tavener strikes me as too artistically conservative, though his music is better than anticipated.  Still, when I don my Helmet of Prognostication®, I do not see myself building a large Tavener collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 24, 2017, 05:21:38 AM
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This is my first exposure to the piano music of Gian Francesco Malipiero, and I believe it's also my first exposure to any of his music.  This disc contains six works, three of which receive world premiere recordings here, and one of which is a really big surprise. 

Living between 1882 and 1973, and composing the works recorded here between 1908 and 1959, Malipiero lived and worked in a time of fairly notable changes in music, and some new and exciting possibilities.  The piano music he produced is unique in that it largely seems to eschew many compositional trends and more than occasionally looks back.  One can hear some baroque and impressionistic influences.  Much of the music is fairly simple and at times austere.  At first, it sounds strikingly old-fashioned and conservative, but as the disc spins, the music's at times fantasy-like sound grows on the listener.  The best shorthand way to describe is as a blend of Mompou and Bartok.  One can also hear pre-echoes of Messiaen in the repetition and harmonics here and there, too.  But it's not really derivative.  It's not easy listening music, but it's not especially challenging.  It's not very exciting most of the time, the more vibrant Hortus Conclusus often excepted, but nor does one's attention wander.  I'm going to need some more time and listening sessions with this one.  If the music's appeal fades, that's fine, but if it does not, there are a handful of other discs of the composer's piano music to explore.

Now to that big surprise.  The last track on the disc is not what it is supposed to be.  It is supposed to be the 1959 work Variazione sulla pantomima dell'Amor brujo di Manuel de Falla.  It is Vladimir Ashkenazy's Decca recording of Chopin's Barcarolle.  I've never experienced anything like this before.  How such an error occurred in the pressing is beyond me.  I guess I could request a replacement item, but I picked it up as an Add-On for a few bucks, so I'm not going to sweat it.  (I spot checked the other works on YouTube and confirmed that they are all Malipiero, and the missing piece is also available.)

Pianist Sabrina Alberti plays well.  Sonics are not up to modern snuff.  The sound is close and dry, lacks edge and bite in all but the loudest passages, when it almost sounds overloaded, and sounds dominated by the middle registers.  This is odd for a contemporary recording touting 24 bit recording technology.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Omicron9 on August 24, 2017, 05:47:24 AM
Greetings, Todd...

Thank you for this great thread and for keeping it updated for 10 years running.  I am always on the lookout for new (to me) music, and your thread is most helpful and informative in this regard.

Kind regards,
-09
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 28, 2017, 05:52:22 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


This disc is the first I've imported from mainland China.  I spotted this disc of Chinese compositions whilst hunting for new and exotic things to listen to, albeit only on a very expensive JVC disc at first.  Fortunately, I found the disc for a very reasonable $7 on eBay, as opposed to $37+ on Amazon.  While I would not be surprised if I bought a gray market disc, especially given the price, I don't know for sure, and I don't care.  The seller from Shunde got it to me in just over a week, for about $10 all-in.  The copy I received advertises the XRCD2 pedigree as opposed to the K2 mastering on the front of its cardboard cover, though the inner cover shows the full (advertising) flow chart of the remastering process, which includes the K2 Rubidium Master Clock, so you just know it's some heavy-duty, ultra-serious stuff.  This is the same flow chart as found in the JVC reissue of the Paul Badura-Skoda Beethoven piano sonata cycle previously on Astrée.  This leads me to believe it is a Japanese market release.  Did I mention the remastering process uses Rubidium in the master clock?  The recording was made in China in the year 2000, with some DG A-list producers and engineers. 

The disc includes eight short works by ten composers - two of the works are collaborations or reworkings.  The works all rely on Western instrumentation - no pipas, erhus, or liuqins here - though from time to time, the percussion section sounds like it could be augmented by a non-standard instrument.  Most of the music is also generally Western in conception in that it usually sounds conventionally tonal, but some more "exotic" approaches (eg, pentatonic scales) are used as folk music is an influence.  There is certainly nothing that comes across as especially alien to Western ears nowadays to people who listen to classical music, pop music, or soundtracks.  Much of the music has very rough Western analogs, and those will be included in the descriptions as a sort of shorthand.  This is not meant to imply that the music is all derivative, but to communicate a sense of what is on the disc.

The disc opens with He Luting's under three minute Senjidema, from 1945.  Based on Mongolian folk tunes, it starts slowly and then picks up the pace.  It's generically "Eastern", and one can imagine Aaron Copland having written something similar. 

Next up is Bao Yuankai's Five Orchestral Pieces. The first piece, Zouxikou, based on a popular provincial ballad is mostly Western sounding, but has an identifiably Chinese sound in part, especially in the violins.  Green Willow, the second piece, sounds more or less like a missing Tchaikovsky piece reliant on pizzicato throughout.  Lady Lan Huahua follows, and it is based on an ancient ballad as well, and sounds lush and romantic and what one might wish Puccini could have worked into his Eastern themed works, and given it's tragic theme, it seems like a prelude or interlude from an opera. The Murmuring Brook follows, and it sounds something like a leisurely, gorgeous mash-up of Debussy, Vaughn Williams, and something vaguely Eastern.  Duihua ends the suite, inspired by a folk song.  Alternating between boisterous, rhythmically alert tuttis and gentler, Griegian music, it ends the work beautifully.

Next up is Wang Ming's Haixia Suite, where the composer includes three movements called Childhood, Weaving Fishnets, and Harvest, and she blends her own experience and idealized experiences.  One can hear whiffs of Debussy and Sibelius and Dvorak, and other Western influences, along with more obvious Eastern influences, with traditional Western orchestration used to evoke a more concrete Eastern sound.  The different elements blend together to make something new and beautiful, and if perhaps a bit too sentimental, that's quite alright.

Li Huanhzi's Spring Festival Overture, from 1955-56 follows, and once again, folk music serves as a foundation, and the music is robust yet light and festive (duh).  It sounds like Chinese Dvorak, which I definitely mean as a compliment.

Beijing Tidings by Zheng Lu and Ma Hongye, is up next, is folk music based, and here one can hear Borodin in Polovtsian Dances mode, or perhaps Enescu at his most rhapsodic, with dashes of Copland and DSCH (the Ninth), in a brief, colorful, vibrant, buoyant, and maybe slightly garish piece.  This would make for a good surprise concert opener.

Liu Tieshan and Mao Yuan's Yao Dance from the 1950s follows.  Formalized folk music - a dance, as it happens - starts slowly and unfolds somewhat episodically, with wonderful rhythmic flair and expert orchestration.  This almost sounds like what Bartok himself might have written had he ventured farther East in his exploration of folk music.  It is expertly done, and is possibly the best work on the disc. 

Next is Liu Tingyu's Susan Suite.  (Should it be Su-San?)  At just shy of thirteen minutes, it's the second longest work, though it is contained in a single track since it unfolds more or less continuously.  The suite is drawn from the composer's ballet Escorted Lady Convict, which itself is based on the Peking opera The Escorted Susan.  The tale is suitably operatic, to be sure, and the music brings five names to mind: Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Janacek, and Bright Sheng.  The use of percussion falls outside the norm for Western compositions at times (and happily so), but it blends in with the music well, and the composer demonstrates an ability to transition between some starkly different music basically seamlessly, with the orchestra executing it superbly.  Liu really seems to have a grasp of theatrical material on the basis of this piece, and he might be worth more exploration in the future.

The disc closes with Lu Qiming's Ode to the Red Flag, from 1965.  An ode to revolutionary success, with fanfares and bombast and a generally too much feeling, it might just be enough to make a dyed in the wool commie tear up.  The DSCH-like march married to music that foreshadows John Williams' Superman soundtrack elicited something of a chuckle.  (Yes, I know this was composed before the film soundtrack was written, but the aural connection is there.)  I've yet to hear Erwin Schulhoff's musical setting of The Communist Manifesto (I'm not sure it has been recorded), and I think this not quite brief enough piece - it's over nine minutes long - will have to do.

Most of the music is really quite lovely and entertaining, and I can easily see enjoying one or two of the pieces in a well-mixed concert.  That written, it is hard to see these specific works becoming either core rep in the West, or oft listened to by me.  YMMV.  One thing strikes me as certain: composers in the East are creating some fine music, and they are blending different traditions in new ways, and the probability of great works existing now is quite high, and will only grow with time.

Playing is excellent throughout.  Sound is likewise excellent, but it sounds a bit bright some of the time.  How much of that is the recording itself, and how much the remastering and potential re-EQing, I can't say.  I can say that the sonics are not worth any premium price.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on August 28, 2017, 06:28:07 AM
Quote from: Todd on August 24, 2017, 05:21:38 AM
Now to that big surprise.  The last track on the disc is not what it is supposed to be.  It is supposed to be the 1959 work Variazione sulla pantomima dell'Amor brujo di Manuel de Falla.  It is Vladimir Ashkenazy's Decca recording of Chopin's Barcarolle.
This reminds me of something that happened to me in 2009 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13.msg339831/topicseen.html#msg339831): a new copy of Abbado's "Rome" Beethoven cycle included an album by the band Extreme.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 30, 2017, 05:24:37 AM
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What a delightful disc!  Here are fifty short tracks combined into eighteen sonatas, the longest of which is just six-and-a-half minutes.  Some of the individual movements are less than a minute.  All of them are fun, most of them are fast, light, and slight.  They basically sound like Scarlatti shorn of pesky ornamentation and too-thoughtful invention.  Every work is over too soon, leading to a sort a avaricious desire to listen to the next.  Victor Sangiorgio plays splendidly and sound is superb.  I may very well have to buy the second volume, and at the very least I will find a way to hear it.  It looks like there are a couple other sets of Cimarosa's keyboard music floating around, too. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 12, 2017, 05:38:54 AM
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Luise Adolpha Le Beau is a rarity in my collection: A female composer from the 19th Century.  (Well, 19th and 20th.)  To be sure, I have more than a few discs by women composers, and have heard a decent number of works by women composers, but most are 20th and 21st artists.  Ms Le Beau was born in 1850 in the Grand Duchy of Baden, appears to have received a bourgeois education, became a well known pianist and teacher, and hobnobbed with various musical personages of the late 19th Century.  She composed a wide array of works in most genres, so this disc contains only the tip of the iceberg.

The disc opens with Three Piano Pieces, Op 1.  The pieces are light and tuneful and attractive, and they sound like Mendelssohn study pieces.  Next up is a set of Variations on an Original Theme, Op 3.  Mendelssohn again pops into one's mind, and it is an OK piece, filled with a lot of chords at the end.  The Op 8 Piano Sonata follows, and at around fourteen minutes, it's the largest scale work on the disc.  Here one can hear some Schumann and early Brahms.  There's plenty of energy and drive.  Arpeggio lovers will likely adore the somewhat rushed sounding Andante, which in some sections is just one arpeggio after another.  The concluding Allegretto, perhaps too rushed by Markovina, sounds too dense and opaque and, well, uninteresting, and at the same time not worked out enough.  Next are Eight Preludes, Op 12.  All are very brief, and in the context of sets of Preludes, not musically challenging.  They make for comfortable listening.  The Improvista Op 30 follows, and sounds like the composer lifted some discarded passages from Mendelssohn, though the piece is OK+.  Of the remaining pieces on the disc, all sound like pleasant romantic era character pieces, the Three Old Dances, Op 48 aside, which sound like romantic miniatures inspired by the baroque.

But wait, there's more!  Purchasers of the disc receive a super-secret user name and password to login and download three additional tracks in MP3 format from Genuin, bringing the total music available to just shy of ninety minutes.  Of course I downloaded the extras.  They include the Op 2 Concert Etude, the one missing Op 57 piano piece not included on the disc, and Im Walde, Op 63.  The Concert Etude is bold and extroverted and mostly forgettable, and the other two works blend in with the rest of the disc.

The disc and extras make for a decent introduction to the composer, but the disc contains no hidden gems.  It seems very unlikely that any of the works ever become core rep.  The music was conservative for its time.  Maybe one or two pieces would make for a nice surprise work in a recital here or there, though.  There's nothing here to indicate that Le Beau had musical ideas on par with Clara Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn - and not to take anything away from those two, I have to think that being around actual geniuses must have inspired them to up their games, bringing out more of their innate talent and exploiting the benefits of the upscale upbringings they experienced.

Ana-Marija Markovina plays very well, displaying fine fingerwork, an ability to project, and high levels of energy.  Somewhat like in her CPE Bach, she seems to be somewhat assertive, not displaying a great deal of tonal or dynamic nuance or delicacy, though the music may not call for it.  Here she plays a Steinway, yet her sonority is closer than anticipated to that found in her CPE Bach set, which used a Bösendorfer. 

The liner notes start off with an insufferable, academic-ish mini-essay on women in music and interpretation.  I got through some of the writing. 

Sound is superb, as per normal with Genuin releases.  The disc is cleaner, with less glare, but the MP3 tracks sound fully acceptable.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 19, 2017, 05:09:01 AM
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My first major (to me) Amazon Add-on related discovery.  Gustave Samazeuilh is a name I don't recall having seen before, and I may very well have gone on for the rest of my life without hearing him had it not been for Olivier Chauzu's discounted Schumann disc I snapped up.  Whilst browsing the pianist's discography, I found a few enticing items, including this ditty.  My curiosity piqued, I moseyed on over to YouTube, did a search, found some tracks from the disc, and proceeded to listen to one.  About ten or so seconds in, my mind was made up: I had to buy this disc, pronto.  I'm always on the lookout for some new or obscure piano music that for some reason is neglected, and this is a perfect example of such music.  Here is piano music of the Frenchest variety, at times merging Debussy and Ravel into one enormously satisfying whole.  But let me back up a second.  The extensive liner notes offer clear indications as to why and how this is.  Samazeuilh's mother was a pianist, and the family counted among its friends such people as Chausson, Duparc, Faure, and Ysaye.  Samazeuilh studied under d'Indy and later Dukas, and was friends with Ravel.  He attended various musical goings-on in Paris, and was selected by a variety of composers, including Debussy, to write piano transcriptions of other various works.  He was also a notable critic, and one with an ear to the future, as he identified young Messiaen as a talent to watch.  Samazeuilh was veritably steeped in the music and culture of the early decades of 20th Century France.  In this context, it is not surprising that he might write some decent music. 

This disc contains eight works spanning the time period 1902 to 1947, and one of the works, the Nocturne, from 1938, receives its premiere recording here.  The disc opens with the Nocturne, and it sort of sounds like a mashup of Debussy and Ravel, with older, slightly lesser French composers in the mix - Chausson, perhaps.  It's lovely and atmospheric yet possessed of clean melodic lines; it's unique yet immediately accessible.  This was the piece I sampled on YouTube that convinced me almost immediately to buy the disc.  The six movement Piano Suite in G from 1911 follows.  Each short piece is distinctive and nicely characterized, but they flow one to the other in a logical procession.  As played by Chauzu, they mostly sound like charming, modern salon pieces, and one might be able to detect hints of Chabrier, though Samazeuilh may or may not have been influenced by him.  The direct yet strangely effective playing in Prelude alone makes me think that Chauzu's recording of Iberia might be worth buying.  The Chanson à ma poupée (1904) is a bon-bon and Naïades au soir (1910) a brief, more impressionistic work that never quite abandons a cleaner, more Ravelian sound.  The 3 Petites Inventions from 1904 doesn't even bother hiding its inspiration, here Bach's BWV784, updated and Gallicized.  Rhythmically alert and subtle, tuneful and breezy, and infused with a bit of fugal Franckism, the five minutes of music fly by.  The Quatre Esquisses (1944) opens with the Dédicace that at first recalls the opening to Estampes, but transcribed down, before moving to a very Engulfed Cathedral like piece.  The Luciole is the French Bumblee flying about, the Sérénade for left hand only evokes Spanish music (again making me think I should try Chauzu's Iberia), while Souvenir for right hand only sort of blends Ravel, Liszt, and Messiaen into a lovely little piece.  The Evocation (1947) is a solo piano transcription of a work originally written for violin and piano for Georges Enescu.  Very much an impressionistic, hazy, and gentle piece, never seeming to rise above mezzo forte, if even that far, it falls beautifully on the ear.

The big work closes the disc: Le Chant de la Mer from 1918-19.  At twenty minutes and change, it's a proper recital-scaled work.  It also blends together a wide array of influences, always to superb effect.  The first movement, Prelude, is relatively calm and simple, with repeated chords used as a nice hypnotic, expressive device.  The second movement, Clair du lune au large, starts off tenderly and beautifully, and builds up gradually, exposing a passionate core, and one that blends late Liszt, perhaps some Scriabin, and an amalgam of French influences into a heady, sensuous fantasy.  It works better through headphones than speakers, strangely enough, unlike the rest of the disc.  The piece closes with Tempête et lever du jour sur les flots, and here one hears the Debussy of the Preludes, the Liszt of the Harmonies, and the Ravel of Gaspard.  Swelling climaxes, challenging and uneven rhythm, forceful forward movement, cutting melodies, it's a veritable musical maelstrom.  While Chauzu plays the piece splendidly, this is a work that I would very much like to hear one of today's lions of the piano play: Chamayou would be splendid.  Grosvenor, Lifits, Abduraimov, and Trifonov, too.  But this has Herbert Schuch's name written all over it.  (Of course, one can imagine what Arcadi Volodos might be able to do with it, but that seems less likely than winning the lottery.)

The music on the disc is all immensely enjoyable, and a few pieces are borderline or actual masterpieces, Le Chant de la Mer, in particular.  That written, it's easy enough to hear why these works have not become repertoire staples.  They do not hide their influences well or at all, and while not simply derivative, they seem to rely on knowledge of other piano composers and works for their success.  The music strikes me as music for connoisseurs, meaning pianophiles who listen to too much piano music.  Even given that this will likely remain permanently obscure music, there is one other disc of most of the piano music by Stéphane Lemelin out on Atma, so I may end up giving that disc a try at some point, and the smattering of recordings of other Samazeuilh pieces may end up finding their way to my ears.

Sound for the 2014 recording is very close and exceedingly clear.  The drawback to the closeness is that Chauzu's pedaling is often way too obvious and damper mechanism noise is audible throughout.  Both of these traits are worse through speakers, the former in particular, as it produces palpable low frequency thuds.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 26, 2017, 05:18:13 AM
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Here's fresh evidence of why I continue to collect recordings of both core rep and more obscure works.  Now, I've got me a bit of Telemann, namely some Tafelmusik and the Paris Quartets.  That music is very nice, extremely well crafted, and makes for enjoyable enough listening, though perhaps more of the background type.  It did not prepare me for the Ino Cantata.  Here's a work by the elderly, mid-80s Telemann, that sounds fresher, more vibrant, and groundbreaking than the earlier fare.  Written in the 1760s, it sounds more forward-looking, pointing the way to Mozart, rather than merely retreading Baroque era conventions.  Brisk, crisp, nicely dramatic but not overdone, everything clicks for me.  The setting of the text relates to the whole Zeus/Semele/Dionysus thingy and is specifically set as Ino tranforms into a sea goddess.  That matters far less than the absolutely captivating quality of the music and the vocal writing.  This recording purportedly is the first that accurately reflects Telemann's autograph score.  Whatever the case may be, it is an astoundingly good work.  It may just be my early enthusiasm, but this strikes me a straight-up masterpiece.  All of the artists involved with the recording are new to me.  Ana Maria Labin sings superbly in the cantata, bringing home the drama.  I suppose some could consider her style better suited to classical era proper pieces, but I have no reservations about her singing.  This is a dramatic cantata, after all.  Michael Schneider and La Stagione Frankufurt deliver superb playing, pristinely and vibrantly executed.  The disc also includes the Orchestral Suite in D and a Fanfare to close the disc, both also from later in Telemann's career.  While not as gobsmackingly great as the cantata, they are quite good and maybe a cut above at least some of the Tafelmusik.  I really didn't need to find another musical rabbit hole to go down, but maybe late Telemann is worth further exploration.  I mean, just a bit, not a lot.  La Stagione Frankfurt is definitely worth another listen, and as luck would have it, they have recorded other Telemann works for CPO.  Hmmm.

SOTA sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 02, 2017, 05:42:51 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


My first-ever exposure to the music of Nikolai Kapustin.  To be sure, I bought the disc because I was interested in hearing Sun Hee You play, and the disc was a four buck "Add On" at Amazon, but new music is something of a bonus.  (I'm finding "Add Ons" to be useful and fun.) 

Ms You was born in Seoul, did the wunderkind thing in her home country, attended the Yewon School, and ended up moving to Italy and earning a diploma from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia and working with Lazar and Valentina Berman, among others.  Her bio cites a variety of collaborations with C-list artists and orchestras, but sometimes regional artists are as good as more famous artists. 

Kapustin is an honest to goodness living Ukrainian composer, and one heavily influenced by jazz.  Indeed, he was apparently known as jazz pianist and composer in the 50s.  This disc contains works penned in the 80s and 90s that betray that jazz influence.

The First Sonata definitely sounds sort of jazzy, in a Dave Brubeck meets Oscar Peterson meets Gershwin meets Debussy meets (early) Scriabin sort of way.  Much of the music sort of sounds like what might happen if a talented jazz pianist were hired to play piano at an upscale clothing store and decided to go off-program near closing time on a busy Saturday night.  It's improvisatory-ish and not easy listening, but it could still fade into the background if the pianist didn't play too loudly.  It's certainly not bad and makes for light entertainment, but I can't see listening to this very often.  The four Etudes and Bagatelles that follow are more syncopated than the sonata and given their brevity make for a more compelling experience.  The Seventh Sonata sounds like a jazzed up mix of Prokofiev and subdued post-war avant-garde writing, in a generic sense.  There's ample virtuoso writing in faster passages of the opening Allegretto, and the Adagio amoroso, possessed of a slow overall pulse, is stuffed with notes that fall not always beautifully on the ear.  That's perfectly alright, but I'm not sold on the amoroso bit.  Nor am I sold on the almost jazz-infused Boulez-meets-Schulhoff march that is the Minuetto being a Minuetto, though it sounds intriguing.  The concluding Allegro vivace is even more vibrant and intense than the opening movement.  This more abstract work is the best thing on the disc.  The concluding Variations take as their theme part of the opening of The Rite of Spring.  The music subjects the original to syncopated, vibrant, and colorful treatment, and it makes for an enjoyable enough listening experience.

Ms You most certainly possesses the technical equipment to play the music on offer here, and I would wager a whole lot besides.  Her recordings to date have focused on lesser-known composers and works, which is one way to make a name in a crowded marketplace, but I'd like to hear her in more standard rep, even if it is lesser works by greater composers.  Of course, I'd prefer to hear her take on more substantive fare even more.  The Chopin Etudes, say, or maybe some late Scriabin.

Superb sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 09, 2017, 05:18:10 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


Noriko Ogawa is a name I've long been familiar with, but until now, I've never listened to her playing.  Ogawa, in concert with repertoire advisor Yukihisa Miyayama, put together a disc comprised of a dozen short works or collections of works from eleven composers, with the works composed between 1900 and 1981.  The works are presented mostly chronologically by year of composition.

The disc opens with Two Piano Pieces by Rentaro Taki, who died at the ripe old age of 24.  The brief pieces hark back to Beethoven or Brahms.  Next comes Three Pieces after the Flower, by Shukichi Mitsukuri.  The pieces sound more "Eastern", by virtue of the use of pentatonic scales, and one can sort of hear where a more minimalist Debussy might have been heading toward.  Rather like with Yu Long's DG disc of Chinese compositions, from time to time one hears some music that would not sound out of place if it came from Eastern European composers, and here there are flashes of Janacek.  Too, in the final of the three pieces, one hears an austerity that calls Mompou to mind.  Apparently, the first movement was dedicated to Wilhelm Kempff, which makes sense.  Meiro Sugawara's short piece Steam follows, and this is unabashedly French sounding, meaning one needn't strain to hear the influence of Debussy at all.  Kunihiko Kasimoto's Three Piano Pieces, from 1934, follows, and it is even more Debussyan in approach, at least to start.  It depicts three different scenes of three different women wearing kimonos in Tokyo.  Vaguely impressionistic and programmatic, the work is more than just enjoyable, it is substantive, and more than imitative.  Some of the music melds Debussy at his most "impressionistic" and his most daring with hints of Karol Szymanowski and a wholly original, not entirely Western sensibility.  Next up are three brief Ryukyu Dances from Yasuji Kiyose, and here the name that immediately comes to mind is Bartok in a mix of his folk and didactic works.  They are enjoyable if slight.  Kikuko Kanai's Maidens Under the Moon, which is also a Ryukyu dance, follows, and her work is more bouyant and excited.  Perhaps her study in Brazil imparted a sensibility, because this sounds more like Villa-Lobos or Granados.  (Alternatively, one can imagine it as an even more caffeinated Charbrier of the Bourrée fantasque.)  It's quite delightful.

Fumio Hayasaka's Autumn follows, and once again Debussy is probably the closest Western analog.  Kiyoshige Koyama's brief Kagome-Variation follows.  The piece crams a brief theme and eight brief variations into just over five short minutes.  Written in 1967, it's adventurous, simple-ish (it's meant for children), and folksy.  Akio Yashiro's Nocturne, from 1947, is another work that brings French composers to mind, though Ravel in Pavane seems more the style here.  Yoshinao Nakata's Variational Etude is a brief set of simple-ish Etudes meant for children, and in this case, Ogawa herself played it in public for the first time at the age of seven.  I daresay this recording is a bit more accomplished than that early effort.  The disc closes with works by Ryuichi Sakamoto.  The Piano Suite, from 1970, is unabashedly modern.  The booklet mentions Messiaen and Miyoshi as influences.  I can vouch for the former, but not the latter, but it is not hard to hear echoes of Schoenberg, either.  Some may find the music and playing simply clangorous and tuneless, but that would be a shame.  It's one of the best works on the disc.  The final piece is the title track, Just for Me.  While not as formidable as the Suite, and despite being "Schumannesque" (though the composer means that he let the ideas take him wherever they lead), the piece is both somewhat sparse and somewhat angular and quite modern, which makes sense for a 1981 work.  Not as compelling as the other piece by the composer, it makes for a strong end to the disc.

Rather like with Long Yu's collection of orchestral works, I doubt any pieces presented here ever become core rep or oft heard pieces for me, but there's some good stuff packed in the seventy-eight minute running time, and I will return to the disc.

The twenty-plus year old BIS sound is fantastic, as expected.  I need to get me Ogawa's Debussy cycle.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 17, 2017, 05:17:52 AM
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I'm not particularly into lute music, though I have a few recordings, mostly of Dowland, that I listen to on rare occasion.  I wasn't really in the market for a new lute recording, but when this one popped up as a free download at CD Baby, I figured I couldn't really go wrong.  Oleg Timofeyev, who also plays and records guitar music, put together thirty-two tracks from ten composers I don't recall seeing the names of before, three tracks from Michelangelo Galilei, and a nice helping of works from that most prodigious of all composers, Anonymous, from all around Europe.  Hence, the wandering part.  The recording was made in a church in Iowa in the late 90s using a period lute.  The recording captures a nice sense of the recording space as well as the instrument, leading me to think it was a minimalist microphone set up.  It also has low level hiss, indicating an analog recording.  Timofeyev generates a warm and clear sound throughout, and he exudes a sense of comfort with the material.  He's in no rush while he plays, he doesn't try to make the largely simple sounding music more than it is, and the effect is welcoming and relaxing.  It's sort of ancient easy-listening.  The only pieces that stand out do so because of their length (over five minutes) in this collection of shorter pieces and movements.  The night I first listened to the disc, there was a nice cricket accompaniment between movements which seemed to fit.  This is one of those rare recordings that feels completely right from the first note of the first listen.  The disc it most immediately called to mind was the Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny disc Beyond the Missouri Sky, not because of the music, but rather because it's one of those discs that I could have sworn I've known all my life; though the music was new as I heard each note, it felt old.  (Portions of the Lady Ann Gordon Lilt and Port Preist do actually sound familiar.)  I doubt I listen to this disc with great frequency, but listen to it again I will.  This begs to be listened to early on a Sunday morning while drinking coffee and reading the paper.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 24, 2017, 05:44:44 AM
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Until I spotted this disc as an Amazon Add-on, I don't think I'd seen the name Ursula Mamlok.  Recorded for her 90th birthday in 2013, the now deceased Ms Mamlok was born in Germany in 1923 and started her musical education there, but had to flee in the 30s, and eventually she wound up in New York and studied at the Mannes School of Music, and then, in 2006, she returned to Germany.  She counts the Second Viennese School as the biggest influence on her musical style, and it shows.  People who don't like that style of music may not like this disc.  I happen to be fond of most of what I've heard, so it posed no issues for me.

The disc opens with an interview with the composer where she discusses some general items and some of the music on the disc, and it makes for an intriguing if not entirely necessary intro.

The first musical piece on offer is Confluences for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano, from 2001.  Mamlok marries a lot of jagged, clustery piano playing to more sustained, neo-expressionistic string writing, to often striking effect.  The slow final movement has sparse piano music and nice contrapuntal music played by the other three instruments, with the cello and clarinet making striking partners.  The next work, for solo piano, is called 2000 notes, with the first movement named Gruff.  More sparse music jumps from the speakers in a Berg meets Mompou meets Ligeti type piece.  Mamlok packs a pretty nice array of ideas into the four compact movements, with a tendency to move between slow and contemplative and almost old-time melodic content with some more astringent dissonance.  It works well.  Next is Polyphony I for solo clarinet, from 1968, which seems an odd title for a work for a solo wind instrument.  The music's polyphonic nature comes together from tying together various strands mentally, per the notes.  As a listener, there are a fair amount of higher than normal notes of long duration mixed with shorter middle and lower notes, and purposeful trills.  The piece could conceivably outstay its welcome, but like every work on the disc, it is short at just over nine minutes.  Sort of like Webern, but not to that extent, Mamlok knows to keep her pieces short.  From My Garden, for solo Viola, from 1983 follows.  In its compact timeframe, there's more use of quiet, extended notes (the direction is Still, as if suspended) interrupted by more jagged notes and chords.  The piece ends up an attention devouring dodecaphonic fantasia, and one which ends with pianissimo pizzicati, something one doesn't necessarily hear every day.  Here's a case where I wouldn't have minded if the piece were either longer, or part of a larger work.  A Rhapsody for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Viola from 1989 follows.  In five sections, alternating fast and slow, the individual musical ideas are brief yet appealing; the music is uncompromisingly modern and jagged and dissonant and difficult, but it is neither ugly nor disjointed.  It actually flows.  It's somewhat Carteresque.  The disc closes with Mamlok's String Quartet No 1.  Unabashedly serial and expressionistic, it sounds very influenced by the Second Viennese School.  The louder and faster music is fast and dense, but Mamlok shows her penchant for delivering slower, gentler music of surprising expressiveness even here.  As with the solo viola piece, I would not have minded if it lasted longer than its nine minutes, thirty-eight seconds. 

Mamlok's music shows that there's some life left in serial and serial-inspired music.  It also turns out that Bridge has a series devoted to Mamlok's music, and that no less a pianist than Garrick Ohlsson has recorded 2000 Notes.  I'm not sure that I need another recording of the work.  At least not yet.  But now that Mamlok's name is on my musical radar, I won't be surprised if I listen to more of her stuff.

The artists all acquit themselves expertly, and sound is pretty close to top shelf. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 31, 2017, 05:48:16 AM
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[This disc contains two new works, so I will shoehorn it into this thread.]

A marketing success.  I'll come right out and admit that the cover glamour shot of Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez was instrumental in my buying this disc.  Well, that, and the under $4 price tag.  The booklet contains three very well done, professionally photoshopped glamour shots and one "action" shot of the artist.  She recorded her first disc in 2014 for release on Delos in 2016.  She was able to procure the production services of David Frost.  This recital includes two core rep works (LvB 10/3 and Rach 16/1), one lesser work (Szymanowski Op 3), and two contemporary works, White Lies for Lomax (2007) by Mason Bates, and Amplified Soul (2014) by Dan Visconti, written on commission for the pianist. 

The Beethoven starts the disc.  The Presto is kind of middle of the road tempo-wise, but nicely played and peppy enough.  The Largo is also middle of the road in terms of tempo, boasts some phenomenally delicate pianissimo playing, but it lacks something in atmosphere, and the seemingly compressed dynamic range (more on that later) prevents the climax from having any real impact.  It does sound uncommonly beautiful, though.  The Menuetto is lovely in the outer sections, and quite peppy, with nicely terraced dynamics and distinct voices in middle section.  The Rondo gets back to the middle of the road peppiness peppered with some very finely shaded piano and pianissimo playing.  This is a soft-edged take on this piece.

The Rach sounds similar in approach and tone, but it works better.  It's radiantly beautiful.  Not one rough edge or anything even remotely approaching a rough edge is to be heard.  It is burnished and polished to the Nth degree, and Ms Martinez plays it just fine, with a luscious legato, and haunting harmonic richness. 

The Bates piece is inspired by the work of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who made many blues recordings, and the composer's notes makes clear, as does the music, that it is blues inspired, and one might say jazz, too.  Almost formless and sounding improvisatory at times, it's most appealing, and Martinez's beautiful tone tames the harshest dissonances.

The title track, at a hair under five minutes, is the shortest on the disc, and per the composer, is inspired by early medieval music.  It is largely quiet, gentle, sparse, simple, and beautiful.  It calls to mind Marie Luise-Hinrichs' transcriptions of music by Hildegard von Bingen, except that it ends up including some much louder, almost intense, and more modern music in places, and it lacks the transcendental quality in the German's disc.  Martinez again shows herself a master of playing at the quiet end of the spectrum.

The Symanowski has a sort of dark haze hanging over it, and Martinez produces a warm, rich sound that works very well in this piece.  It's been a while since I listened to Sinae Lee's take, but Martinez is fuller and richer where Lee is leaner and cleaner.  (It's been so long since I listened to Martin Roscoe's take that I can't remember it.) It's snazzy.

To the sound.  Something strikes me as just a bit off.  It's beautiful and warm.  Part of that is due to very generous pedaling by the pianist, but it also sounds processed.  The dynamic range seems limited, and while the pianist's touch may indeed be the sole source of the resulting sound, the almost total lack of edge seems unreal.  Also, while clear, there's a sort of opacity.  The effect isn't unpleasant, but it just strikes me as less than ideal.

Martinez certainly has talent.  Even conjuring a mental idea of what I think her playing might really sound like in person, it's clear that delicate, tonally nuanced playing is her thing.  Her website lists pretty broad concert and chamber repertoire, though solo isn't listed.  I think I'll keep an eye out for new recordings from her.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 07, 2017, 05:08:15 AM
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Since I enjoyed Paul Hindemith's String Quartets earlier this year, and since this particular disc of the sonatas was available for peanuts as an Add-on, I decided to finally give Paul Hindemith's Piano Sonatas a try.  Oh sure, there are other versions out there, including most famously Glenn Gould's, but I'd rather have hangnails on all my fingers than have Gould be my introduction to any composer's music, so it took until now for the stars to align.

Maurizio Paciariello is the latest graduate of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory to pop up on my radar and have a disc end up in my listening pile.  He undertook additional studies with both Aldo Ciccolini and Paul Badura-Skoda, and has displays an interest in both HIP performing and recording, as well as performing and recording non-core rep.  He has also started in on a Beethoven piano sonata cycle.

To the sonatas.  The disc presents them chronologically.  The First, inspired by Friedrich Hoelderloin's poem Der Main, and written after Hindemith had left Germany for Turkey, contains more than hints of sorrow and darkness in the first blocky chords.  Though the first, brief movement sets up the rest of the sonata, and the Second movement is a march, they blend together seamlessly.  The first few minutes of the second movement are kind of bland, sounding like soft-edged and blocky Prokofiev, but as the movement progresses, the music becomes more powerful, underscored by an insistent, simple bass line.  The third movement continues the somewhat blocky sound, with little in the way of lyrical content, and the bass becomes more powerful.  Both the fourth and fifth movements revive material from the first movement in more robust, almost aggressive fashion.  The combination of artist and music proves more compelling whenever the playing becomes more robust.  The three movement Second Sonata, at a brief twelve-ish minutes, is more compelling.  With greater bursts of lyricism as well as more aurally pleasing dissonant writing, the work epitomizes neo-classical style.  The Third Sonata seems to sort of marry the more expressive nature of the First to the neo-classicism of the Second, resulting in something more satisfying than the First and perhaps slightly less so than the Second.  There's a seriousness to the first movement, and a bit less in the rambunctious second movement that sounds very Prokofiev influenced.  The third movement is fast for a slow movement and has fugal sounding elements pointing to the concluding fugue, which sounds about what one would think a piano fugue written by Hindemith might sound like.

The piano sonatas do not succeed for me like the string quartets, but part of that may be the pianist (somewhat doubtful), and some may just be that the formal structure of the works ironically do not offer the best compositional vehicles for Hindemith's style when it comes to keyboard music.  Recent, more successful exposure to other of Hindemith's keyboard works played by Joyce Yang and the Schuchs indicate this is the more likely scenario.  That written, the Second is most enjoyable, and the Third is not without its charms.  This is not a great set, and it's certainly not music I'm terribly interested in obtaining multiple copies of, but I'll spin this again when I get a hankerin' for Hindemith.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 14, 2017, 05:13:44 AM
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Another Amazon Add-on snag of no little value.  It's always a good time to try something new from Biber, and the budget price made the short playing time (forty minutes and change) even more of a non-issue than it otherwise would be.  The disc includes two instrumental sonatas flanking five Pslams, each preceded and followed by an Antiphon, and a Magnificat flanked by Ad Magnificats.  With four soloists, a small choir, and only ten instrumentalists, the music lacks the grand (or grandiose) sound of some of Biber's other religious works, but it still displays some of the same snap, crackle, and pop of Biber's music.  While not rhytmically wild and crazy, it's not staid, either; while not garish, it's not solemn to the point of dourness, either.  It's comparatively light and devout at the same time, and undeniably attractive.  The light scoring allows for superb musial clarity, and all the forces are up to the task.  (The first violinist here is Anita Mitterer, the violist of Quatuor Mosaïques.)  Recorded by Austrian Radio in 1986 at the University of Salzburg, the sound is spacious and warm and amply detailed, if not SOTA by 2017 standards.  A most enjoyable disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2017, 05:28:16 AM
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This recording marks the first full disc devoted to the music of Josef Martin Kraus added to my collection.  Given that it was a new-ish (2013) DHM recording available for under $3 new, it seemed like the fates intervened or something, so I bought it.  Mozart's almost exact contemporary in both life and death wrote the two works on this disc in official response as Swedish Court Kapellmesiter to the assassination of Gustavus III of Sweden, the same political murder that inspired Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.  Given the somber circumstances surrounding the composition of the works, somber music is expected, though Kraus, no doubt under a time crunch, saw fit to recycle some of his earlier music to meet the urgent deadline.  So how did Kraus honor dead royalty?

With some somber, serious, and dramatic music of no little accomplishment.  Okay, so the cantata text, written by the King's private secretary, might not be great literature and is both too melodramatic and hagiographic - or not, maybe ol' Gus was immensely beloved by all, conspirators excepted - but it was an official piece and everything had to be appropriate to the setting.  Kraus' music strikes me as more accomplished.  While it doesn't sound quite as refined or powerful as the masses and other liturgical music of Mozart and Haydn, that's a mighty tall order for, well, everyone, and Kraus' cantata is really very effective in an almost operatic way.  The cantata is more overtly and unabashedly dramatic than the symphony, and at around forty-ish minutes, in two parts, it is substantial without overdoing it.  The vocal parts are fetching, the accompaniment expert, and the orchestra-only passages are expertly written.  I recently experienced a major success with the Telemann Ino Cantata - also on DHM, not coincidentally - and while this work doesn't reach that level of excellence, excellent this Begräbnis Kantate most certainly is.  The symphony, which was written to be heard before the cantata during the funeral services, is more subdued and darker toned, with gentle and funereal timpani taps sprinkled through its four slow movements.  This is a properly solemn and somber work befitting an 18th Century personage.   

The production values of the disc are world-class, and all performers are up to snuff which more or less seems to be the case with every DHM disc I've heard.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: ritter on November 21, 2017, 05:46:51 AM
Very interesting, Todd. Thanks. I recall seeing some CDs of Kraus's music on sale at the Drottningholm palace outside Stockholm, but passed on them at the time. Must explore.

Quote from: Todd on November 21, 2017, 05:28:16 AM
... Okay, so the cantata text, written by the King's private secretary, might not be great literature and is both too melodramatic and hagiographic - or not, maybe ol' Gus was immensely beloved by all, conspirators excepted - but it was an official piece and everything had to be appropriate to the setting.
As bad as Severin Anton Averdonk's text for LvB's Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II? That one is downright awful!  >:(

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2017, 06:00:58 AM
Quote from: ritter on November 21, 2017, 05:46:51 AMAs bad as Severin Anton Averdonk's text for LvB's Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II? That one is downright awful!


That's one LvB work I've not heard, so I can't say.  If I do listen to it, I think I shall ignore the text, which is what I did during the second listen to the Kraus.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 28, 2017, 05:19:37 AM
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Songs of fire and ice.  Not from George RR Martin, but from Spanish baroque composer Cristóbal Galán, who lived from 1624-ish to 1684.  This disc of a dozen songs, for solo, duo, or trio of varying combinations of one tenor and two sopranos, with some spoken word tossed in, is a delight.  Though written during a religious period of Spanish history and ostensibly religious in nature, the song subjects and words tip more to the profane side of the sacred-profane continuum, though by modern standards the texts are elliptical and not really racy.  And they are all pretty much peppy.  Even the slower, more somber-ish pieces have rhythmic verve.  Galán basically took Renaissance forms (eg, madrigals), used some then contemporary texts, and wrote some lightly but expertly scored, often dance-like, often triple time music.  The effect is unexpectedly energizing, and unquestionably attractive.  It appears that the song selection and order was put together by violinist and Accentus Austria director Thomas Wimmer.  Whatever the case, as assembled and performed, everything works.  The instrumentalists are all very fine, and the singers sound just nifty. 

As with every other DHM recording I've heard, extremely high production standards are evident throughout.  Sound quality rivals the good stuff from Jordi Savall on Alia Vox, with true timbers and superb, often realistic dynamics.  The oft used baroque guitar sounds very fine, and the occasionally used baroque harp sounds so good that it almost successfully pulls off the "you are there" trick. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 05, 2017, 05:21:56 AM
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Some local fare!  The Oregon State University Wind Ensemble put together its own disc of four works, recorded on campus down in the Corn Valley.  (Rarely are Graduate Assistants mentioned in disc credits.)  The four pieces by four composers were written between 2008 and 2013, with the last, The Vistas of America, written on commission by the Ensemble's leader Christopher Chapman.

The first work, and title track, is OSU prof Dana Reason's Currents, inspired by the Northwest Pacific Ocean (meaning the Oregon and Washington coasts).  Almost a stylistic throwback to some 19th Century fare, the brief work is tumultuous and vibrant.  One can almost envision the Devil's Punchbowl at high tide, or waves pounding Haystack Rock during a winter storm.  The piece is entertaining enough, if not necessarily a masterpiece.  The composer uses the instruments at her disposal quite effectively and extracts more color than one might expect.

The second work, Upriver, by Dan Welcher, is an historically informed programmatic work.  Inspired by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and using tunes found in Meriwether Lewis' journals, Welcher crafts a continuous 14'31" piece infused with folk tunes, old style fiddling from the solo violinist, and proto-Copland soundscapes.  It sounds like a movie soundtrack, but one well crafted to accompany an historically accurate flick. 

The third work - the Double Concertino for Tenor Saxophone, Tuba, and Band by Luis Cardoso - is the only non-programmatic piece on the disc.  Very heavily influenced by jazz, the piece has some rhythmic swagger to it in the first movement, a sort of hymnal-like quality to the second in the first half, swelling to a powerful climax, and a return to rhythmic swagger in the third.  The piece also allows the listener to hear the tubist play the higher registers of his instrument, something one doesn't encounter every day.  Stylistically, it very much sounds like tightened up, more idiomatically informed Erwin Schulhoff.  I can't say it's better than Schulhoff's wind music, because the Czech blended in other traditions and then popular ideas, but it is probably the best overall work on the disc.

The disc closes with The Vistas of America, by Billy Childs.  In five movements, each representing a different "section" of the US, it moves west from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  One can hear some jazz, some grandiose, juiced-up Copland (or maybe trimmed down Ruggles), some Stravinsky, and other not quite generic, not quite readily identifiable influences.  It's pretty good, but it ain't a masterpiece, neither.

Sound is generally very good, but it cannot be called SOTA.  Efficient is probably a better word.  Playing is generally excellent.  This was one of a trio of three buck discs that I figured I could ditch if they weren't up to muster.  I'll be keeping this around for a while, but I doubt it ends up being listened to dozens of times.  This disc might motivate me to make the short drive down to Corvallis to hear what the ensemble sounds like in person. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2017, 05:23:47 AM
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Another of the trio of three buck contemporary music discs I snagged, this one contains five short works by Yotam Haber in a disc coming in at under fifty minutes.  Now in his early 40s, these pieces all date from his 30s.  The composer himself wrote the liner notes, so there's no interpretation needed by an author to determine what was meant with each piece. 

We Were All opens the disc.  In it, Haber sets part of the poem "Cherries" by Andrea Cohen.  The dozen lines quoted in the booklet are sparse and simple, and Haber repeats the line "We Were All" throughout his piece to good effect.  The lightly scored, transparent music doesn't contain any catchy tunes in the normal sense, but there are snippets that do.  The combination of instruments played constantly shifts, creating unusual and fleeting harmonies.  (I also believe this marks the time I've listened to a work with an egg shaker in it.)  The recorded sound, which is most definitely fully up to date, is a bit artificial in that it doesn't lay out a realistic soundstage, but the clarity of the instruments, and occasional lack of clarity of the voices, works well.  I don't recall ever hearing pianissimo marimba playing of such delicate clarity before.  Various styles of music blend together, with some passages sounding like different instrument combinations playing different minimalist pieces simultaneously to create something decidedly unminimalist.

On Leaving Brooklyn, based on an extract from Julia Kasdorf's Eve's Striptease follows.  A very striking piece, for vocal ensemble and sparse string support, Haber uses polyphonic repetition of lines as a backdrop for solo and combinations of voices working through the poem, which, when blended with the vaguely ancient/Jewish/Middle Eastern playing, creates an effective modern lamentation.  It's the shortest work on the disc, but it's the best, with outsize impact.

The longest work on the disc, the two part Last Skin, follows.  The piece uses eight violins total, with two groups of four violins each.  Each group of four tunes the violins such that when playing open strings the quartets can create sixteen pitches.  The first movement is fast, the second is slow; the first movement is aggressive and abrasive (and on can hear some Bartok brought forward in time), the second is droning and quiet (one can hear some late DSCH brought forward, and some Glass, and others).  The starts off as kind of standard modern fare, but, particularly in the second part, takes on a more complex, effective sound.   

The title work Torus, for string quartet, follows.  Per the composer, the players use different filters for their instruments to change the sound, and it starts in a manner that makes the conclusion of Bartok's Fourth sound tame, and heads straight to thrash metal transcribed to string quartet territory.  The sound generated by the quartet, as recorded, sounds overloaded and distorted, though obviously on purpose.  The music backs way off after the opening minutes, gradually shifting to still swift, but quiet playing interrupted by lengthy pauses.

The final work is From the Book of Maintenance and Sustenance, based on the litany Avinu Malkenu.  Scored for viola and piano, the Jewish music influences are obvious, as the composer intended, with the viola very much sounding like a sorrowful singer.  The sound is purposefully contrived, close and dry to the point that it sounds as though the microphones are inside the viola and piano.  The effect is not unpleasant, but there'd be no way to hear the music sound this way in person.

Sound for the disc as a whole is up to modern snuff, with noted caveats relating to production choices.  Balances sound a bit better with headphones than speakers.  Playing and singing are all up to modern snuff.  All of the music is at least reasonably successful, but for me, it's the vocal works that stand out.  I would not be averse to hearing more vocal works from Mr Haber.

Also of note, the composer's wife created the cover images, front and back, making the disc something of a family affair, artistically speaking.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Omicron9 on December 12, 2017, 06:07:40 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 07, 2017, 05:08:15 AM
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Since I enjoyed Paul Hindemith's String Quartets earlier this year, and since this particular disc of the sonatas was available for peanuts as an Add-on, I decided to finally give Paul Hindemith's Piano Sonatas a try.  Oh sure, there are other versions out there, including most famously Glenn Gould's, but I'd rather have hangnails on all my fingers than have Gould be my introduction to any composer's music, so it took until now for the stars to align.

Maurizio Paciariello is the latest graduate of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory to pop up on my radar and have a disc end up in my listening pile.  He undertook additional studies with both Aldo Ciccolini and Paul Badura-Skoda, and has displays an interest in both HIP performing and recording, as well as performing and recording non-core rep.  He has also started in on a Beethoven piano sonata cycle.

To the sonatas.  The disc presents them chronologically.  The First, inspired by Friedrich Hoelderloin's poem Der Main, and written after Hindemith had left Germany for Turkey, contains more than hints of sorrow and darkness in the first blocky chords.  Though the first, brief movement sets up the rest of the sonata, and the Second movement is a march, they blend together seamlessly.  The first few minutes of the second movement are kind of bland, sounding like soft-edged and blocky Prokofiev, but as the movement progresses, the music becomes more powerful, underscored by an insistent, simple bass line.  The third movement continues the somewhat blocky sound, with little in the way of lyrical content, and the bass becomes more powerful.  Both the fourth and fifth movements revive material from the first movement in more robust, almost aggressive fashion.  The combination of artist and music proves more compelling whenever the playing becomes more robust.  The three movement Second Sonata, at a brief twelve-ish minutes, is more compelling.  With greater bursts of lyricism as well as more aurally pleasing dissonant writing, the work epitomizes neo-classical style.  The Third Sonata seems to sort of marry the more expressive nature of the First to the neo-classicism of the Second, resulting in something more satisfying than the First and perhaps slightly less so than the Second.  There's a seriousness to the first movement, and a bit less in the rambunctious second movement that sounds very Prokofiev influenced.  The third movement is fast for a slow movement and has fugal sounding elements pointing to the concluding fugue, which sounds about what one would think a piano fugue written by Hindemith might sound like.

The piano sonatas do not succeed for me like the string quartets, but part of that may be the pianist (somewhat doubtful), and some may just be that the formal structure of the works ironically do not offer the best compositional vehicles for Hindemith's style when it comes to keyboard music.  Recent, more successful exposure to other of Hindemith's keyboard works played by Joyce Yang and the Schuchs indicate this is the more likely scenario.  That written, the Second is most enjoyable, and the Third is not without its charms.  This is not a great set, and it's certainly not music I'm terribly interested in obtaining multiple copies of, but I'll spin this again when I get a hankerin' for Hindemith.

I love Hindemith's string quartets, and I also quite enjoy his solo piano works.  I suspect they will grow on you as you continue to explore them.  Don't give up on them just yet.  :)

-09
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 18, 2017, 05:13:29 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


The last of the trio of three buck discs of contemporary music.  This disc fits squarely in both The Asian Invasion and "New" Music Log threads because of the participation of three Asian artists, and all of the works are contemporary and by five composers I'd never even seen the names of prior to buying this disc.  It could also fit into a women's thread since all three performing artists, and one of the composers, are women.  Pianist Sang Hie Lee, born and partly educated in South Korea, formed Ars Nostra to explore and cultivate new music for two pianos which she plays along with Martha Thomas.  Both Lee and Thomas are academics with multiple advanced degrees from various universities, and Ms Lee also does research into health and biomechanics pertaining to musicians.  Kyoung Cho joins the duo in the first work, and she is likewise a Korean born academic-musician, currently teaching at the University of South Florida. 

The first work is Chera in Nain (2009) by Eun-Hye Park, for two pianos, soprano, and gong.  It is based on the story in Luke of Jesus raising a widow's son from the dead.  The vocal parts, performed by Kyoung Cho, are in Greek and Korean and alternate between narration and a sort of singspiel.  The music is modern, with angular phrasing, some tone clusters, and a generally clangorous sound.  It's not terrible, but it's not a great work.

Next is ...Aber Jetzt Die Nacht... (2013) by Lewis Nielson.  The work is based on a journal entry by a concentration camp victim, and at a bit over nineteen minutes, it the longest piece on the disc.  It is jagged, dark, at times quite intense, and a reasonable short-hand description would be to think of Schoenberg and Messiaen blended together, with perhaps hints of Prokofiev thrown in.  If that blend sounds appealing, then this piece might appeal; if not, probably not.  Additional devices are used to extract novel sounds from the piano (eg, soft head hammer, horsehair brush, and E-bow), and for the most part the effects add to, rather than detract from, the proceedings.  The use of two pianos does allow for a more powerful sonority and greater weight than a single instrument could achieve, and had the set been recorded to SOTA standards, the impact would likely be greater.

Celestial Phenomena (2008) by Gerald Chenoweth follows.  An "intuitive" tone poem for two pianos, it strives to depict things like the Big Bang, a black hole, starshine, and the like in its ten or so minutes.  The massive lower register tone clusters than open the Big Bang do a fine job of opening the work, and the often thick harmonies take maximum advantage of the two pianos in use.  (One can envision what a duo like Michel Dalberto and Michael Korstick might be able to deliver in the opening.)  The description "tone poem" ends up be pretty accurate, because the piece flows from one brief section to the next logically and smoothly.  This is a very modernist piece, with some big dollops of minimalism, some more hints of Messiaen, and it's definitely not a first choice work for people who want traditional melodies in their music. 

Paul Reller's Sonata for Two Pianos (2008) is more formally structured than the preceding works, and is divided into three movements played attacca.  Influenced by American musical forms - jazz, blues, and rock, as well as American composers of days gone by like McDowell and Ives - the piece is weighty, dense, and though new to my ears, the more formal approach of the piece made it sort of predictable in overall arc.  That's neither a good nor bad thing, it just is.  It's more accessible than a fair chunk of post-war piano music, sounding more like it could have been written in the 20s or 30s.   

The concluding work is Windhover (2009) by Daniel Perlongo.  The piece is an extended work inspired by a poem inspired by the Eurasian Kestrel.  Unsurprisingly, given the inspiration, Messiaen once again comes to mind, but only rarely, and Perlongo is no mere copycat.  The hints at birdsong are not as dynamically wide ranging as the Frenchman's music, nor is the writing quite as unpredictable.  Perlongo's harmonic invention often falls much easier on the ear, too, with more than a few lovely sounds to be heard, and he does a creditable job creating a sort of static sound, creating a musical image of the depicted bird hovering.  The work sort of overstays its welcome, though.

Overall, this disc is good, the pianists and the vocal artist (who doesn't really sing here) all do good work, but really, for me, only Celestial Phenomena held my interest sufficiently to warrant more than a handful of listens.  Others could very well be much more enthusiastic about the disc as a whole. 

The disc is taken from a single live performance at the University of South Florida in Tampa in March 2016.  Sound quality is more of the efficient reporting than aural luxury type. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 19, 2017, 05:29:52 AM
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I figured it was time to try some more music from Francisco Guerrero, and as luck would have it, this Hyperion reissue was available for peanuts.  Unfortunately, I forgot that the Choir of Westminster Cathedral is a boys' choir when I bought the disc, and this issue became evident immediately.  I don't like boys' choirs.  I truly dislike boy trebles.  They grate on my nerves.  The altos, too.  The music itself sounds as lovely and meticulous as the other Guerrero works I've heard from Savall and Noone, but the singing doesn't work for me at all.  The somewhat cavernous sound is good and about what one would expect to hear in a large cathedral.  A painless blunder. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 02, 2018, 05:32:15 AM
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Mozart's Requiem transcribed for string quartet.  The Quatour Debussy play Peter Lichtenthal's 1802 transcription of the work, with a few alterations of their own.  No, this is not as good as the real thing, but that would be impossible.  It is naturally lighter, attractive, and it is moving from time to time.  Some movements work better than others.  The two main standouts for me are the Confutatis and Lacrimosa, which really jump out.  Both the Dies Irae and Agnus Dei work better than anticipated, too.  While I would not consider this a must listen, it's an interesting and fun enough diversion.  Truth to tell, this was really more of a test drive for the Quatour Debussy, to hear if they have got the right stuff.  They've recorded a DSCH cycle, and I figured if they can make this enjoyable, they can handle the Russian's music.  Sure enough, the playing is superb, as is the sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2018, 05:20:59 AM
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It took a while, but I finally purchased a disc devoted solely to the music of Henry Purcell.  I've got a sprinkling of Purcell works in my collection in some anthologies, but that's it.  This disc of fourteen songs and dialogues, plucked from operas and stand-alone collections, features a much younger Emma Kirkby and bass David Thomas singing an array of love songs alone or as a duo, with lutenist Anthony Rooley backing them up.  All of the songs are written in 17th Century vernacular, but the basic themes are pretty much the same as now.  One needn't listen beyond the first dialogue, In all ouur Cinthia's shining sphere, to hear some racy lines about how the woman will not die a maid.  Goodness!  The songs are generally nice, the singing is splendid, the lute playing is predictably excellent, and a much younger Tony Faulkner proves to be as skilled at engineering SOTA recordings as his older self.  (That written, low level hiss is audible, indicating that mastering may have been analog for this 1982 recording.)  Coming relatively soon on the heels of the disc of music from roughly contemporaneous composer Cristóbal Galán, this music sounds too conservative and dowdy, though, and the Spaniard will receive more spins. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 16, 2018, 05:14:34 AM
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This disc contains two works new to me.  I've got a version of the third Cello Concerto played by Pierre Fournier, which is predictably superb.  So is this version, as are the first two concertos on the disc.  There's no point in going into great detail by work.  Rather, in all three concertos, a similar musical style can be heard.  The fast movements are energetic and vivacious and bursting at the seams with invention.  CPE Bach saw no reason to write straight-forward movements when ones with more dramatic dynamic and tempo contrasts could be written, or when one could write music with twists and turns and unexpected passages.  The slow movements are all quite slow and lengthy and quite expressive.  The music doesn't tip into romantic excess, but it is not constrained by convention, either.  Overall, these concertos are freer and more inventive than even Haydn's from roughly the same era.  Truls Mork's playing is tip-top shelf, and the conducting of Bernard Labadie and the playing of Les Violins du Roy are both impeccable.  Combine all this with major label A-grade sonics, and this disc is a winner.   
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on January 16, 2018, 05:33:50 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2018, 05:20:59 AM
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It took a while, but I finally purchased a disc devoted solely to the music of Henry Purcell.  I've got a sprinkling of Purcell works in my collection in some anthologies, but that's it.  This disc of fourteen songs and dialogues, plucked from operas and stand-alone collections, features a much younger Emma Kirkby and bass David Thomas singing an array of love songs alone or as a duo, with lutenist Anthony Rooley backing them up.  All of the songs are written in 17th Century vernacular, but the basic themes are pretty much the same as now.  One needn't listen beyond the first dialogue, In all ouur Cinthia's shining sphere, to hear some racy lines about how the woman will not die a maid.  Goodness!  The songs are generally nice, the singing is splendid, the lute playing is predictably excellent, and a much younger Tony Faulkner proves to be as skilled at engineering SOTA recordings as his older self.  (That written, low level hiss is audible, indicating that mastering may have been analog for this 1982 recording.)  Coming relatively soon on the heels of the disc of music from roughly contemporaneous composer Cristóbal Galán, this music sounds too conservative and dowdy, though, and the Spaniard will receive more spins.
I feel that what is most interesting from Purcell is his theatre music, i.e. Dido and Aeneas, The Fairie Queen, and King Arthur. Wonderful, vibrant and life affirming Music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 23, 2018, 05:06:55 AM
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Love me the lion's share of Schumann's solo piano output, so I figured I should try his organ output since I was able to snap up the disc for under five bucks. 

It was a nice buy.  All three works are all enjoyable.  The Six Studies in Canonic Form Op 56, originally for pedal piano, are colorful works that often sound like Schumann writing for a circus or, well, carnival.  The Four Studies, Op 58, also for pedal piano, are a built bolder in conception, and often sound like Schumann piano works scaled up, which more or less means good by default.  The Six Fugues on Bach, Op 60, are more formal and serious, as one would expect, and the registration results in a bit less color, but the music and playing is very nice nonetheless.

Sound of the 18th Century Riepp organ, transplanted to Winterthur Stadtkirche and oft updated over its life, including a rebuild by Walcker, sounds just lovely.  Hospach-Martini uses registration superbly to generally extract vibrant colors that never sound bright, and bass that never overwhelms.  Recorded sound is close to flawless, with only some room sound a potential distraction, or not, depending on taste.  I will never play this disc frequently, but it sure is nice to own.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 30, 2018, 05:17:56 AM
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Circling back to the composer who kicked off this thread, though somewhat belatedly as this disc was released in 2009.  (I could also post this in The Asian Invasion as Mr Ruo was born in China, but as it is part of the American Classics series, I shall limit it to this thread.)

The disc opens with the Drama Theater No 2, the second of five dramas comprising a cycle.  The piece is scored for Piano, Cello, Percussion, and 18 Beer Bottles.  The first movement opens with stark, bold timp thwacks, and it focuses on rhythmic pulse.  The music is often aggressive and insistent, yet simple, with repeated notes and sounds and patterns.  The inclusion of gongs and whistles and the like brings to mind Antheil, with slowed down Nancarrow tossed in.  The second movement is slower, and relies on novel sounds.  The use of beer bottles is actually handled more deftly than one might expect, sort of sounding like a flute, with the players relying on controlled, short bursts to generate sounds.  I would have liked it more had flutes been used.  The final movement is back to more aggressive stylings.  Bartok and Stravinsky are to be heard, but that's OK. 

Drama Theater No 3 follows, for pipa and voice.  (The concert version is for pipa, voice, and multi-media.)  Rather like Scelsi's Khoom, the artist does not sing words, but rather word-like sounds that are to disappear into the air.  I like Khoom, so I do rather like the effect here.  I also appreciate the pipa stylings of Min Xiao-Fen, who seems in absolute command of her instrument.  This may not be for everyone; think of it as an extended (thirteen minute-plus) aria from an Eastern opera with string accompaniment.  If that appeals, this may work; if not, probably not.

Drama Theater No 4, To The Four Corners, is meant to be a staged work with five instrumentalists, with the percussionist in the center, and flute, clarinet, viola, and violin in the four corners and rotating during performance.  Inspired by Chinese Nuo Drama, it is two short scenes combined into a twenty-one minute piece.  The first scene starts with a prolonged, insistent percussion solo, before handing the music off to other instruments, and then blending together in various combinations.  Sometimes, the music will be stark, angular, and decidedly avant-garde, and sometimes it will blend, if even briefly, more traditionally lovely playing of an instrument (the clarinet, in particular) with tetchy percussion playing.  The second scene starts with winds being used in unconventional ways to generate unconventional sounds, as well as what sounds almost like a didgeridoo.  It also includes whispered, spoken, and yelled words, in at least two languages, which, even in the context of an audio-only recording, presents a good sense of the theatricality of the piece. 

The disc closes with Ruo's First String Quartet, The Three Tenses, and it is a transcription of a work by the same name for brass.  The single movement work sounds more conventional in a post-war, avant-garde kind of way.  Even in this context, Ruo introduces some whistling to the piece, which I could have lived without.  The underlying string writing is gripping, though, making me wonder what later quartets may sound like.

I enjoy this disc, probably more than the Chamber Concertos disc.  The sound world here is more distinct and non-Western than the earlier disc, and it is novel and challenging yet easy enough to get into.  I wouldn't mind hearing how Ruo handles a full orchestra.

Sound and playing are superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 06, 2018, 04:58:17 AM
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This is, I think, my first exposure to the music of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer.  Born in Bohemia in 1656, he lived all the way until 1746.  He ended up working as a court musician and composer, ultimately doing a long stint for Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden.  He wrote a wide array of works in a variety of genres, with some of the works lost to the vagaries of time.  I ended up with this particular disc because it was on clearance.  The disc contains three works: the Orchestral Suite No 1, the Missa Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, and the Missa in Contrapuncto.  The Orchestral Suite is short, at a bit over ten minutes, and is comprised of six contrasting movements, predominantly of the dance variety.  Mostly jaunty and light, the instrumental writing falls nicely on the ear.  The Missa Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, at over thirty-three minutes, is the longest and beefiest work on the disc, with five soloists, chamber choir, orchestra, and organ.  The total forces still fit in St Marien in Lemgo, so it is not of massive scale, but it is satisfyingly sized.  The playing maintains a very dance-like rhythm in many places, though there's ample solemnity, too.  It seems to go by in notably less than half an hour.  The Missa in Contrapuncto is more intimately scaled, with four soloists, a smaller chorus, and limited bass continuo, and lasts just over twenty minutes.  It harks back to more of a Renaissance style in many places, and some movements evoke earlier monophonic music.  It makes for a most intriguing contrast in styles to the prior mass, and might even be more attractive overall. 

I did not know what to expect going in.  Fortunately, the disc offers a most enjoyable musical outing.  If not music of the caliber of Biber or Bach, it's nonetheless most enjoyable, and if I won't make it a point to hunt down numerous recordings of the composer's works, some of his keyboard music might be nice to hear.

Singers, the instrumentalists of Handel's Company, and conductor Rainer Johannes Homburg all do excellent work.  MDG's sound is predictably superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 13, 2018, 05:23:16 AM
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From the DHM big box.  You know a box-set promises good things when Thomas Hengelbrock conducts the first disc.  Mr Incisive is well known to me, and CPE Bach's keyboard music is no stranger to these ears, but this disc represents the first time venturing into some non-concerto orchestral music.  Much of the music is very energized, sometimes almost giddy or manic, sometimes dramatic in a Sturm und Drang fashion, and it always sounds fresh.  And can one detect some inspiration for Haydn's Bear Symphony in the Allegro assai of H660?  In the one Harpsichord Concerto on the disc, Hengelbrock is joined by Andreas Staier, who plays his part with ample energy and drive and tidiness.  The Oboe Concerto sees fine work from Hans-Peter Westermann.  The now somewhat aged digital sound is excellent. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 20, 2018, 05:17:45 AM
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Rupert Ignaz Mayr is another baroque composer new to me.  Born in what is now Austria, Mayr was a violinist and composer who held various positions in German speaking cities, including a stint in Munich.  This disc contains, as indicated on the cover, various Psalms, Motets, and Concerti.  The pieces all more or less sound like miniature baroque religious pieces.  There's a certain warmth and comfort to them, and the sound is quite pleasant.  There's nothing quite so challenging or vibrant as the recent JCF Fischer disc I listened to, nor anything of the magnitude of the bigger names of the era.  Playing is excellent, singing generally excellent but not as even, and sound is fully modern but not SOTA. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 27, 2018, 05:27:20 AM
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Vivan Fung is a name entirely new to me, but since this disc was available for less than the price of a cup of coffee, I figured it couldn't hurt to try it.  Ms Fung is a Canuck armed with a Juilliard PhD and Juno Award who has wrangled commissions from high grade ensembles. 

The disc opens with the Violin Concerto from 2011.  Szymanowski's name comes immediately to mind in the opening pages.  Then later comes big hints of Stravinsky.  Then some dabs of Gloria Coates.  And last, and certainly not least, Eastern music in the form of gamelan music.  That makes it sound derivative, and maybe it is, but it is also superb.  No ugly, harsh dissonance solely for the purpose of ugly, harsh dissonance here.  No, the music is light, the violin part largely fleet and virtuosic, the orchestration bright, colorful, and quasi-exotic.  It follows a broad fast-slow-fast model, though a big chunk of the slow portion is basically an extended cadenza that reveals violinist Kristin Lee to possess modern conservatory super-chops.  The Eastern influences, complete with folk sounding melodies and nice dollops of string glissando appear in the back third of the piece.  Really, the piece seems like a wonderful Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. 

The second piece is the 2006 work Glimpses for prepared piano.  Of course John Cage comes to mind, but so does Lou Harrison in this gamelan-in-a-box piece.  Fung's writing is more focused and purposeful than Cage's, and pianist Conor Hanick has the music dialed in.  In the second piece, Snow, the instrument sounds like what can best be called an industrial harpsichord-player piano hybrid in the higher registers, married to a harp-like instrument to allow for captivating strumming.  But the show-stopper is Chant.  It opens with rosined twine being pulled across the strings, creating an almost electronic music effect, then relies mostly on plucking and strumming to create effects more akin to orchestral music heard in avant-garde sci-fi films than on classical music discs.  It rates a real Wow!, though the effect may not age well. 

Hanick also plays the Piano Concerto, Dreamscapes, from 2009, which gives the disc its title.  The piece evokes a "what the hell am I listening to?" kind of feel on first listen - but in a decidedly good way.  Quiet and somewhat languid, with Rautavaaraesque bird calls generated by the use of seven Vietnamese bird whistles spaced throughout the orchestra, it does indeed start off dreamy.  A couple minutes in, the orchestra joins in and the pianist plays more conventionally.  But nothing lasts for long.  Like the Violin Concerto, it is more fantastic, with everything thrown at the listener.  There's more prepared piano playing, there's some Bartok, there's some gnarly post-war avant garde writing smuggled in, there's some more Eastern-y music, some quotes from or allusions to other music, or something original that somehow manages to make the listener ponder where the tune comes from.  Fung hurls ideas and sounds at the listener at a breakneck pace, even in slow passages.  Every page, probably every bar brings something new. 

Conducting, orchestral support, and sound are all superb.

These non-Western music inspired pieces strike me as sort of a Pacific Basin equivalent and analog to the African and European folk music inspired pieces by Stephen Hartke, and they work at least as well.  This really is something new, at least for me.  Ms Fung has written not a few pieces, and there are some recordings of other of her works.  I would not be the least bit surprised if I sample more of her compositions.

A real find.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 06, 2018, 05:27:23 AM
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Not even once have I thought about buying a disc of harp music on its own.  I don't recall ever having listened to any recordings of solo harp music on the radio or as an exceprt on disc.  But, having bought the hundred disc DHM box, I finally ended up with a disc of harp music in my collection.  This disc contains music from various seventeenth century English composers, with large dollops of works from Dowland and Byrd.  The pieces themselves are transcriptions of other solo instrumental pieces rather than purposely written harp music.  I must say, the disc is better than I thought it would be.  Harpist Andrew Lawrence-King uses two different instruments, an old Italian job with gut strings, and a cláirseach.  Both produce mostly gentle, lovely sounds.  The Italian instrument sounds almost like a richer, slightly more powerful clavichord, while the cláirseach has a vaguely gamelan-y sound.  It would be fun to hear such an instrument used to play transcribed prepared piano pieces by John Cage, or maybe Lou Harrison's limited output for keyboard.  The works presented, especially the Dowland, do not sound too far away from lute works, though the even warmer sound of the main Italian instrument makes the pieces sound more fantastic, as in fantasia-esque.  I do not see myself rushing out to buy more harp discs, but this one is none too shabby, and it's in superb sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: aukhawk on March 06, 2018, 10:00:49 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 09, 2018, 05:20:59 AM
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... All of the songs are written in 17th Century vernacular, but the basic themes are pretty much the same as now.  One needn't listen beyond the first dialogue, In all ouur Cinthia's shining sphere, to hear some racy lines about how the woman will not die a maid.  Goodness!  ...

The duet between Coridon and Mopsa from the Fairy Queen is a fine depiction of coercion, not very PC by current standards.  Does the 'lady' consent?  Well, eventually - maybe - depending on how it's sung.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 13, 2018, 05:22:30 AM
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More Hengelbrock from DHM.  This disc contains fourteen tracks by nine composers, with four pieces from Monteverdi.  Hengelbrock selected and arranged the pieces to be played along with a stage production, but here it is a studio recording of the music only.  Opening and closing with music by Pietro Antonio Giramo, the vibrant opening piece gives way to music making more solemn than one would expect given the theme of the disc.  To be sure, it all sounds attractive, but it needs more snap.  Not too surprisingly, the best music on the disc comes from Monteverdi, and everything flows together nicely, what sounds like an abrupt edit the first of two Vecchi pieces notwithstanding.  Overall, the disc is longer on promise than delivery.

Playing, singing, and sound are all top shelf.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 20, 2018, 05:17:01 AM
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I very rarely listen to the music of John Adams, but this updated, modern sensibility, feminist take on the Arabian Nights heroine caught my eye.  This is no Violin Concerto, even though a big name fiddler plays the solo part.  No, this is something more ambitious: it is a Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra.  How about that?  The real question is can Mr Adams live up to his grandiose new label?  He comes pretty close.  It sounds like a modern, programmatic Violin Concerto to me, but if others prefer the other title, that's fine.  His work gives evocative/provocative titles to the four movements, the first being "Tale of the Wise Young Woman-Pursuit by the True Believers".  Here, the formidable Leila Josefowicz sometimes coaxes lovely tones from her instrument, but she more often extracts shrieks, slashing her way through her part as the heroine tries to elude the bad guys.  Adams creates an intense, at times almost violent orchestral backdrop for the soloist to play against, and the dulcimer adds an exotic, lightly percussive texture.  The second movement, "A Long Desire (Love Scene)" starts off almost throbbing, and not at all in a typically "romantic" sense.  Just shy of two minutes in, it slows down, becomes more flowing, and it calms down - but it does not become calm.  It remains charged.  Not until after four minutes in does it take on a more sensuous sound, with the violin offering some longing playing, but there seems to be a hesitance to the music.  Maybe the sensuality is feigned, the heroine playing a part convincingly to stay alive, and the music after nine minutes in sounds quite agitated, though the last several minutes are achingly beautiful.  The next movement, "Scheherazade and the Men with Beards", offers the opposite, with a grinding opening and a more biting, driving, angular, modern sound.  Josefowicz's playing sounds small and timid when she enters, and it retains a somewhat fearful feel, when it is not more frenzied, surrounded by savage orchestral music, the heroine fending for her life, ending with cries of terror.  The last movement, "Escape, Flight, Sanctuary", finds the heroine running for her life, Josefowicz bowing ferociously in places.  The pursuers are just behind her; she cannot rest.  Finally she arrives, but is it really a sanctuary that welcomes her, or is it death? 

The piece seems somewhat front-loaded, with two big movements followed by two shorter one, but it ends up well-balanced, and Adams uses the soloists and orchestra expertly, extracting much color and writing robust parts for every section.  It is at once fully modern and easily accessible, at least to people who like modern music.  I'm not completely sold on the composer's description of the piece, but I'm sold on the music.

Ms Josefowicz plays spectacularly well, and David Robertson and the St Louis Orchestra are fully up to the challenge.

I streamed this recording, and though streaming from Amazon is limited to 256 Kbps as far as I am aware, sound was completely satisfying.  Clarity is superb, low frequencies are weighty, and the highs don't seem materially rolled off.  I suspect a physical disc might sound slightly cleaner and probably would have broader dynamic range, which would be especially helpful in the tuttis, but it works fine this way.  Still, I may have to go optical to hear what I missed.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 20, 2018, 05:59:03 AM
How do you think it would pair with Fazil Say's "1001 Nights in the Harem" concerto?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 20, 2018, 06:49:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 20, 2018, 05:59:03 AM
How do you think it would pair with Fazil Say's "1001 Nights in the Harem" concerto?


I will have to listen to the Say to find out. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 20, 2018, 11:06:28 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 20, 2018, 06:49:55 AM

I will have to listen to the Say to find out.
It's terrific. Of course, disclosure, according to family lore/legend, the absurdly Hollywoody folk song that blows up in the third movement was originally written about somebody on the Turkish side of my family. "Üsküdar'a Gider İken" is about an especially attractive clerk/bureaucrat who was, my grandmothers all think, a great-great-great-uncle or something like that. There is also a very bad cover by Eartha Kitt (!).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 24, 2018, 06:52:38 AM
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The first Savall Saturday covering the first disc from the Jordi Savall España Eterna box.  Eight hundred year old songs that still sound swell.  Comparatively lengthy, and sounding both ancient and folksy, and completely accessible to modern ears, the seven selections move along at a nearly always hypnotic pace.  One hears ancient roots of grooviness, too, as well as non-Western traditions.  There's a sense of dated exoticism, but the datedness only serves to enhance musical appreciation.  Montserrat Figueras anchors the set vocally.  She is joined by her sister Pilar in a duet in the especially appealing Na Carenza al bel cors avinen by Arnaut de Maruelh, and by the tenor Josep Benet in three of the songs.  In every case, Figueras delivers the goods.  So do the other singers, and the instrumentalists, including Christophe Coin.  But perhaps the star of the show is the sound quality.  The 1977 vintage recording sounds nearly SOTA by modern standards.  A most auspicious opener for the set.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 26, 2018, 05:17:17 AM
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[This will also be posted in The Asian Invasion.]


What an age we live in when not one, but two projects to record the complete keyboard sonatas of Leopold Koželuch are currently underway.  Kemp English is recording the cycle for Grand Piano* while Jenny Soonjin Kim is doing so for Brilliant Classics.  Mr English is further into his cycle than Ms Kim, but as Ms Kim's also satisfies my desire to listen to Asian artists, I decided to have this twofer be my first listen to an all-Koželuch release. 

Ms Kim was born in Korea and earned her bachelor's in music from Seoul National University before pursuing additional studies first at the Salzburg Mozarteum, then UCLA, and finally earning a PhD in Historical Performance Practices from Claremont Graduate University, where she teaches.  So she comes to this endeavor with a hefty academic background.  Unsurprisingly, given her background, she uses a fortepiano in what at times sound like live recordings made at Kresge Chapel on the campus of Claremont School of Theology.  As to the composer, Koželuch is one of those lesser known classical era composers whose name I've seen but whose music I've never really delved into.  Born in 1747 in what is now the Czech Republic, he studied for a while in his hometown before studying with his cousin, one František Xaver Dušek, a rather well known musical personage.  Koželuch apparently was quite famous in his day and cranked out many works in multiple genres, and when Mozart died, Koželuch took over some of his court functions. 

To the music.  This twofer contains the first eight of over fifty sonatas.  All but one are in three movements, with the outlier a two movement job.  All more or less adhere to the common fast-slow-fast structure.  I'd be exaggerating if I wrote that these sonatas rise to the same level as the best of Mozart's, or even the very best efforts from Haydn or CPE Bach, but they definitely have their formidable charms.  The best ones on offer best (sometimes handily) the lesser works from the bigger names.  Aided by the crisp sound of the fortepiano, the fast movements are clean and clear and generally ebullient, which is aided by Kim's obviously excellent playing.  Unsurprisingly, the slow movements lack the same degree of lyricism that modern grands can offer with their lengthier decays and greater sustain capabilities, but the softer sound of the instrument offsets that to a significant degree.  The first two sonatas sort of sound like elaborate background music, but come the opening Allegro con brio of Op 1, No 3, one encounters music as fun as anything by Haydn.  One also hears deft mood changes, including some music that satisfyingly dramatic without ever becoming heavy.  Nice.  The Poco Adagio that follows is fairly Mozartean and very nicely played by Kim, and the concluding Rondeau offers more contrasting material that moves beyond simple fast-slow-fast.  So one needs to wait until only the third sonata for something ear-catching.  The two movement Op 2, No 3 sonata starts off with a Largo - Poco presto movement that opens and closes with slow, dramatic music, with more spirited music in the Poco presto section, and ends with a fun Allegretto.  It's a piece that an interventionist pianist could potentially make a meal of.  The set ends with a nicknamed sonata, "The Hunt", and it's the best thing on the twofer.  The opening Allegro molto is rhythmically and dynamically bold.  The very long second movement - eleven minutes here - is an Andante and variations, with the theme an original one of not a little sophistication.  Kim demonstrates the dynamic range of her instrument with some unexpectedly pointed sforzandi (and this from streaming), and Koželuch's variations have some nice invention in them.  The concluding Rondeau is quick, dynamic, and fun.  Though Kim plays it splendidly and with plenty of dynamic range, this work begs to be played on a modern grand. 

This twofer does make me wonder what the second completed twofer offers - more of the same is my initial guess - as well as what Ms Kim sounds like in other repertoire.  As luck would have it, she recorded core rep items for Arabesque Records, so I can find out.  Also, it would be interesting to hear how these works fare when played on a modern grand, so I will give one or two or more of Mr English's discs a shot at some point.  I will almost certainly be listening to Ms Kim's second volume in the near future. 



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I enjoyed the first volume of Jenny Soonjin Kim's Koželuch's sonatas enough that I figured I should listen to her second volume right away.  Another twofer with another eight sonatas, it picks up where the prior volume left off.  Sonatas range from two to four movements this time around.  The pieces sound stylistically, and more important, qualitatively equal, or really close to, those of Haydn certainly, and maybe even Mozart.  Dynamic shifts are more pronounced in some of the sonatas than in the first volume.  While all the sonatas hold their appeal, lucky Number Thirteen stands out as especially enjoyable, and brimming over with ideas.  And if the Fourteenth seems something of a step down, with a slow movement that overstays its welcome, all is well again in the most excellent Fifteenth Sonata, in E Minor, Op 13, No 3, which has hints of drama in just the right places and proportions.  So does the tripartite opening the Sixteenth sonata, which has a more agitated K457 vibe that's almost proto-Beethovenian.  Kim again delivers all the sonatas with some very fine playing.  When she's done, if Brilliant issues the complete set, I may spring for it, provided the modern grand alternative is not better.  (The downside to having two ongoing complete sets is that both may be good enough to warrant purchase.) 



* Mr English also wrote his dissertation on Koželuch's keyboard sonatas.  It is available online: https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/84697/8/02whole.pdf
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 31, 2018, 05:42:53 AM
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The second disc from the Jordi Savall España Eterna box.  Savall is a bit player here.  The star is Victoria de los Ángeles.  This short LP length (~38') collection of seventeen songs from composers anonymous to famous-ish (eg, Morales and Guerrero) from the late medieval to Renaissance periods are all nicely sung and performed by the musicians.  It's not as good as the first disc, though the songs themselves boast accessibility.  The older recording is also not as aurally striking as the first disc, being about on par with other vocal discs of the middle analog stereo era.  A nice disc, but one lacking maximum Savallian goodness.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 01, 2018, 05:05:35 AM
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Cipriano de Rore's setting of the St John Passion delivers something new for me.  I've listened to a fair amount of 16th Century polyphony, but it all sounds different from this.  Here is stripped down music.  Only five singers are used, with only the soprano part going to a woman.  Only a half dozen instruments are used for support, and usually sparingly.  Gorgeous polyphonic passages akin to Cristóbal de Morales are nowhere to be heard.  Beautiful ornamentation and complex, interweaving melodies give way to much simpler settings of the text, including some monophonic writing.  The sparse instrumentation often discreetly doubles the singers or discreetly replaces voices.  And discretion is a must.  This is among the most austere, stark pieces of music I've heard.  The work treats the subject matter in the most devout, serious way imaginable.  The music serves a purpose.  Excess is forbidden.  Even the brief instrumental interlude is austere.

As a setting of the Passion, the diminutive forces at first blush seem inadequate, but that notion is very quickly dispelled.  The music never assumes a sense of grandeur of later, similar works, nor does it sound as superficially beautiful as some contemporaneous, similar works, but it appeals in its own severe, devout way.  The work is barely over an hour long, but it packs a quiet wallop.

Singing and playing from Huelgas Ensemble under Paul van Nevel is what one expects it to be.  Sound is superb, and when listened to through cans the music and performance takes on an even greater degree of intimacy. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2018, 05:57:30 AM
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Disc three from Jordi Savall España Eterna box, Llibre Vermell de Montserrat.  Starting with a monophonic piece of no little beauty, the piece expands into full-on festival music in the second piece, with a flowing, rhythmically catchy sound.  Ancient instruments pepper the sound nicely, though based on what I read of the original work and this and subsequent Savall performances and recordings, Savall deviates from the more somber nature of the music and adds improvisatory elements that may or may not be intended.  Since I'm not a purist, I don't care about any of that, I only care that the music is groovy.  The third movement switches to multipart choral singing of no little beauty, though less sophistication than what came a couple centuries later.  That's quite alright.  The music then more or less alternates between the sacred and profane, or at least less sacred.  Savall and crew also blend in other, broader musical influences to superb effect.  Overall, the performance is most enjoyable and sound excellent, if not as good as the first disc.  Another hit by Savall and crew.  Maybe I'll try his 2013 recording. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 10, 2018, 05:05:48 AM
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From the DHM long box, my first exposure to the music of Marianna Martines.  This is a disc devoted to music by a woman composer, directed by another woman, conductor and keyboardist Nicoleta Paraschivescu, and joined in by one of DHM's stars, Nurial Rial.  What a splendid disc!  Martines' style is very much of the classical era, and the pieces here are of the light and exuberant sort.  I immediately thought of Haydn in the opening Overture, and particularly of earlier, sunnier Haydn.  The music doesn't necessarily sound as refined as the master's best examples from the time (ie, the 1760s), but it does not shrink in comparison, either.  Apparently, Ms Martines lived in the same house as Haydn for a while, took keyboard lessons from him, and sang in some of his works, including The Creation.  She obviously learnt a thing or two.  (Perhaps he did, too.)  There are so many springy, fun tunes that it was hard not to have one's mood elevated while listening.  Ms Nurial's contribution in the title Il primo amore cantata is just lovely, her contribution to Berenice, ah che fai? is lovely and weightier.  The text was later set by Haydn, as well, so it had legs.  Throw in some top shelf DHM sound, as well as fine playing by all involved, and this is an extremely fine disc.  Now both Ms Paraschivescu and Martines are on my radar, and wouldn't you know, Ms Paraschivescu recorded another disc of the composer's music?  It seems like something I might have to investigate.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 14, 2018, 06:13:01 AM
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A twofer from the Savall box.  The discs are fairly esoteric and specific in focus.  The first is devoted to "Court music and songs from the age of discoveries", while the even more specific second disc covers "Sephardic romances from the age before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain", meaning the music covers the century from the middle of the 15th to the middle of the 16th Century.

The discs were record in 1975, and right from the get-go, one hears the aural luxuriousness one often associates with Savall.  The castanets pop while the other instruments come into focus, and Montserrat Figueras materializes dead center to captivate and beguile the listener.  The first disc has two dozen short pieces, every one of which is small in scale.  Some are festive and fast, some more somber and slow, and all are most attractive.  It's like a regional Renaissance Greatest Hits collection, in outstanding sound.  The drum thwacks and plucked instruments all have an immediacy to them that even some modern recordings lack.

The second disc starts with a not unpleasant, in your face drum in the left channel (it switches channels later on) sounding more Eastern or at least unfamiliar than normal, and not unusual instruments produce mildly unusual sounds in many places.  I suppose the Saracen chitarra nearly qualifies as exotic, if a lute-sounding guitar can sound exotic.  Something less exotic is the inclusion of bagpipes, which I think make their first non-AC/DC appearance in my collection.  The music, especially the singing, often has a more lilting sound about it than the first disc.  Even the more vibrant music has a different rhythmic feel to it.  Figueras' style and delivery sounds especially well-suited to the tunes on the disc. 

How authentic everything is, I can't say, but it's all most excellent.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 17, 2018, 05:14:56 AM
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More new to me music from the DHM long box.  This disc of six concerto grossi plucked from Opp 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 by Francesco Geminiani and played by the Petite Band under Sigiswald Kuijken's direction.  All of the works sound nice, sport the occasional violin part of distinction, and make for a fine if not especially memorable listening experience.  There's nothing at all wrong with the pieces, it's just that other concerti grossi (Handel's) or concertos (Bach's) are more my speed.  It's not hard to hear why some of the more famous baroque composers are more famous today.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2018, 05:38:01 AM
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The next disc from the Savall box is a themed grab-bag.  Pieces by various composers, ranging from well-ish known (Cabezón) to anonymous, the twenty-three tracks are divided into six categories, with different instrumental combinations and solo instruments taking their turn.  The music is all attractive and well played, but the concept aspect of it doesn't hold together spectacularly well.  It more than occasionally sounds like one nifty piece transitioning to the next.  That's fine.  Early 70s sound is excellent, but dynamic range and clarity is not up to the better sounding earlier discs.  When a middling disc in a box is this good, you know you've got a good box.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 23, 2018, 05:24:02 AM
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Another Amazon Add-on purchase.  The disc contains one work each by five composers, with Aram Khachaturian the only one I've heard a lick from in the past, though not the work offered here.  So this disc sort of has it all: bargain basement price, new repertoire, great sound.

The disc opens with Arno Babadjanian's Piano Trio.  It is no minor work.  Intense, romantic, emotional, and not hiding its "eastern" (ie, Russian) nor its local influences at all.  It is conservative given its time of composition - 1952 - but it is undeniably effective, whether the music is impassioned or sorrowful.  It's good enough to make me think I might want to hunt down other works by the composer. 

Next is Canadian-Armenian Serouj Kradjian's Elegy for Restive Souls for what amounts to a Clarinet Quartet.  Mr Kradjian, who also wrote the liner notes and plays piano on the disc, composed the piece in 2009 on commission from the Amici Chamber Ensemble.  The work commemorates the 1988 Armenian earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.  The brief work starts off with the violin playing ticks of a clock, the clarinet playing a recurring theme of destiny, and the piano playing eleven tolling chords.  (The quake struck before 12:00, so only eleven tolls are to be heard.)  After a brief pause, the clarinet slowly starts in, and the strings follow, and then the piano, in a chamber music Requiem.  The music slowly becomes less somber, more disjointed, almost like a tragic folk dance version of Ravel's La Valse.  And since the music doesn't really sound especially energetic and intense until around eleven minutes in, it sounds almost ghostly for much of the time after the requiem portion ends.  The last third is more chaotic, with some superb effects, as when the clarinet doubles the violin occasionally before they split into different swirls of chaos, only to do it again.  All the while, the piano lays the foundation for the work, but it is not a solid foundation.  It is unsteady, it is sometimes rambling.  This, too, is no minor work, and I dare say it could make for a daunting piece in recital if the ensemble really digs in.

The brief central work is an arrangement of Parsegh Ganatchian's Oror for soprano, clarinet, and four cellos.  Mr Kradjian arranged the piece, no doubt with his wife, the soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, in mind.  She sings her part splendidly, fluidly, and beautifully.  Apparently, the original is a very popular work in Armenia, and its intrinsic beauty makes it obvious why.

Khachaturian's 1932 Clarinet Trio follows.  It is very much a piece of its time, dissonant but tonal, astringent but lovely, folk-infused yet mostly formal.  Ample energy is evident, and the clarinetist displays his chops in almost all registers. 

The final piece is the 1992 Suite for Clarinet Trio by Alexander Arutiunian.  The somber Dialog apart, the piece is brief, light, energetic, and often just plain fun, making for a much lighter close after some heavier going early on.

While I doubt I spin this disc a lot, it offers yet another perfect example of why I like to explore new repertoire.  There's some extremely fine music on this disc, and it gives me new ideas for music and composers and performers to explore.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 24, 2018, 05:12:56 AM
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I enjoyed the disc of Armenian chamber music enough that I figured I might as well spend a musical (business) week in Armenia, if not a real one.  To that end, I opted for something even more serious on this Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. 

Armenian-born, Canadian-domiciled composer Petros Shoujounian wrote four string quartets, collectively named Noravank, named after a 13th Century Armenian monastery, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.  The music is based heavily on medieval Armenian chants, and each movement is named after an Armenian river, so the very core of the music is Armenian.  The Quatour Molinari, they of blockbuster Schnittke quartet recordings, play the works, thus ensuring world class playing.

The first movement of the first work immediately calls to mind the quartets of Shostakovich, but shorn of irony, hidden messages, and bitterness.  In place of those are forthright sorrow, devout faith, and tempered hope, and maybe hints of joy.  This is not angry, biting music, and it never simply copies DSCH, and indeed it veers away from his sound world, but it shares enough traits that the connection is there, along with other inspirations obvious and less obvious.

Partly due to the source material, the music does not sound as complex as most 20th and 21st Century string quartets.  There is a simpler, more direct feel most of the time.  None of this is to say that the music is simplistic, because it most certainly is not.  The music often sounds lovely, with melodies flowing one after the other.  Even the dissonant music avoids undue harshness.  Other times, it sounds solemn and deeply contemplative, and devoid of artifice.  The frequent pizzicati fall easily on the ear.  The folk music inspired writing, with its eastern feel, becomes more prominent in the last two quartets, but it never sounds alien; it sounds familiar.  And the music effortlessly and effectively exposes its spiritual heart.  While obviously one could choose to listen to the music one quartet at a time, in any order, they really do work together as a whole quite nicely.  An excellent recording that also verifies the Molinari's talent.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 25, 2018, 05:16:43 AM
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Isabel Bayrakdarian's brief contribution to the Armenian Chamber Music disc was enough to entice me to listen to this recording of sacred music of the Armenian Church.  The first word that popped into mind as Bayrakdarian's voice materialized was WOW!  As recorded here, her voice possesses almost overwhelming beauty.  Now, having heard her in MTT's Mahler 2 and that chamber music disc, this was not entirely surprising.  (I generally try to forget her involvement with Lord of the Rings.)  This recording spotlights her magnificent voice and the chamber orchestra accompaniment is light and transparent and cedes the spotlight to her.  Even when joined by some additional singers, it's about her, and it should be.  The best moments of the disc are when it is just her.  Pesky instruments cannot sound as beautiful as her voice.  Sometimes the music hints at eastern exoticism (to western ears), but everything sounds both sumptuous and devout.  The music is truly mesmerizing.  This music has the same stop-me-in-my-tracks, all-consuming gorgeousness and depth as Cristóbal de Morales and Marie-Luise Hinrichs.  I'm not certain I can say that the music is of the same ultimate quality as Morales' original works or Hinrichs' transcribed ones, but qualitative quibbles dissolve in the face of singing so beautiful that even Kathleen Battle would take notes.  Ms Bayrakdarian does use vibrato liberally, and some may find that a quibble, but for me it doesn't rate a quibble.  If I could be assured of hearing singing of this quality every Sunday, I might start attending church.  Bayrakdarian must record Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder.

I streamed this.  I am going to purchase it.  Right now.  It will be a purchase of the year.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 26, 2018, 05:29:51 AM
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Next up, I found this 90s ASV disc devoted to the Piano Concerto of Loris Tjeknavorian and the Heroic Ballade and Nocturne from Armen Babadzhanian.  Loris Tjeknavorian serves as conductor for the disc.  The Piano Concerto opens the disc, and the first movement Allegro sounds very, very much like Bartok in the faster, more barbaro passages, though the orchestral writing and rhythmic complexity is less pronounced and sophisticated.  The quieter passages fare a bit better.  The Andante is vaguely oriental-ish and laden with brass and some angular piano playing in the cadenza.  The concluding Pesante is sort of Bartok-meets-Khachaturian and lighter than the opener, with a hefty dose of nice wind writing.  The work is decent.  Babadzhanian's Heroic Ballade is a pot-boiler exuding gigantic wafts of Rachmaninoff.  Some of the slow music sounds like it could have been taken from discarded drafts of the Russian's works, though one can hear traces of Gershwin, too.  The piece is so stirring that it would make people who heard it in concert downright proud to be Communist!  (It was written in 1950.)  Well, it would, if it didn't go on for what seems like five hours.  The Nocturne from the same composer offers something of a musical shock.  No heady, brooding, atmospheric piece here, no sir.  Starting with prominent double bass, it expands to become backing music for a bloated, over the hill, out of tune lounge act.  A few years ago or so, I encountered Ragna Schirmer's jazzified treatment of some of Handel's keyboard concertos and found them awful.  (That shocked, too, given the exceedingly high quality of Ms Schirmer's work otherwise.)  They are works of towering genius compared to this crap.

Armen Babakhanian tickles the ivories well and band and conductor all do good work.  There's a zero percent chance this recording becomes oft listened to by me.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 26, 2018, 02:27:45 PM
There is a Naxos Azerbaijan piano concerto disc with a similar distribution of quality. One really cool concerto, one weird concerto worth a listen, one really terrible miniature placed on top like a cherry made of poop.

(But I think the good stuff on that CD is better than what you describe on this one.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 27, 2018, 05:22:13 AM
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I decided to end the classical music portion of my exploration of Armenian music with something all but guaranteed to be superb: Esprit d'Armenie as conducted by Jordi Savall and played by Hesperion XXI.  It's superb!  This disc is a collection of eighteen miniatures based on traditional pieces and more recent compositions based on or influenced by traditional pieces.  Joining Savall and crew are joined by four Armenian musicians who play Armenian instruments.  The music generally sounds old or traditional or very heavily folk music influenced throughout.  It effortlessly evokes exotic eastern sounds more than the prior discs in this mini-survey, but in its earnestness and exquisite delivery, this is not gimmicky world music, this is the good stuff.  No piece really stands out as significantly better than the others.  That written, the music may be at its most compelling when the dark-ish overall timbre of the ensemble produces dark music.  The brevity of the pieces actually works to enhance the experience, in that the listener eagerly looks forward to what the next track brings.

Even via streaming, audio quality is obviously superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2018, 04:19:35 AM
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Next from the Savall box, music from 15th and 16th Century Naples, when it was ruled by Spanish kings - Alfons I, Ferdinand I, and Chucky Number Five.  A hodgepodge of short instrumental and vocal pieces for various ensembles by various composers, it listens like a sort of Olde Tyme Greatest Hits.  Each work is quite delightful, with very fine playing and singing.  It doesn't have the same impact as the troubadour disc and sort of becomes ultra-high-end background music.  Don't get me wrong, it makes for a most enjoyable listening session, it just ends up another case where Savall and crew deliver a middling disc by their standards, which means basically outstanding by most other performers' standards. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 01, 2018, 05:28:18 AM
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From the DHM long box, a collection of mostly traditional and anonymous works from the 13th and 14th Centuries mixing Ottoman, Spanish, Italian, Arab works.  The works are obviously influenced by or rely solely on non-western traditions, and the sung texts are in different languages, including Arabic, and the instrumentation is almost exclusively Eastern.  I have no other recordings that use the zarb, for instance.  The music doesn't conform to western music norms, which of course makes sense.  The music sounds like the type of thing that one hears in travelogue shows or movies, unless, perhaps, one travels to regions of the world where this type of music or its current variants might still be played.  Some of the music is very vibrant, festive, and has irregular dance rhythms, while some other music is slower and more contemplative, in a playing to the crowd kind of way.  This is the type of disc that I would never buy on its own, but it's captivating in its rare (for me) sound, and the playing is obviously expert level and in SOTA sound.  I'll never listen to this frequently, but I will definitely listen again for something outside the (western) ordinary, and I may just explore other recordings by the ensemble.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 05, 2018, 05:54:01 AM
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The next Savall box disc is the first dedicated to a single composer, here Antonio de Cabezón.  The disc is billed as yet more music from the time of Chucky Number Five.  I've got some exposure to Cabezón from this set, some other collections, and a five disc Brilliant Classics set, though this particular compilation has some fresh material.  While not necessarily presented in an especially coherent thematic way, the music is stylistically similar throughout, is played stylishly and expertly, and partly through tunes and partly through intriguing instrumental combinations, entertains from first note to last.  The playing may not be to everyone's taste in that it is often of the laid back to the point of sounding languid.  Cabezón can be played with more pep.  I dig Savall's approach.  That the disc is in top shelf early 80s sound that doesn't really cede much to today's recording helps matters.  Superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 08, 2018, 05:20:00 PM
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From the DHM long box, another compilation I almost certainly would never have purchased on its own.  Los Otros, a HIP trio consisting of Hille Perl, Lee Santana, and Steve Player, combined various string instruments - viola de gamba, theorbo, baroque guitars, etc - to play multiple works from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries by six composers.  I've not heard anything from any of them to the best of my recollection, and the only name I recall seeing is Girolamo Kapsberger.  The music mostly has a folksy feel to it and sort of blends Renaissance and early baroque styles quite deftly.  There's a definite Spanish flavor to much of the music, with its somewhat distinctive rhythm.  The aforementioned Kapsberger is represented by eleven short pieces, ending with one named Villa di Spagna, which sounds as though it served as inspiration for Tejano music.  The three instrumentalists all play splendidly, and sound is essentially SOTA.  The venue used is not soundproof as one can hear birds in the distance on multiple occasions.  Most enjoyable.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2018, 07:38:35 AM
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The next grab-bag disc from the Savall box, this time of music from the time of Cervantes, and collected into four groups.  This disc succeeds more than a couple earlier discs by just jelling better.  There's some pep to a lot of the pieces, though some are more languid.  Ultimately, all sound just right.  Montserrat Figueras does her thing again, and superb sound again makes the whole thing a real joy to listen to.  A true Savall release. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 15, 2018, 05:10:49 AM
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Another all-Spanish disc.  Albert Attenelle was the main draw here.  I discovered his pianism via streaming, decided I had to listen to his playing in proper sixteen bit, and so snapped up all but one of his recordings.  (That's his Granados; I will be getting that at some point.)  Here, he is joined by Spanish violist Agustín León Ara in a recording of works by Spanish musicians better known as performers: there are world premiere recordings of the Violin Sonatas by cellists Pablo Casals and his student Gaspar Cassadó, and Sis Sonnets by conductor Eduard Toldrà.  León Ara not only performs on these first recordings, he resurrected the works in the 1970s, including partaking in the first performance of the Casals. 

The Casals starts the disc.  It's a lengthy work at just over 33' - and it doesn't include a finale.  Casals stopped with the Lento third movement.  While listening to the opening Allegro, French Violin Sonatas of the Franck or Faure variety, updated with a 1920s Paris vibe (though it was written in 1945) came immediately to mind.  The opening movement lasts for over seventeen minutes, and it's multi-sectional, with the end of each section sort of offering a false ending.  The music is nice, but it does seem a bit long.  The Scherzo is more robust, infused with some fast and slow quasi-dance like elements, and the Lento, save for a quick and robust coda, is lyrical and almost liturgical much of the time, with some stormy outbursts.  Overall, it's a nice work.

The Cassadó work comes in at under sixteen minutes, and it starts off with ample energy and sounds unabashedly romantic, belying its 1926 composition date.  The opening Fantaisie is very free flowing and at times passionate, and sounds sort of French with hints of generic Spanish and/or Italian influences.  The Pastorale is sheer delight, all fun or tender beauty.  (Cassadó dedicated the work to his brother, who died in 1914, so perhaps it transmutes memories to music.  Or not.)  The Finale is vibrant and fantastical, like the opener.  This compact work is really quite good and, though not groundbreaking, deserves a wider audience and more recordings.  It's the best thing on the disc.

Toldrà's Sis Sonnets has received other recordings, and it is easy enough to hear why.  Like Cassadó's piece, it was penned in the 20s (1922, to be exact), and it is quite romantic and conservative.  While big portions of the music are vibrant and extroverted and of the playing to the gallery sort, good portions are more intimate.  It's quite good.  Some fun Spanish music trivia: Toldrà himself debuted the piece playing violin, along with Federico Mompou's teacher Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix.

Sound for the 2002 recording falls just shy of SOTA, but it's fully modern and superb and offers a realistic representation of two musicians playing in what sounds like a modest sized venue.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 19, 2018, 05:30:18 AM
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Next from the Savall box, the second single composer disc.  Three quarters of an hour of Savall front and center, sometimes solo, but mostly with a keyboard accompanist in twenty-seven tracks of Renaissance chamber music.  Savall plays his instrument superbly, sometimes as lyrically as one could hope for, which is not at all surprising.  His fellow musicians - Genoveva Galvez on harpsichord and positive organ, and Sergi Cassademunt on tenor viola de gamba - likewise play splendidly.  While every piece sounds superb, I particularly like the combination of viola de gamba and positive organ, with its at times piquant upper registers and generally small scale and light sound.  It's something either new or very rare in my collection and listening experience.  Ortiz's music lacks the same pop as Cabezon's, but it's nonetheless enticing.  Sound is excellent for its time (1969), but is not as good as the in the later recordings in the set.  This is another one of those discs one expects from Savall. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 22, 2018, 04:53:35 AM
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Prior to buying the DHM big box, I'd heard only one disc of music by Heinrich Schütz, Paul McCreesh's recording of the Christmas Vespers.  I liked it and figured I should try some more Schütz, but I failed to do so until now.  Fortunately, the DHM set has three Schütz recordings, and I opted to sample Anthony Rooley and The Consort of Musicke's recording of the madrigals first.  The disc offers fifty-three minutes of irresistible counterpoint.  The music doesn't exhibit the same beauty as Renaissance polyphony, and while the music is often quite attractive, that's not the most striking or appealing part.  No, the most appealing part of the music is the astonishing clarity of the vocal parts.  Mostly limited to five voices, or fewer, it doesn't matter how many parts there are: each part is always perfectly clear and superbly sung.  Listening offers more of an intellectual exercise than an aesthetic or emotional one.  I literally perked up to listen, sat up straighter, and focused on a point in between the speakers much of the time.  The headphone experience is less satisfactory here since the spatial presentation of the voices offers part of the appeal.  Superb sound adds to an immensely appealing disc.  It's something.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 26, 2018, 06:33:29 AM
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The box closer from the Savall box, El Barroco Español.  Another mid-70s kick-ass disc from Savall and crew.  Fourteen tracks by seven composers, all new to me, mostly anchored by Montserrat Figueras belting out tunes, and including superb work from Ton Koopman and Christophe Coin, this is another of those discs that one expects from Savall.  Nary a bum track is to be heard. 

The set overall is a humdinger, especially at its price.  Even the weakest discs are excellent and worth repeated listens.  Some are just plain stupendous. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 29, 2018, 05:09:57 AM
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From the DHM long box, more Purcell and more Hengelbrock.  Turns out this is a nice pairing.  This disc includes suites drawn from The Fairy Queen, Dido and Aeneas, King Arthur, and Abdelazer.  Some of the pieces are vocal pieces stripped of vocal parts, which may not be to everyone's taste.  What's left is music where a young Hengelbrock most effectively deploys his rhythmically incisive, super-precise conducting to often very exciting effect.  Even the slow music, while very lovely, maintains a just right degree of musical and dramatic tension.  All of the movements and all four works are just splendid.  Here's some Purcell that I can enjoy without reservation.  The disc reinforces what I already knew: Thomas Hengelbrock is one of the great living conductors.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 04, 2018, 04:57:56 AM
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After getting the delightful free disc The Wandering Lutenist last year, I kind of figured I didn't need a new lute disc for a while.  Well, the DHM long box has a few, including this one of music new to me by composer new to me (to the best of my knowledge) Esaias Reusner.  This is a really rather nice disc, with generally relaxed sounding music that is nonetheless painstakingly crafted.  The instrument used sounds quite beautiful and DHM provides lute sound bested only by BIS in my limited experience.  Konrad Junghänel plucks with the best of them.  A delightful treat of a disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 11, 2018, 04:43:39 AM
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More from the DHM super-long box, two discs' worth of wind sonatas for recorder, flute, or oboe.  I went on a Handel mini-bender a few years ago, but that was focused on keyboard works and cantatas, so I still have a lot of Handel to explore.  This makes for a nice next step.  Typically, baroque wind sonatas aren't really my thing, and this twofer doesn't make them my thing, but the music is frequently charming, always entertaining, and well played and recorded.  I will say, that of the combos on offer here, the oboe sonatas offer the most.  The aural contrast between the woodwind and the often harpsichord dominated accompaniment makes for something quite ear-catching.  And does Handel rip off Bach in a few places?  Can't say that I blame him. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 17, 2018, 05:12:46 AM
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From the DHM long box.  An hour of mostly moderately entertaining and occasionally boring harpsichord music.  The instrument sounds comparatively warm (or dark), and Bradford Tracy plays very nicely, but I can't say that the music really does a whole lot for me.  A few passages here or there are a bit vivacious, and Tracy generates some appealing sounds in some places, I guess, but this recording will soon slip from memory. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 07, 2018, 06:30:10 AM
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Coming after the austere, almost severe de Rore St John Passion, this DHM long box disc of Spanish baroque works offers something of a musical antidote.  The music is rhythmically buoyant, often upbeat, and both colorful and attractive.  The disc includes cantatas and chunks of cantatas by five composers (de Literes, Galán, de Torres, Valls, and di Iribarren), as well as a couple works by Anonymous again.  Marta Almajano does the lion's share of the singing, and she does well, though some of her singing sounds quite operatic, and some people may not be as predisposed to liking it as me.  The few other singers do good work, and the small number of singers and instrumentalists keep things transparent.  I really enjoyed my prior exposure to Cristóbal Galán, and the two additional short pieces here reinforce that positive impression, and make me think I should probably sample more of his music.  The other pieces, the longest of which is José de Torres' thirteen minute, thirty-two second cantata "Más no puede ser" which gives the disc its title, certainly sounds like a baroque cantata, but it is far removed from the sound of the cantatas from that 800 pound gorilla of the form.  There's nonetheless much to enjoy.  That rhythm is again the main draw.  It's sorta groovy.  Maybe I need to expand my cantata horizons some more.  Everything on the disc is quite enjoyable, and the long box also includes the third volume out of eight that were recorded.  All eight were boxed up, but that's OOP and goofy expensive, but I likely will find a way to explore more of this music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 14, 2018, 06:29:20 AM
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Up until buying the DHM long box, the oldest music I owned in physical form was composed by Hildegard von Bingen.  That's pretty dang old.  I've streamed music by Kassia, pushing back into the 9th Century.  That's older yet.  This disc of ancient Greek music setting works by poetess Sappho and various other poets and artists from before the founding of the Roman Republic pushes the date of the earliest compositions back another thirteen hundred years or so.  Now that's old.  Based on the academic work of Conrad Steinmann, who also happens to direct the forces here and play some of the instruments, and using modern reconstructions of instruments made by Paul J. Reichlin, this disc purports to present accurate reconstructions of music of the ancient world.  I'll just go ahead and assume all the diligent work offers an accurate glimpse into the long gone past.  The instruments include some wind instruments, some stringed instruments of a harp-like nature, one wind instrument that sounds like a kazoo-accordion hybrid, and some percussion instruments.  Drums and cymbals aside, which sound like drums and cymbals made last week, the other instruments often sound like cruder versions of what modern ears are used to hearing.  That's not to say that instruments don't sound good, because they do, and they do their jobs admirably.  And that job is to create music that sounds not unlike similar attempts at creating ancient music for various television shows and movies set way back when.  The music on offer is a bit starker and smaller in scale - it never transitions to saccharine massed strings, for instance - and it is fairly simple when compared to even something like Machaut, let alone Renaissance and later music, with often basic melodies and simple if insistent rhythm.  That most ancient of all instruments, the human voice, gets a good workout, too.  Soprano Arianna Savall, of those Savalls, does superb work singing her parts, and tenor Giovanni Cantarini does good work.  I wouldn't be surprised if they sing rather better than people over two thousand years ago did.  The music and disc is certainly intriguing, and I enjoy it, but it is highly unlikely I listen to it more than three or four more times in my life.

Superb, basically SOTA sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 21, 2018, 06:28:22 AM
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From the DHM long box, The Age of Passions, my first exposure to the works of Philippo Martino, and also, I think, my first exposure to Lute Trios.  The disc includes six brief trios constituting the entire published output of the composer.  A Notturno is also included, but it is by a different, later Philippo Martino.  Though the music is for trio, four instrumentalists play.  Husband and wife Lee Santana and Hille Perl, also of Los Otros, play lute and viola de gamba, respectively - though the back cover says Santana plays flute - and they are joined by violinist Petra Muellejans and flutist Karl Kaiser, who split duties.  All of the works are in four movements, with designations changing for each work, and the style is late baroque and almost improvisational sounding.  Much of the music is somewhat relaxed, but some pieces are more energetic, and every once in a while one stands out.  The Arietta Allegretto from the first suite is very "rustic" and sounds like it was lifted from some county fair and embellished so as to make it more artistic.  The Allemande that opens the sixth trio sounds vaguely familiar, like someone after Martino may have borrowed some ideas.  It's really quite good.  There's a lightness, freshness, and informality to all the music that make it appeal more as the disc progresses.  Like with pretty much all lute music, I likely will never listen to this disc a lot, but it's something a bit different.  Sound and playing are superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 04, 2018, 04:13:23 AM
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One nice feature of the DHM long box is that it includes five discs of music from Heinrich Schütz.  This twofer contains sixteen pieces from the composer, and all are just dandy.  They are so dandy that the use of countertenors for the alto parts, including a young Andreas Scholl, causes no grief whatever; indeed, they sing quite splendidly.  Too, the boy's choir is more than acceptable.  These two outcomes are due to expert use of the small instrumental forces involved and properly deployed choirs.  The antiphonal placement of voices in some pieces also aids matter, offering nice contrasts and opportunities for blending vocal sonorities.  The almost two hours of music can be a lot to take in at once, but listening to the pieces a handful at a time is most enjoyable.  Lovely and serious, and wonderfully crafted, the music falls just shy of JS Bach in terms of quality.  Maybe.  Fine performances from all involved and superb sound. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 11, 2018, 06:34:46 AM
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The DHM long box is chock full of discoveries and gems.  The Heinrich Schütz recordings all fall squarely in the second category.  I've never heard Symphoniæ Sacræ III, Op 12 before, but on the evidence of this recording, I've been missing some good stuff.  The two disc set contains twenty-one sacred pieces with varying vocal forces, always small, and varying instrumental support, always just right.  The music is serious but always at least reasonably vibrant, and often more than that.  The textures are always light, and as recorded, superbly clear.  The singers are pretty much all excellent, and Frieder Bernius and his forces pull off something unusual in my experience, and dependent on my taste: a boy soprano delivers the goods as Jesus in fourth track.  Whoda thunk it?  The top flight for its age (late 80s) sound makes this a corker of a disc.  I'm thinking I need to explore more of Schütz's stuff.  I'm thinking the complete works project led by Hans-Christoph Rademann on Carus may end up coming in handy.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 18, 2018, 06:34:34 AM
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Earlier this year, I listened to Cipriano de Rore's setting of the St John Passion and was struck by its austere approach.  In some ways, Heinrich Schütz's setting is even more austere, at least as recorded here.  Relying on five voices only, the music is sparse and severe.  This is a nothing but the text, scaled down to replicate a church setting.  The thirty-three minute, single track main work is well done enough, and obviously earnest, but it lacks the crackerjack performance quality of the Huelgas Ensemble in the de Rore, blunting effectiveness a bit.  The accompanying eight Passionmotetten include an organ, adding a bit more color, but the works remain austere and severe, and intimate.  In some ways they work better, in some ways not, and one can't help but want to hear what a better established ensemble might be able to do with the pieces.  I may have to find out.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Ken B on November 18, 2018, 06:55:14 AM
Quote from: Todd on November 11, 2018, 06:34:46 AM
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The DHM long box is chock full of discoveries and gems.  The Heinrich Schütz recordings all fall squarely in the second category.  I've never heard Symphoniæ Sacræ III, Op 12 before, but on the evidence of this recording, I've been missing some good stuff.  The two disc set contains twenty-one sacred pieces with varying vocal forces, always small, and varying instrumental support, always just right.  The music is serious but always at least reasonably vibrant, and often more than that.  The textures are always light, and as recorded, superbly clear.  The singers are pretty much all excellent, and Frieder Bernius and his forces pull off something unusual in my experience, and dependent on my taste: a boy soprano delivers the goods as Jesus in fourth track.  Whoda thunk it?  The top flight for its age (late 80s) sound makes this a corker of a disc.  I'm thinking I need to explore more of Schütz's stuff.  I'm thinking the complete works project led by Hans-Christoph Rademann on Carus may end up coming in handy.

Schütz is a long term favorite of mine. There aren't as many good recordings as one would hope. I wish I could be more positive about the Brilliant set. It's very mixed, due to weak voices in a few places. The Passions are very good in it. The stuff by Cordes on CPO is good as is the stuff on Harmonia Mundi, and as above, DHM.
There are some recordings from the 60s by Big English Choirs that you should avoid.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 18, 2018, 07:10:07 AM
Quote from: Ken B on November 18, 2018, 06:55:14 AM
There are some recordings from the 60s by Big English Choirs that you should avoid.


Noted.  That is helpful advice that applies to other repertoire, too.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on November 18, 2018, 08:26:02 AM
There is quite a bit of Schütz I do not know (and a lot has been lost to time and circumstances, his life overlaps considerably with the 30 years war) but the symphoniae sacrae III is a favorite. (There are two more volumes, obviously but I am not so familiar with the earlier ones.) Another large scale collection is the "Psalms of David".
My personal favorite is probably the funeral music (roughly a German Requiem) "Musikalische Exequien"; this is also among the most frequently recorded.
Another good disc is Bernius with the Christmas and Easter "histories" (basically oratorios, although small scale and mostly restricted to the gospel words, i.e. no additional chorale and stuff).

Schütz' music was already a favorite of Brahms (this seems to show in some of his more austere a cappella works) and in some circles (protestant church musicians) throughout the 20th century. There is a moderately old-fashioned (60s and 70s) virtually complete set with (mostly?) Dresden forces (Berlin Classics/Eterna) that still seems to have some fans but will probably appear dated today.
There is Praetorius, Schein and Scheidt and others but Schütz is clearly the most important German composer of the 17th century, or at least the first half, there are some other candidates for the second half.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on November 18, 2018, 09:23:51 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on November 18, 2018, 08:26:02 AM
My personal favorite is probably the funeral music (roughly a German Requiem) "Musikalische Exequien"; this is also among the most frequently recorded.
Vox Luminus on Ricercar I find extremely good in this.

Quote from: Jo498 on November 18, 2018, 08:26:02 AM
Another good disc is Bernius with the Christmas and Easter "histories" (basically oratorios, although small scale and mostly restricted to the gospel words, i.e. no additional chorale and stuff).
Definitely seconded. Great disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 25, 2018, 05:48:59 AM
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This disc of four of John Fernström's string quartets could almost qualify to be part of the Asian Invasion thread.  The composer was born in China in 1897, though to missionaries, so he's really not Asian; he was the offspring of agents of colonialism.  I shan't hold that against him.  The composer was apparently something of a multi-talented artist, also given to playing violin, conducting, and even painting, so he was a well-rounded sort.

The disc presents the quartets in order.  As the Fourth bounces into being, the name Dvorak immediately pops into mind, and it stays there for the duration of the brief three movement work, though earlier composers like Haydn or Mendelssohn also make an appearance.  Given that the work was written in 1942, it can be described as conservative, though quite enjoyable.  The Sixth, from 1946, moves forward a bit in time, calling to mind some Fin de siècle composers (Zemlinsky, say), and when combined with some more modern influences, the resulting sound, if not quite "gypsy", is like a tangy, less sumptuous Korngold, except for the nearly Schulhoffian Scherzo.  So, very nice.  The Seventh is more modern, but still somewhat conservative stylistically, but its high energy level makes it perhaps the most appealing of the bunch.  The Eighth, which has been recorded at least two other times, closes out the disc.  It has big old whiffs of Vaughn Williams in the slower music, and plenty of energy in the faster music.  I can hear why it's the most oft recorded work, though my preference is for the Seventh.  Overall, these works are nice and I'm glad to have the disc, but I don't have a burning desire to build a big Fernström collection.

Sound is OK for its late 90s vintage, and the Lysell Quartet plays well, though the first violin can sound a bit tart at times.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on November 25, 2018, 06:04:02 AM
Just discovered that very interesting thread. Great work, Todd!

I think you might derive pleasure from Fernström's orchestral works. There are a couple of discs out there that I really enjoy.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: DaveF on November 25, 2018, 01:53:20 PM
Quote from: André on November 25, 2018, 06:04:02 AM
I think you might derive pleasure from Fernström's orchestral works. There are a couple of discs out there that I really enjoy.

His clarinet concerto is on a disc that also includes my favourite recording of the Nielsen, by Karin Dornbusch.  Pleasant in a slightly folky way, but not terribly memorable, and all over in 10 minutes.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on November 25, 2018, 06:02:19 PM
In case you wish to explore further, I recommend this disc:

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Daverz on November 26, 2018, 04:07:29 PM
Quote from: André on November 25, 2018, 06:02:19 PM
In case you wish to explore further, I recommend this disc:

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Interestingly, this was apparently recorded by Vernon Handley with the same orchestra:

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 26, 2018, 07:46:40 PM
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Earlier this year, I picked up Nils Mönkemeyer's disc Mozart with Friends - Julia Fischer, Sabine Meyer, and William Youn, so some rather notable friends - and was bowled over by the overall quality.  When this disc of the first three of Bach's Cello Suites transcribed for Viola popped up as an Add-on, I figured why not.  Well, he's done it again.  (Or, more accurately, he did the same thing before he recorded Mozart.)  I've never heard transcriptions of the Cello Suites, but of course the music isn't surprising, and it works well on viola, even if not as well as on cello.  That written, Mönkemeyer plays so well that one gains an appreciation of things that can only be done on a smaller stringed instrument.  The precision and nimbleness is most impressive, the purity of tone even more so.  So, it's both old hat yet something new and vibrant.  While it may seem gimmicky at first, this is definitely no gimmick

But the Bach ends up being the warm-up.  The real treat here is the second, bonus disc, comprised of four world premiere recordings of works by living composers.  Krzysztof Penderecki's brief memoriam to Bach starts things off quite beautifully, with a dark, rich, chromatic sound in a somewhat standard modern homage format.  It's good enough that it has at least two other recordings available.  Things then take a qualitative step up with Marco Hertenstein's Luce morenda.  Unabashedly modernist and virtuosic in nature, Mönkemeyer makes the whole thing sound most inviting and fun.  Then along comes the apex of the twofer in the form of Ariel, by Sally Beamish.  Ms Beamish is a violist herself, so her score extracts many lovely sounds, grants the soloist the opportunity to show what she or he can do, and delivers a fantastical sound befitting the literary subject.  Konstantia Gourzi's Lullabies for a New World ends the disc, and it sounds vaguely eastern, influenced by chants that one imagines the composer may have heard in her native Greece at sometime in her life, though they are really just imaginary.  The second disc offers a half-hour of mesmerizing new stuff, and for a solo instrument that I typically don't listen to.  How about that?

Mönkemeyer surely needs to record the Bartok Viola Concerto, and I will likely have to give his DSCH Viola Sonata a try.  And some of his other discs.  But this guy has got to record more contemporary fare.  It's impossible not to at least like what he's done here.

Add in some Sony A-list sound, and this here is an amazing set.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 09, 2018, 06:54:48 AM
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Thomas Hengelbrock managed to knock it out of the park with Purcell, so it's not surprising that he delivers on Locatelli.  Light and tight is the best way to describe this disc.  Generally quite appealing music married to a small ensemble and a conductor focused on delivering quick, energetic, precise playing, but never of the aggressive or over-bearing sort, there's some swing 'n' swagger to the playing that makes it hard to resist.  The music isn't the deepest and greatest from the era, but Hengelbrock makes a strong case for it and demonstrates his superior stick-waving skills yet again.  A winner.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 16, 2018, 06:38:47 AM
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The 'Z' portion of my collection needed some fleshing out.  Fortunately, the DHM long box has this two disc set of Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri's dozen Concerti Da Chiesa e Da Camara.  There are violin concertos, one double violin concerto, and string and chamber concertos in the mix.  It's sort of a grab bag.  The music is never really slow, and quite often it's very quick, light, energetic and transparent.  At just over one hundred minutes for twelve concertos, none of the works last very long.  If a work lasts ten minutes, it's a long one.  This has the great good benefit of making each individual work a delight that never overstays its welcome.  While I can't say that the music rises to the level of Zavateri's contemporary Bach, I can report that I like the works more than those of Vivaldi.  The music and set are not indispensable, but they make for a most entertaining foray into obscure baroque music.  Sound and performances are basically up to DHM's high standards.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 23, 2018, 05:48:51 AM
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Somehow - I'm not sure how - I'd managed to collect classical recordings for over two decades without purchasing or even hearing a recording of Carl Maria von Weber's two Clarinet Concertos.  The Clarinet Quintet, well, it would be impossible to not have a couple versions of that, I think, though this is the version for Clarinet and String Orchestra, which I'd not heard until now.  When I spotted an el cheapo copy of this recording by no less a soloist than Sabine Meyer, with no less a conductor than Herbert Blomstedt leading no less an ensemble than the Staatskapelle Dresden, I figured now was as good as time as any to correct my neglect. 

There are literally no surprises on the disc.  Ms Meyer plays extraordinarily well, with incredible smoothness and precision, and a beautiful tone first note to last.  Perhaps she sounds a bit too literal for some of Weber's invention, though one would never think that listening to the Rondo of the F Minor concerto.  The Concertino is lighter and slighter, the Concertos weightier but properly proportioned.  Blomstedt and the Dredeners play rather splendidly, too.  The tacked on, upscaled Clarinet Quintet, is very fine, if weightier and less transparent than the original.  Also unsurprising is Weber's tuneful, somewhat superficial echt-romantic music.  It's always beautiful, at times vigorous, and approximately passionate, but it never really digs deep.  Doesn't have to.  No, this is one of those discs where I knew enough of everything involved to expect a very fine recording, and I ended up with exactly what I thought I would.  Even the now generation old sound holds up nicely.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 30, 2018, 06:26:42 AM
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This disc of four cantadas by Jose de Torres is one of the Barroco Español discs in the DHM long box.  It also includes the Sonata Prima by Francisco José de Castro in the middle of the disc.  The cantadas are all of the very highly vibrant type, with Banzo and crew playing at near dizzying tempi at times, with so much energy it almost makes one want to get up and dance.  The small forces allow for nice transparency, and it also allows the guitar to dominate proceedings on occasion.  Soprano Marta Almajano kicks all kinds of butt singing, producing a lovely tone and displaying virtuosity sufficient to keep up with the ensemble.  These are no dour, austere works.  They have life in them.  Great sound caps off a great disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 02, 2019, 08:39:00 AM
Cross-posting from WAYLT since my GMG new year's resolution is to keep better notes on my first listens, to better remember if I liked them or not:

First First Listen of 2019:

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In addition to Moncayo's pops hit Huapango, Ricardo Castro's delightfully old-school Minuetto, and Revueltas' Stravinsk-Mex La noche de los Mayas, there's a new work by Hebert Vázquez, El Árbol de la Vida, for orchestra and gently amplified acoustic guitar. It borrows heavily from Mexican folk tradition, and apart from a few polytonal passages where orchestra and guitar insist on different ideas, it's a pretty genial work that could be mistaken for a laidback Rodrigo. There is a really fun buildup to a big "grand finale" coda where everyone gets to work in exciting fashion. The Eduardo Mata University Youth Orchestra doesn't always sound world class, but they do good work, and the percussion section absolutely slays during the finale of La noche de los Mayas.

Simone Iannarelli's encore is a cup of "Italian coffee" that's just some gentle guitar strumming and string orchestra melodizing. Very old-fashioned, but it's a good way to calm your nerves down after the ending of the Revueltas. I will return to the Vázquez.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 02, 2019, 09:18:53 AM
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In the past I've been a big fan of Riisager's ballets and not a fan of his more serious orchestral music, and the pattern holds on this brand-new release. The 23-minute Violin Concerto sailed in one ear and out the other, sounding generally Kinda Serious but totally uninteresting. But Etudes is a 40-minute ballet where Riisager takes on the stiff challenge of making fun dance music out of, yes, Carl Czerny piano exercises. With the help of a splendiferously colorful orchestra (lots of xylophone solos!) he pulls the thing off, producing a result that anybody who likes Respighi's La boutique fantasque will immediately understand. Actually, the Mozartian grace (check out that lovely adagio - wait, Czerny is lovely?!) points to something even more neoclassical than that. Thoroughly charming and a truly impossible-level challenge if you ever play a game of Guess the Composer.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 06, 2019, 06:48:04 AM
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I do enjoy me some Haydn, and as such I have amassed a pretty hefty collection of his stuff.  Two complete symphony cycles.  Two complete string quartet cycles, and all but two discs of a third.  Multiple complete piano sonata cycles.  Dozens of individual discs of various of his works in non-cycle format.  Until now, I have never acquired his Oboe Concerto.  (Until now, I have never purposely bought any disc of Oboe Concertos by anyone, though I have several as part of bigger collections.)  This particular disc, purchased as an Add-on, also includes two works originally for lira and transcribed for oboe and flute, as well as Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Introduction, Theme and Variations for Oboe and Orchestra.  The theme of the disc is that all of the works were originally penned for Prince Esterhazy.  As far as I know, this disc represents the first time I've heard oboist François Leleux.  It is not the first time I have heard his collaborator Emmanuel Pahud, however.

It turned out to be high time I made up for not hearing Mr Leleux.  The dude can play.  Smooth, smooth, smooth and nimble, his playing flows with an almost alarming assurance.  Sometimes oboes can sound a bit raspy, albeit in a good way, but Leleux, on this disc, smooths that out a bit.  But not too much.  And literally nothing seems like a challenge.  This is reinforced when he is joined by Pahud, who appears to be able to play anything as well as a human can play it on his instrument, and both soloists end up producing magnificent music in the Haydn transcriptions, going note for note as equals.  Sometimes, Pahud produces a seemingly larger tone, but Leleux slices through the musical mix.  As to the music, well, the Hummel is energetic and festive, if formal, and expertly crafted.  The Haydn pieces, all three of them, are better yet.  They sound characteristically Haydnesque, and are on the light and fun side, and of course they are tuneful.  The Oboe Concerto, which may not be Haydn's, does have a London Symphonies sound to it, so if someone other than Haydn wrote, the composer had some talent.  The work is quite enjoyable whoever committed it to paper.

Leleux also conducts the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and on the evidence of this recording, he knows how to conduct, too.  While I doubt this disc becomes essential listening for me, it's good enough for the occasional spin.

As I have come to expect from Sony Germany and the artists and ensembles they record, everything is world class, including fully up to snuff sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 06, 2019, 12:23:40 PM
My Naxos "complete Haydn concertos" box set has the oboe/flute transcribed piece, but no solo oboe concerto, so evidently Naxos thinks it's spurious.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: amw on January 06, 2019, 01:04:39 PM
Modern scholars attribute the work to virtuoso cor anglais player Ignaz Malzat (1757-1804) from Salzburg, possibly a student of Michael Haydn, and an Artaria-published composer alongside Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, Anton Zimmermann etc—someone who would have been in the right social & musical circles. The attribution is based on themes from the concerto that are apparently taken from one of Malzat's wind serenades but I don't think there has been any definite evidence.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 13, 2019, 05:59:58 AM
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From the DHM long box, another Spanish baroque work from Eduardo López Banzo and Al Ayre Español.  This time it's Antonio de Literes' zarzuela setting of the Acis and Galatea story.  Coming in at under an hour for its two acts, it is very vibrant and energetic.  Rhythms often swing, or more.  Guitars spice up the proceedings.  Castanets, too, though they may offer too much of a good thing.  The singing is heavier on female voices than male ones, which works well for me, especially since the singers are excellent.  Sound and playing are both superb.  The Spanish baroque discs have ended up one of the most pleasant surprises in the box.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 20, 2019, 04:57:01 AM
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Another Hummel, and one less famous than Johann Nepomuk.  When I spied this disc for a few bucks, it was not the composer's name that caught my eye.  Rather, it was the pianist, Markus Bellheim.  His take on Messiaen's Vingt Regards displays a huge sounding, incredibly powerful sonority.  It's not the most moving or effective version I've heard - that would be either Kars or Knapik - but it is spectacular and more enjoyable than versions by some Famous Names.  I figured I might as well hear what this disc was all about.  It's about something sort of different.  Bertold Hummel wrote the works on this disc for children, including his bevy of grandchildren, and his wife.  This is basically a more modern version of Bartok's For Children.  The works are often simple, though not really simplistic, with some having a very 'modern' but not difficult sound. This is not merely a collection of simple, hummable tunes.  There's some there there.  It's not a collection of great masterpieces, but it's a nice enough collection.  Bellheim sounds like he's having fun with what are easy pieces.  Sound for the mid-aughts recording is superb.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 27, 2019, 06:34:39 AM
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Starting in on this set with the first disc, an assortment of "French Sacred Arias from the 19th Century."  Five composers, plus one of them plus Bach, are included here: Gounod (+Bach), Bizet, Franck, Massenet, and Faure.  The Gounod/Bach setting of Ave Maria is nice but forgettable.  The other works are generally quite beautiful if perhaps slight much of the time.  Sort of surprising is just how good the two Franck pieces sound.  Not at all too heavy or rich (for Franck), they just float by, and are probably the best works on the disc.  The Massenet pieces are dramatic but not overdone, and the sole Faure miniature is predictably lovely.  For a collection of stand-alone pieces and excerpts, this disc works well enough, though I'm not sure I will spin it a lot.  Singers and performers all do good work. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 03, 2019, 07:18:34 AM
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From the DHM long box, my first exposure to the music of Johann Rosenmüller, a German composer who was forced to spend decades in Italy due to some indiscretions.  Generally, the music has more of the rhythmic vitality one might expect from Italian or Mediterranean baroque composers than the more serious, meticulous style of Germans of the era, but it does seem like something of a hybrid.  It's spontaneous, but within bounds.  No extroverted excess like with Torres, for instance.  It's enjoyable, but not as enjoyable, for me, as the Torres or Schütz discs heard earlier.  The small ensemble plays with admirable precision and transparency.  The only complaint I have is the use of a countertenor.  I would have preferred a woman sing the part, and though sometimes countertenors blend very well, here, sometimes the voice stands out more than I prefer.  Countertenor fans would likely have no beefs in that regard.  Superb sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 10, 2019, 06:29:36 AM
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From the Jacques Mercier box.  This recording of Salammbô is the first thing I've heard from composer Florent Schmitt.  It's a score for Pierre Marodon's 1925 film adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's novel of ancient Carthaginian goings-on.  If I hadn't read that tidbit, I would have thought this lengthy suite was taken from a stage work of some sort, either an unpopular opera or more likely a lengthy ballet.  The music is obviously set in scenes, meant to evoke or augment imagery of some entertainment for a viewer.  There are vibrant, propulsive sections; more ruminative sections; more eerie sections; and the like.  The music is often sumptuous and even voluptuous, generating a gorgeous and vaguely but safely exotic fin de siècle sound world.  Schmitt had no little expertise in orchestration and the suite is entertaining as all get out, with perhaps one or two spots that might fail to elicit maximum engagement from the listener.  Sound is generally very good, though in tuttis and with the chorus singing at full tilt in the third suite, sound becomes a bit hard and glassy.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2019, 06:28:18 AM
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I'm pretty sure I'd never heard a note of Carl Loewe's music before I listened to this disc.  I was originally going to write something detailed, but as I listened, all of the works sort of blended together and emerged as a collection of perfectly nice lieder that sound like either discarded Schubert sketches or Schubert knock-offs.  The songs certainly sound nice and never sound less than ably crafted, but they don't excite or enthrall.  Of course, the reason the bought this clearance disc was to hear how the young Juliane Banse sounds.  I was unsurprised to learn that she sounds splendid, with all the control and beauty I've heard in every recording I've heard from her.  Thanks to Ms Banse, I can still rate the disc a success. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Papy Oli on February 17, 2019, 09:52:56 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 17, 2019, 06:28:18 AM
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I'm pretty sure I'd never heard a note of Carl Loewe's music before I listened to this disc.  I was originally going to write something detailed, but as I listened, all of the works sort of blended together and emerged as a collection of perfectly nice lieder that sound like either discarded Schubert sketches or Schubert knock-offs.  The songs certainly sound nice and never sound less than ably crafted, but they don't excite or enthrall.  Of course, the reason the bought this clearance disc was to hear how the young Juliane Banse sounds.  I was unsurprised to learn that she sounds splendid, with all the control and beauty I've heard in every recording I've heard from her.  Thanks to Ms Banse, I can still rate the disc a success.

Todd, I would recommend this CD if you ever feel like giving Carl Loewe's Lieder another try (male singer only):

[asin]B004S7ZYXO[/asin]
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 17, 2019, 11:16:15 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on February 17, 2019, 09:52:56 AM
Todd, I would recommend this CD if you ever feel like giving Carl Loewe's Lieder another try (male singer only):

[asin]B004S7ZYXO[/asin]


Noted.  Loewe may be - is - worth another shot.  Thanks.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 12:16:04 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 17, 2019, 11:16:15 AM

Noted.  Loewe may be - is - worth another shot.  Thanks.

Better still, get this 21-CD series.  :D

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 18, 2019, 06:04:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 12:16:04 AM
Better still, get this 21-CD series.  :D

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I donned my Helmut of Prognostication®, and this set will not be finding its way into my collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 06:26:08 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 18, 2019, 06:04:32 AM

I donned my Helmut of Prognostication®, and this set will not be finding it's way into my collection.

I suspected that much. Worth getting, though, if only for the cover art of the individual discs. Some very fine music as a bonus. :D

Maybe this one will be more appealing?

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 18, 2019, 06:39:03 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 06:26:08 AM
Maybe this one will be more appealing?

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I'd say so.  I've heard Garben's conducting, paired with ABM.  I wonder if Garben is as good a pianist as ABM.  (Actually, I don't.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on February 18, 2019, 06:40:41 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 18, 2019, 06:39:03 AM

I'd say so.  I've heard Garben's conducting, paired with ABM.  I wonder if Garben is as good a pianist as ABM.  (Actually, I don't.)

Of course he's not. The disc is nice, though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 24, 2019, 05:43:40 AM
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Yet another gem from the DHM box.  Now, this disc was more or less guaranteed to be at least good given the involvement of Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras.  The disc contains fifteen short songs from both the 1601 Le nuove musiche and the 1614 Nuova Maniera di Scriverle.  The lightly scored songs, laden with lotsa baroque guitar and lute and viola da Gamba, with some harp, all unfold in a completely comfortable way, often sounding predictable, even as they were brand new to these ears.  These are ancient, late Renaissance songs, but they still seem somehow contemporary, or at least like something folk singers might conjure up under the right circumstances.  Figueras sings beautifully, and distinctively, and sound is strikingly good for a recording from the early 80s.  Delightful. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 03, 2019, 05:39:57 AM
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With the Mercier box, I quasi-unintentionally bought more recordings of a composer I do not hold in high regard.  I'm not a fan of Saint-Saëns' symphonies, his violin concertos, his piano concertos, or the solo piano works I've heard, unless Bertrand Chamayou happens to be the pianist.  The composer's opera Samson et Dalila has its moments, but not enough for me to have listened to it in the decade or so.  Now I got to hear this non-believer's take on church music, starting with the Requiem he penned in a week.  It's more in line with his opera than his other works.  The Requiem is dramatic, almost operatic at times, which is fine.  The Dies Irae benefits from quasi-Brucknerian brass playing and a bit less from hefty organ blasts, and Oro supplex is lovely and somber without overdoing anything.  The Sanctus, on the other hand, is exultant, maybe too much, though its brevity and its Wagnerian violin writing is certainly not unattractive.  The Agnus Dei falls just shy of packing an emotional wallop; it never really delves deep, which is true of Saint-Saëns' music in general.  Psaume VXIII is about the same length, but in addition to sounding superficially lovely, it feels swifter and crisper.  There seem to be hints of Mendelssohn, and various other sources of inspiration.  Overall, it works a bit better, or rather, is more to my taste.

The singing, playing, and recording are all sufficient to allow for ample enjoyment.  I'm certain one copy of both works will suffice for the rest of my life.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 10, 2019, 05:21:55 AM
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Some liturgical works by Jan Václav and Václav Jan.  For a few measly bucks, I picked up this disc of the complete liturgical works by Jan Václav Voříšek - two whole works - and the Messa con Graduale et Offertorio by Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek.  Two of the three recordings are world premieres. 

The Voříšek works start things off, first the half-hour-ish Missa Solemnis, then the four minute and change Offertorium Quoniam iniquitatem.  Both works have something in common: a very Classical sound, blending the soundworld of Haydn and Beethoven, with an emphasis on the former.  The longer work is the stylistically lighter of the two, but it is suitably scaled and very much meant for public consumption in a proper setting.  The smaller work packs more of a dramatic punch, and is more to my liking, though both are good and earn well deserved applause from the audience.

The Tomášek, though, is something meatier.  Very Haydnesque, there's a grandeur and weight and drama that makes the work more satisfying.  It has an almost perpetuum mobile feel to it, moving forward inexorably and at times almost triumphantly.  (Not LvB-style triumphantly, though.)  At times, there is mucho musical beauty, too, as in the at times touchingly lovely Sanctus.  There's no time for dourness or excess weight or bloat here, no sir.  The work is an unexpected treat, and it alone would justify full price.

Singing and playing is good enough so that any shortcomings are easily ignored.  The live sound is pretty good, if characterized by a bit of glare here and there.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 17, 2019, 06:16:16 AM
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From the Mercier box.  Here's a Grand Opera Requiem.  Bruneau goes further than Berlioz in grandeur and romantic excess.  As I've seen mentioned before, this is the polar opposite of Faure's Requiem.  This fact is literally blasted at the listener in one of the most intense and violent takes on the Dies Irae I've heard.  Berlioz and Wagner merge into a (faux) frightful wall of music.  The inclusion of the Gregorian plainchant Dies Irae adds to the allure.  The rest of the work cannot possibly live up to the intense theatricality of this movement, the opening to Et lux perpetua aside, but it more or less remains more theatrical than liturgical in approach throughout.  That's not a knock.  Indeed, the work is quite excellent.  It's a less somber Requiem.  The roughly as long lyric drama Lazare discmate is likewise theatrical and often very lovely.  Against expectation, the male soloists are more to my liking than the female soloists here.  Overall, this is a superb disc with a corker of a Requiem.  Now, that's based on early impressions.  I don't know if it will wear as well as other requiems.  Singing and playing is up to the challenge.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on March 17, 2019, 10:31:57 AM
Nice review, Todd.

This Mercier box is quite the find, unearthing obscure works - warts and all. Like opening the proverbial shoebox full of old photos.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 23, 2019, 06:11:34 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in the Soler thread]


Well, hot dog!  Here's an unexpected delight.  Soler wrote a half dozen quintets for keyboard and string quartet, and here an all-Spanish group of musicians deliver the goods.  Rosa Torres-Pardo, whom I've heard in Albeniz and Balada, and the Cuarteto Breton, whom I've heard in Guridi, play all six works on both discs with an irresistible sense of fun and energy and a generally very sunny disposition.  To be sure, this is as non-HIP as a recording can get, but so what?  For probably the first time in my listening experience, I thought to myself "Hey, that sounds a lot like Boccherini", and meant it in a purely positive way.  The buoyancy, gentle rhythmic swagger, and light but not slight music just grooves.  Ms Torres-Pardo plays her part in a very Soler-Scarlatti type of way, really delivering - to the point where I would very much like to hear what she can do solo in Soler - but really, it's the Breton who make the disc work.  Being familiar with Soler's keyboard writing, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well he writes for strings.  To be sure, the string writing does sound rather influenced by music of the time (ca 1770s), but then so does most of the music of time, or at least the music I've heard from the time.  These works are also available in harpsichord and strings and organ and strings (!) alternatives, and perhaps one day I try one of those, but this twofer caught me off guard, in a most pleasant way.  This is why it's always good to try new things.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 31, 2019, 06:07:40 AM
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For years, the only Monterverdi I knew was the Vespro della Beata Vergine from 1610.  If a composer is gonna be a one hit wonder in a library or collection, this is a Sir Mix-A-Lot level of success.  Finally, last year, I did pick up E il Suo Tempo as part of the DHM long box, along with a third version of the Vespers.  Of course, I knew about Monteverdi's opera, but opera for me is mostly a Mozart and forward type thing.  I was also aware of his Madrigals, but I dilly-dallied.  Then, for no particular reason, I figured I might as well give them a shot.  Rather then mixing and matching, and against my better judgment, I went the easy route and picked up La Venexiana's traversal of the complete set on the evil record label Glossa.  Both ensemble and label deliver routinely superior results, with recordings so good that one soon thinks of buying even more titles from said artists and label.  In this way, the parties involved are nearly as wicked as Jordi Savall and his cohorts. 

As I listened to the first disc, with the first book of Madrigals, I thought "A-ha!  The spell is broken!"  It's not that the music or performances are bad - far from it - it's more that the music and performances are run of the mill in a high end sort of way.  The music sounds lovely, if simple.  It lacks the spark of the Vespers.  It's like less sophisticated Spanish Golden Age music stripped of devotion and complexity.  It sounds comfortable and easy to listen to.  The Ninth book offers more, with instrumental accompaniment to go with the lovely vocal parts, as well as some theatricality.  It's closer to the Monteverdi I had become accustomed to, but it's brief and fragmentary.  As I listened to the Second and Third books, I had much the same reaction as to the First book.  So far, so good, but nothing binge-purchase inducing.  Whew.  The Fourth book shows slightly more troubling signs, with more sophisticated vocal parts.  The Fifth and Sixth book demonstrate even more sophisticated writing, with vocal harmonies approaching nearly hypnotic levels of quality at times.  Accompaniment becomes more pronounced and sophisticated.  And then whammo!!, the Seventh book arrives.  Truth to tell, I started getting quite worried in parts of the Sixth book, but in the Seventh, that spark of the Vespers returns.  Not only is there sophisticated vocal writing and sophisticated, if comparatively limited, accompaniment, there's snap, crackle, and pop to the music.  It's alive, vital, and theatrical.  It's eminently and completely entertaining.  Crap.  Then there's the apotheosis of the Madrigals, the three-disc Eighth book, the Madrigals of War and Love.  Everything that I enjoy about the Vespers is more or less there, spanning hours, inviting me to drop everything else and just wallow in the musical and sonic goodness.  Want to have an hour melt away without noticing?  Spin one of these discs.  It's difficult to adequately convey the time-killing efficiency of these recordings.  To be sure, they don't assume the transportive, transcendent, all-consuming power of the music of Cristóbal de Morales, but they come closer than they have any right to.  Then there's the last disc, a grab bag of individual selections of the Madrigals from real, live concerts.  Of course the ensemble does good things; they advertise their quality, teasing the listener, almost daring the vulnerable sap to not attend a concert if the ensemble shows up in whatever town or hamlet the helpless and hapless music fan lives in.  And wouldn't you know it, especially after hearing the Eighth book, I started perusing Amazon for more recordings of the works, by the ensemble, and on the evil label Glossa.  Dammit.

Superb sound, singing, and instrumental playing throughout.  Of course.  That's how they get you.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on March 31, 2019, 06:44:50 AM
Much as I enjoy reading your reviews, Todd --- and they are among the most enjoyable things on this board ---, in the end I am invariably reminded of Hermann Scherchen's dictum: Music must not be understood, it must be listened to.. And of the Romanian proverb One can't see the forest because of the trees.  :D

But by Jove and by all means, keep them coming.  :-*
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2019, 05:49:00 AM
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From the Mercier box, a twofer of Saint-Saëns.  Never let it be said that my general antipathy for the composer prevents me from trying again.  And again.  This twofer contains two big works and six smaller ones, with Victor Hugo responsible for writing the lyrics for most of the pieces.  A variety of singers of repute are involved, including Natalie Dessay.

The first disc opens with La Lyre et la Harpe.  The opening Prelude alternates between organ music and Gallicized, Mendelssohn sounding orchestral music before transitioning to some lovely choral music.  As the piece moves along, soloists sing with an organ accompaniment and the chorus sing wonderfully en masse, with the mood sometimes darker and more dramatic, and sometimes lighter and dramatic.  The music is undeniably attractive on the surface, but it doesn't seem to have much depth, a common trait for Saint-Saëns.  When I hunted down the translated Hugo text, it turned out that the composer did not have the greatest poem I've read to set to music.  Ultimately, the superficiality doesn't matter; were the music too profound, the piece wouldn't be as balanced.  This is an excellent piece.  The other four works - L'art d'etre grand-père, Rêverie, Le Pas d'Armes du Roi Jean, La Cloche - are brief and lighter and all quite attractive.

The second disc contains the oratorio Le Déluge, which covers the biblical flood, as well as La fiancée du timbalier and La Nuit.  The main work starts with a pretty as all get out Prelude before moving to the more dramatic, and perhaps melodramatic, three parts with soloists and chorus.  Camille does something unexpected here: he makes it work.  While by no means a work I will spin regularly, the expert vocal writing, delivered superbly, melds in with the sometimes too saccharine, sometimes faux-dramatic, but always lovely music.  Sometimes one can detect big whiffs of Gallicized Wagner, and also some proper French influences (a lither Berlioz, say), all meticulously crafted, but to more musically satisfying ends.  La Nuit is quite light and appealing, if slighter, and La fiancée du timbalier is a bit garish in places for me. 

So, as far as Saint-Saëns recordings go, this is a home run for me.  The two big works both work better than expected, and the smaller works vary in quality but never sound terrible, so I will be able to listen again in future years without fear of excess cringing.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 14, 2019, 06:01:19 AM
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A few years back, I started listening to Spanish Golden Age composers.  Cristóbal de Morales stood out and stands out as the rock star not just of that era and group, but of all polyphonic composers.  To be sure, other great composers penned mighty fine music, but there's just something about Morales.  Last year, I discovered Cipriano de Rore while working my way through the DHM hundred disc long box.  His St John Passion is austere in the extreme, but his music has that same something-something that Morales' has.  I decided to try another disc, and settled on the brand-spanking new disc from La Compagnia Del Madrigale on the wicked Glossa label.  I was even coerced into paying full price for the disc.  Sure enough, this disc of various and sundry madrigals displays the same musical magic as the Passion.  The music sounds even more immediately appealing.  The writing sounds less austere, more fluid, more consciously beautiful.  The various melodic strands exhibit the same absolutely attention grabbing goodness of Morales.  The sparse accompaniment, when it pops up, sounds as good.  The madrigals themselves, occasionally about something vaguely political or praising this or that personage or river or whatnot, mostly rely on that millennia old fallback of some horny dudes scribbling for nooky.  And why the hell not?  Men have penned many excellent works in the hunt for lovin'.  Some of the texts are actually quite good, but really, it's the musical treatment that matters, and that is out of this world.  I ended up with a good sized chunk of the Morales discography, and now it seems I can collect Rore discs and experience the same level of musical happiness and exploratory joy again.  Outstanding!

Based on their superb recordings of Gesualdo and Marenzio, I expected La Compagnia Del Madrigale to deliver ace work, and they do.  Glossa delivers world class production values in its remorseless assault on my wallet.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mandryka on April 14, 2019, 08:45:54 PM
Yes it's what I think of, perhaps incorrectly, as Italianate - lots of different attacks and colours, razor sharp ensemble singing, and well recorded.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mandryka on April 16, 2019, 07:51:38 AM
I'd be quite interested to explore de Rore's sacred music myself.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 20, 2019, 05:24:31 AM
Quote from: San Antone on April 15, 2019, 12:03:31 AMCirpiano de Rore was neither Italian nor Spanish but Flemish, likely born in Flanders.


I neglected to include one sentence that would have cleared up my intent.  I know Rore wasn't Spanish, but the intent was more to compare the quality and impact of his music to Morales than to comment on his nationality.  I'm thinking I can just snag any old Rore disc and have listening experiences qualitatively similar to those with Morales.  I intend to find out.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2019, 05:57:34 AM
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About a year ago, I sampled four discs' worth of Leopold Koželuch keyboard sonatas played by Jenny Soonjin Kim on period instruments.  I was aware of Kemp English's competing cycle, and I thought I should probably give his set a shot, so when I was able to procure this eleventh disc from his twelve disc cycle for a few bucks, I grabbed it.  I had thought Mr English's cycle was on modern instruments, but it is, in fact, HIP.  It's so HIP, that this volume uses refurbished instruments from the 18th and early 19th Centuries.  Mr English is a true blue academic-musician, with his focus being on the works of Koželuch.  Unsurprisingly, he provided the liner notes.  He knows his stuff, inside and out.  He apparently owns other instruments used in the cycle, though not the two here, and he and his wife serve as producers.  His wife serves as artist photographer.  The whole project is a nice, little Koželuch enthusiast affair.  Another fun fact, the sonatas are presented in the order put together by Christopher Hogwood.

The disc has two later and three earlier sonatas.  The sonata numbers themselves do not represent composition date, though the academic numbering system does.  The disc opens with the first recordings of sonatas 42 and 43.  Played on a 1815 Johann Fritz fortepiano, both two movement sonatas are light, fun works.  It is not entirely inconceivable that Beethoven took some inspiration for his little sonatinas from these works, and whether or not he did, the works are basically best described as an LvB Op 49 / Weber sonata hybrid.  There's nothing difficult about the music.  Both end with Rondos, and the latter of the two finds the keyboardist making most excellent and entertaining use of the moderator in the very dance like music.  Mr English enthuses in his notes that this keyboard may very have been used to play these sonatas way back when, and that maybe even Beethoven himself played the instrument.  Who knows?  I do know that the keyboard sounds just a bit thin, but otherwise quite delightful.

The last three sonatas on the disc are played on a 1785 Longman & Broderip harpsichord, which was apparently hand-built by Thomas Culliford, who was a grandfather of Charles Dickens.  This is one of the beefiest sounding harpsichords I've heard.  It's nearly as hefty as the fortepiano, and completely lacks the too bright sound that often plagues recorded harpsichords.  The lower registers have some notable heft.  Indeed, one could swap sonata-instrument combinations on the disc and miss nothing, and perhaps gain something.  Anyway, these early sonatas are even less challenging than the later sonatas.  They are no less fun.  Indeed, the (literally) extra-plucky Andante from sonata 44 caused an instant smile to appear on my face.  I'm talking Haydn levels of fun here.  The same feat is accomplished in the spunky Arietta con variazioni of the 45th sonata.  I cannot think of another harpsichord recording I've heard that sounds like it.  This is a fine, condensed set of variations.  It's just so much fun.  And that's more or less how the remainder of this disc is.  Nothing sounds heavy, dour, intense, storming the heavens, etc.  All is lighter, classical era goodness.

After hearing this one disc, I think I may be interested in getting Mr English's set when it is offered in cheap box form.  Streaming is an option, but I kinda want the discs.

Sound is really quite fine and exceedingly natural.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on April 21, 2019, 06:51:22 AM
Do you know for a fact that it will be boxed up?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 21, 2019, 06:56:58 AM
Quote from: The new erato on April 21, 2019, 06:51:22 AM
Do you know for a fact that it will be boxed up?


Alas, no, I am hoping, though it at least seems a reasonable probability.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on April 21, 2019, 07:40:23 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 21, 2019, 06:56:58 AM

Alas, no, I am hoping, though it at least seems a reasonable probability.
In which case I might be a buyer. I only know Kozeluch's piano concertos, and they are mighty fine.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 21, 2019, 08:07:33 AM
Naxos is very slow and reluctant to box up their series. There are too many examples to count (just to go off a recent Todd post: Gilbert Rowland's Soler or Rameau). But in June they're doing one nice counterexample, a very belated reissue of Einar Steen-Nøkleberg's Grieg piano music. Might be cause for hope?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 28, 2019, 05:45:45 AM
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Every once in a while I get a hankerin' for some Hindemith.  This time around works for viola and viola and piano tickled my fancy.  The selected disc includes some compositions by Michaël Lévinas thrown in for good measure.  Gérard Caussé handles alto fiddling on this disc.  My limited experience with his artistry made me think I'd hear some good playing, and that came to pass.  The disc opens with Hindemith's Op 25, No 1 Sonata for Solo Viola, and it's a somewhat austere, cold affair.  Composer and performer exploit the instrument well enough, and there's some nicely aggressive playing in the Wild movement, and some moments of beauty, but quite often the piece sounds like an exercise in structural and developmental display and little else.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Not that there's anything wrong with Caussé's playing, but I just couldn't stop wondering "What would Nils Mönkemeyer do?" 

Les Lettres enlacées II by Michaël Lévinas follows.  It's also for solo viola, and it's more to my liking.  Lévinas himself wrote some of the liner notes, so what he's after, and what he achieves, is a polyphonic piece replete with so much double stop writing that it often sounds like a two instrument work.  It starts slow and quiet and stays that way much of the time, slowly unfolding in a medieval-modern hybrid way.  The only objection I have is the uncommonly abrupt coda.  This is my first exposure to Lévinas the composer, and it's nearly as successful as my experiences with Lévinas the soloist.  The next work is also from Lévinas, here Les Lettres enlacées IV, a string quintet with an extra viola part.  Monsieur Caussé is joined by the Quatour Ludwig.  More energetic and necessarily denser than the solo instrument piece, it nonetheless starts off similarly quiet and unfolds in a continuous polyphonic arc.  The effect is amplified because of the number of instruments.  In the solo work, Lévinas writes of a "false glissandi" effect, and that is likewise amplified here.  The work has echoes of Gloria Coates' string quartets, but it seems better structured and more purposeful. 

The disc closes with Caussé and Lévinas teaming up for Hindemith's Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op 11-4.  It's the most old-fashioned sounding work on the disc, and ultimately the most satisfying.  It sounds of its time (post-WWI) and rather French or French-ish (think Franck).  Far lovelier, melodic, and easier on the ear, the work hints at romantic music while being more structurally robust.  One unique feature, and something I don't really recall hearing before, is the use of two theme and variations movements back-to-back.  That's a lot of themes and variations.  Anyway, the work is just swell, and one I could see exploring in other versions.  Again, Nils Mönkemeyer's name comes to mind immediately.  He really ought to record these works.

Excellent sound.  Overall, this is an enjoyable disc that makes me think investigating more Hindemith and more Lévinas is a good idea.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 04, 2019, 07:03:44 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


It has been way too long since I last listened to something new from Bright Sheng.  His Pipa Concerto (I'll call it) Nanking! Nanking! has been a favorite East-West hybrid piece since I first heard it many moons ago, and now just seemed like a good time to try something else.  This Naxos title includes three works, all basically programmatic concertos, for different instruments, and all boldly mix East and West again. 

The disc opens with The Song and Dance of Tears, a sort of double (or more) concerto, with Pipa again employed, and also a Sheng, a mouth organ, or bagless bagpipe type contraption with ancient roots, getting some spotlight time.  But then, so do other individual instruments, and whole sections, so it's more than a double concerto  The music is nearly cinematic and sweeping and grand at times, and at others it scales back, speeds up, and rushes through passages.  About nine minutes in, there is some music very reminiscent of the last movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, and immediately after there's some Revueltas sounding stuff, and one can hear some Mahler later on, as well as some other Western composers, but then all around it, weaving in and out, is music that very clearly sounds informed by Chinese folk music of various sorts.  How much is lifted directly from original sources, or abstracted in a manner like Bartok, I cannot say, but I can say the mixes of sounds and the textural variety is novel, and the piece never outstays it brief twenty-two-ish minute length.  The eighteen-ish minute Percussion Concerto Colors of Crimson follows, and after its opening very reminiscent of Berg's Violin Concerto, it morphs into a more standard if approachable contemporary concerto.  There's some lovely, melodic writing for the strings and winds, and while informed by Chinese music, it sounds more vague, less concrete, less obvious much of the time.  That's neither praise nor criticism, but just observation.  The piece would make for a fine opener for a mixed rep concert.  The disc closes with The Blazing Mirage, which is basically a Cello Concerto.  Trey Lee positively digs into his solo part at the opening, producing a big, fat tone and displaying superb control.  Again infused with some folk or folk-inspired music, and also with some neo-romantic sensibility, and some soaring string writing, it offers a crowd pleasing sound, but also real musical heft.  It's the broadest, largest scale work on the disc, even though it comes in under nineteen minutes.  It's the best thing on the disc - and everything is very good - and I would not mind one little bit if Carlos Kalmar decided to program it one season around these parts.

The composer himself leads the Hong Kong Philharmonic.  All players acquit themselves more than handsomely.  I shan't wait such a long time to listen to more Sheng. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2019, 05:35:52 AM
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The Mercier box has been a most enjoyable set, offering a chance to explore lesser known works.  I ended with Bizet's infrequently performed and recorded opera Djamileh.  The synopsis is a bit iffy: sex slave Djamileh loves sultan Haroun, who is about to swap harem girls.  Lustful assistant Splendiano hatches a plan to have Djamileh for himself, but it backfires when the master recognizes that he loves his slave.  How sweet!  Fortunately, the musical components are more compelling than the dramatic ones.  Light and beautiful, with lovely harmonic invention, and gallicized whiffs of Wagnerian chromaticism blended with Rossini and Gounod, not to mention Bizet, the music often sounds forward looking.  One can hear some flute music that points the way to Debussy and orchestration that seems somewhat Ravelian.  Even in the faux Eastern music, everything about the work is decidedly French sounding, its potential inspirations notwithstanding.  It cruises along breezily, even given the subject, and is filled with attractive vocal writing to go with the often gorgeous orchestral writing.  I doubt I listen to this work a whole lot, but it's very lovely sounding and in very fine sound. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 19, 2019, 05:28:02 AM
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Up until this point, when it comes to the music of Mieczysław Weinberg, I've limited myself to the string quartet cycle performed by the Danel Quartet and a one off by the Pacifica Quartet.  In this centenary year, it seemed like a good time to try something new, especially in the form of the debut DG recording by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.  (It took until only 2019 for DG to release a disc conducted by a woman.)  Here's a disc where almost everything is new to me.

Kinda.  While I do enjoy Weinberg's string quartets, it is impossible not to hear the rather obvious similarity to the music of Shostakovich.  So it goes in the Second Symphony, for strings orchestra.  Plus something else.  That something else is Honegger, whose wartime Second Symphony seems to inform the music, as well.  There's some darkness and resignation of DSCH, and some searing string writing reminiscent of the Honegger.  While this description makes the work seem derivative, it's more than that.  It is quite effective on its own terms, even if I don't see myself listening to it especially frequently.  The Kremerata Baltica play superbly and generate an at times biting, astringent tone, exactly as needed.

The big work is the Twenty-First Symphony, Kaddish, completed in 1991 and dedicated to the victims of the Polish Ghetto.  Gražinytė-Tyla conducts the CBSO and the Kremerata Baltica in the honkin' big piece.  It starts dark.  It stays dark.  Out of the gate, the tempo is measured, the low strings add weight, and the high strings play with edge.  There's a very Mahlerian sound to start, and then some Jewish music gets worked into the mix, as does Gidon Kremer for the solo duties.  His tone is often austere and wiry, which works well, and Weinberg proves adept at know when to scale way back to the sparsest of sparse writing.  Weinberg seems to throw everything in, with hints of DSCH and Berg, some klezmer music, some sparse brass writing, and a direct quotation from Chopin's First Ballade.  The second appearance is stark, slow, and moving.  It's a kitchen sink approach, more even than Mahler, and it works.  And that's just the first movement.  The Allegro molto is much more aggressive, and though direct quotations are not used, it calls to mind Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements in places.  The slow Largo is even more desolate than the opening movement, and then the Presto is a souped-up, even more disparately influenced Mahler-style Scherzo.  The concluding Lento starts off fiercely, backs off to still tense music where a soprano delivers a wordless part that curiously sounds like a boy soprano rather than a woman.  More Chopin, more unusual instrumental mixes, including the addition of a harmonium, and a generally bleak tone follows as the work ends on a quiet note.  The whole thing is sort of a grab bag of music.  It works well on its own terms, but I don't see myself listening to this as frequently as Mahler's best.

Truth to tell, the real reason I got this disc was for the conductor.  I wanted to hear if Gražinytė-Tyla can wave a stick properly.  She can.  She did get a pretty good gig in Birmingham, so that's no surprise.  While these works and performances are up to snuff, I want to hear what she can do in core rep.  Doesn't matter what.  I also would like to hear what she can do in contemporary fare.  Doesn't matter what.  She just needs to record something else post-haste. 

When I bought this disc, the high res download was cheaper than the physical release.  DG engineers deliver fine 24/96 sound.  I suspect the CD sounds the same.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 26, 2019, 05:09:33 AM
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From the DHM long box, some motets from Pachelbel and two lesser Bachs.  Stylistically similar - attractively melodic, light, clear, and often upbeat - the collection of works is successful start to finish, with one caveat.  Countertenors are used instead of women to fill the alto roles.  I always prefer women up high, and that holds here, but a lot of the time it doesn't really matter much.  I couldn't help but notice that I tended to prefer Pachelbel's works more than those from the Bach boys, but all are nice.  Superb sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 01, 2019, 05:47:34 AM
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[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


Most of my listening for The Asian Invasion has been geared toward CKJ artists.  But there's more to the continent than those three countries.  Thanks to the seeming randomness of Amazon Add-on discounts, something from a Iranian composer caught my eye.  For a few measly bucks, why not try something from another extra-ancient civilization, I thought.  I mean, some of Karol Szymanowski's best work is inspired by Persian poetry, so there must be something else out there to inspire.  Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour is a name new to me.  He identifies with the land of his birth and early childhood, but he is also steeped in the ways of the West, so he is uniquely positioned to offer a hybrid approach.  He also penned the liner notes, so the lucky reader is not beholden to possible misinterpretations by an another author of the composer's intent.  Another Iranian, Alexander Rahbari, conducts the ECO in the main work.  It has been many, many moons since I heard it, but Mr Rahbari has conducted some Debussy for Naxos in the past, so he, too, knows east and west.  As it happens, Rahbari also composes, and Naxos will be releasing a disc of his music in the very near future.

The disc opens with the title piece.  I set the volume knob about where I typically do, and that ended up a problem at the start as the harp is miked way too close and bursts forth with a boldness I don't typically associate with the instrument.  As the three movement concerto moves along, it ends up being basically a modernist concerto in three movements, with a conventional fast-slow-fast approach.  The solo part could have been a violin or piano or whatever.  That's not to say that the music isn't good, because it is; rather, I don't really hear the special value of the harp, specifically.  Tafreshipour clearly knows both Iranian music and Western music, because both are obvious, and Western music dominates.  The Eastern components sound attractive and lend what I'll describe as quasi-exotic feel to the music.  The remaining structure, textures, instrumentation, and so forth, evoke music I've heard before.  The names Bartok and Mahler came to mind more than thrice, especially in the dissonant string writing. The harp ends up working most effectively in the Tranquillo second movement, and in the third movement, soloist Gabriella Dall'Olio demonstrates what I have to gather are impressive chops as she strums away at widely divergent dynamic levels, including almost ridiculously quiet and sweet pianissimo arpeggios.  There's a lot to enjoy here, and if I know this will not receives many spins, it was certainly good to hear.

The next work is the quintet Alas.  It almost immediately brought to mind Berg's Chamber Concerto and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, though it does sound different than either and decidedly contemporary.  Unabashedly so.  The piano part serves a sort of anchor, and there's precious little in the way of light or charming melodies, something reinforced by the other instruments.  That's not meant as criticism, because there's something more immediately gripping, something more vital in the music.  It's sophisticated and appealing, but not simply beautiful for the sake of beauty. 

The last two pieces are briefer works.  The trio Lucid Dreams for harp, cello, and violin is as unabashedly modern as Alas.  The basically rhapsodic piece unfolds in a sort of organized chaos way, sometimes sounding attractive, especially with the strings, and sometimes astringent.  And here the harp generates a sort of crazy guitar sound here and there.  Cool.  The disc closes with Yearning in C.  Influenced by childhood memories of Scandinavia and largely improvisational (which I hope means it could sound different in person), it is a continuously unfolding work that sounds close enough to older forms of music while being much more modern.  This is precisely the type of work I would love to hear in a chamber recital of some sort as an opener. 

So, overall, this is a successful disc.  The headline work is the most "conservative" of the bunch and the least compelling.  When Tafreshipour goes for something more abstract, his music is even better.  I don't know if I'll actively hunt down more works by him, but if I stumble across something else, I know his style and I will buy with confidence.

Sound quality is excellent, and all performing artists do excellent work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 09, 2019, 05:28:33 AM
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Here's a disc of 21st Century choral works that I had no expectations for when I snapped it up.  I don't recall even having seen the name Phillipe Manoury before, though I may have, but I most definitely have seen the name, and listened to recordings from, Laurence Equilbey and Accentus.  The works, based on works as old as the philosophy of Heraclitus and as recent as the purpose written texts of Daniela Langer, all have a modern take on old time choral writing vibe.  There's polyphony aplenty, with multiple voices massed together while others weave different melodic strands throughout.  There's a dissonant, nearly (faux-) chaotic sound at times.  It's entertaining, and it can best be described as Ligeti light.  Not bad, not great, and well performed and recorded.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 16, 2019, 05:55:59 AM
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Augusta Read Thomas is a name I've seen many times, but until now, I'd never listened to any of her music.  This disc contains eight diverse works, and one movement from another work, on one fairly brief disc.  It seemed like a nice way to sample both her music specifically, and a bunch of works from this very century.

The disc opens with the nine minute Radiant Circles.  At times very bright, and purposely so, and loaded with hefty percussion, one can hear a lot of influences (Ligeti, Berio, Ruggles maybe, etc) but a personal voice.  It's modern and not tuneful, and while dissonant, it's not harsh.  Alas, the University of Illinois Orchestra does not sound as though it has the best string or brass or winds in the world, and at times it seems like the music is missing some impact.  I have to think when Pierre Boulez led some of Ms Thomas' works in Chicago the results were more satisfactory.  The second piece is the movement Prayer-Star Dust Orbits from Resounding Earth, for Percussion Quartet. There's a lot of bells ringing in this piece, which sounds intrinsically aleatoric and comes off as a sort of super wind chime for its nine minute duration.  It's nice enough, but I don't see myself listening to it a whole lot.  Juggler of Day for women's chorus sets Emily Dickinson's brief text in a short six-and-a-half minute span.  Each line is layered, with different parts singing over and around one another.  It manages to marry hints of old style polyphonic delivery with contemporary voice blending, sort of like a 16th Century Spaniard and a modern Russian somehow mushed their music together.  The light, bright, fun Capricci for Flute and Clarinet follows, and really, it's a charming piece.  Twilight Butterfly, from 2013, for Mezzo and Piano is a fairly attractive song and sort of keeps with the feeling of the collection. 

Then comes a doozy: Bells Ring Summer for solo cello.  Originally written for David Finckel, this short piece is a scorching, tight, taut work, until the last fifth or so.  I would certainly like to hear how the dedicatee plays it.  Euterpe's Caprice, a two minute fanfare for solo flute (its actual title), is back to lighter fare, and sounds fun.  This is followed by Pulsar, for solo violin, which sounds as though it could be an extended cadenza for a violin concerto.  Finally comes the closer, the title track, Astral Canticle.  A double concerto for flute and violin, the piece opens with the violin, moves via some overlap to the flute, and then blends in an instrument or two from the orchestra here or there, for a couple minutes before the brass enter.  While a concerto for the two main instruments, there's also a concerto for orchestra sound to it, as other sections move in and out of the picture, gradually building to a tutti as the piece draws to a close.  The piece manages to be both unabashedly contemporary yet entirely approachable.  Again, though, one wonders what A-listers might deliver.  Daniel Barenboim conducted the Chicagoans in the first performance.  I'd have to think the full impact of the piece could be heard with those forces. 

The disc is a success overall, but the takeaway for me is that I want to hear the big works played by world class ensembles, and that solo cello piece needs to cycle into the solo repertoire. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 22, 2019, 06:01:59 AM
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It's never a bad idea to try something new from Georg Philipp Telemann.  This Reformations-Oratorium, Holder Friede, heil'ger Glaube, dates from 1755, just a year before the composer's late period started.  Penned to celebrate something or other - perhaps the two hundredth anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg - the long lost work gets its premiere here, led by Reinhard Goebel.  Mr Goebel's Tafelmusik recording is just dandy, so I came in with high-ish expectations.  That Mr Goebel is obviously very serious about Telemann and this work - he personally owns the manuscript - heightened expectations a smidge.  My expectations were almost met, with two caveats.

The first caveat pertains to the recorded balance.  The soloists are recorded too closely, and they dominate the recording, while the chorus is a bit more diffuse.  Such close focus on the voices means that there's nowhere to hide for the singers, though that's not a bad thing here.  Indeed, one of the benefits of the disc is that it offered me a chance to hear some hot young talents for the first time.  Regula Muehlemann basically steals the show for me, but the three other male singers all do good enough work.  Benjamin Appl shows some promise.  Maybe he can do something more up my alley at some point.  The modern instrument band plays very well, though one might be able to argue that a HIP ensemble would be more appropriate.  I don't care, either way.  To the second caveat, I do rather wish that the performance had a bit more snap, more energy, more theatricality.  Given the (potentially) potent subjects involved - Peace, Devotion, Religion and History - a bit more oomph seems appropriate.  I don't know how may other artists may take up the work, but another version, someday, somewhere, may be a good thing.  In the meantime, if I want snazzier late-ish or late Telemann, I can always revisit the Ino Cantata.  Still, this is a nice addition to my small but sure to grow Telemann collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on July 16, 2019, 07:51:55 AM
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Wynton Marsalis' new violin concerto and a dance suite for solo violin.

Concerto is not a short one. 12:38, 10:10, 10:18, 9:30 (plus applause)

The first movement actually reminds me a lot of the Korngold violin concerto. It's a little bluesier, yes, and there's a section with a rather stiff one-two percussion accompaniment, but Benedetti gets lots of singing melodies and the orchestra is very Korngoldy in its velvety luxury. There are a couple of clarinet riffs straight out of Gershwin, but mostly this is a lovely slow movement nocturne with rhapsodic faster episodes in the middle and at the very end.

The second movement, "Rondo Burlesque," is meant to resemble a New Orleans carnival...I don't know that it's SO MUCH more jazzy and southern than, say, the last movements of the Barber or Adams concertos, but it is certainly fun, and colorfully scored (either Marsalis has some good assistants or he's really put time into learning the classical idiom), and contains a cadenza which makes me optimistic about the solo dance suite work. (Partly accompanied by drum set.)

The third movement, "Blues," is another pretty lavish slow movement with a very lyrical part for the solo violin, plus a central episode that brings out trombones, tambourine, muted trumpets, and a furiously double-stopping Benedetti. Honestly, apart from the wild howlings of muted trumpets, it's again nothing that Gershwin couldn't have done, which brings up the question of whether the art of fusing jazz and classical idioms has really evolved much at all in the last 60 years.

The finale is a barn dance and it starts with the orchestra stomping their feet and clapping their hands. Then Benedetti goes off to the races. At the end, she walks off the stage still playing.

Overall, it's definitely an episodic piece and a somewhat old-fashioned one, but entertaining from start to end. Maybe best to think of it more like a suite.

Speaking of suites... Fiddle Dance Suite. Actually, I like this a lot. It feels like an attempt to fuse Bach with the American South, and it's broadly pretty successful. The shorter track times mean Marsalis more concise and "sticks to" his material rather than wandering around, and stylistically, there actually is a lot of parallel between the insistent rhythms of the country dance and the baroque. The finale dispenses with any classical pretext and is an all-out breakdown, which the Scottish violinist plays as if she'd been raised with it. I mean...that is where American fiddle tradition came from... anyway, a very successful and at 23' very programmable addition to the solo violin repertoire, although I imagine that finale has gotta leave your arms tired.

There is a booklet photo of Wynton holding a trumpet, but it's a tease. He doesn't play on the disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 08, 2019, 02:08:43 PM
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What's this now, a mass from Rossini?  I mean, come on, it's Rossini.*  Well, here it is, the Petite Messe Solennelle.  'Cept it ain't petite.  Nor solemn.  OK, so the forces are petite, with the soloists joined by a small choir, two pianos and a - a harmonium.  Say huh?  Yes, a harmonium, because, it's Rossini, old, rich Rossini, so what'd he care?  The eighty-four minute recording launches with the harmonium forcing one to adjust the ear, and the effect is of a liturgical work performed in a French bistro.  If that sounds negative, it's not meant to.  You see, Rossini delivers a Rossini-type trick and makes the work purt near irresistible.  The tunes, oh yes, the tunes, they are most certainly Rossini quality.  Only Schubert and Dvořák could pen catchier ditties, and this mass is chock full of melodic goodness, though the composer never goes all out in creating something like one hears in his most famous operas.  The tunefulness means the work, at least in this performance, doesn't have much gravitas, but that's quite alright.  Something it does have is unabashedly operatic solo parts.  Here I thought Verdi's Requiem was operatic, but some of the numbers here seem like reworkings of discarded music from some of the composer's operas.  When the Domine Deus starts, I chuckled a bit at the sheer theatricality of the vocal writing, though the chuckle was born of pure delight.  Indeed, the vocal writing throughout is masterful, benefitting mightily from Rossini's ability to craft music for singers at the highest attainable level.  The musical support is just right given the light, comparatively playful, yet still devout material.  It's unique and uniquely effective.  It zips right by.  Maybe Rossini was right, it really is petite. 

The performers, with Françoise Pollet the big name here, all do good work, and sound is fully up to snuff even though the recording is a generation old. 

After listening, I looked around a bit to see if there are other versions, and sure enough there are more than a few.  Apparently, Wolfgang Sawallisch's early-70s recording is the bomb, so maybe I'll give that a shot at some point.  And though I don't really think I'll collect a lot of versions, this is the type of work where I can nonetheless easily see myself buying another one here, another one there, and so forth because it's so much fun.



* I know, I know, Rossini also wrote a Stabat Mater, but that's more serious - and operatic.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 27, 2019, 04:50:16 AM
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This is my first foray into the music of Cyril Scott.  As I listened, I couldn't help but think some of the music sounds a whole lot like Debussy, some sounds almost identical to Mompou, some seems more than reminiscent of Satie, and some sounds like a blend of the three.  There are many quite lovely moments, and thankfully the pieces are all short, because the music really isn't much to listen to.  Scott is nowhere near as inventive or compelling as Debussy or Mompou, though I do like him more than Satie, but that is setting a low bar.

Truth to tell, I bought the disc to hear more from Ms Gvetadze.  She's one of those contemporary pianists I make a point to hear every time a new release pops up, and her playing is quite fine, and recorded sound is superb, so the disc reinforces my very positive overall impression of her artistry.  I'm glad she sees fit to explore lesser known repertoire, and I eagerly look forward to her next release.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Que on October 27, 2019, 10:07:55 AM
Quote from: Todd on September 08, 2019, 02:08:43 PM

What's this now, a mass from Rossini?  I mean, come on, it's Rossini.*  Well, here it is, the Petite Messe Solennelle.  'Cept it ain't petite.  Nor solemn.

Such a special piece of music!  :)
If you'd like to try  another performance, this is the best I've come up with sofar:

[asin]B07BCBQS7F[/asin]
Q
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 27, 2019, 10:18:30 AM
Quote from: Que on October 27, 2019, 10:07:55 AM
Such a special piece of music!  :)
If you'd like to try  another performance, this is the best I've come up with sofar:

[asin]B07BCBQS7F[/asin]
Q


I've already snagged two others - Dijkstra and Scimone - so I couldn't possibly need a fourth.  Right?  I mean, if I go for a fourth, it might make sense to consider Ceccherini as a fifth, and see if I can't hunt down that Sawallisch, and, ah crap, I'm going to end with at least a half dozen versions, aren't I?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 17, 2019, 05:49:35 AM
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A disc that portends good things for the future.  Both the conductor and soloist were in their twenties when this recording was made, and they remain in their early thirties now.  Sebastian Bohren is not new to me.  I picked up a closeout of his Op 2 disc, which includes Mendelssohn (the unfamous concerto), Hartmann (soft-edged; more on that later), Respighi, and Schubert.  Conductor Luca Bizzozero is new to me.  The disc isn't really since I noticed it upon release, but I saw no reason to buy at full price.  Upon listening, maybe I should have.

Neither Johann Baptist Vanhal and Ignaz Pleyel are new to me, though I can hardly be said to have large collections of their works, and all these works are new to my collection.  With the Vanhal and Pleyel symphonies that would have to be the case since these are world premiere recordings.  Both are quite delightful classical era pieces.  If one can hear the influence of Haydn, in particular, one is neither surprised nor displeased.  Both works are brief, crisp, attractive and fun.  The Pleyel sounds a bit snappier, a bit more refined, a bit more streamlined, but both works delight.  Mr Bizzozero does creditable work directing the chamber orchestra. 

The draw on this disc is the last work, the big work, the well north of a half-hour Pleyel Violin Concerto.  And Mr Bohren is the reason why.  To be sure, Bizzozero does generally good work as one expects by this point, but Bohren's playing is so incredibly beautiful, his upper registers so smooth, and not hampered by too much or too little vibrato, that it beguiles - most especially in the gorgeous Adagio cantabile.  As with his Hartmann, one can say Bohren's playing sounds soft-edged, but here it fits.  The recording technique makes sure he gets a lot of love, though not to the point of making his violin sound as large as even the reduced first desk.  That's OK, that's what one wants here.  Even though this work is new to me, one gets the sense, coming after the more vibrant symphony and in the context of the concerto itself, that the fiddling should be more vigorous, but one just doesn't care, not one iota.  The whole thing is carried by that playing.  I can't say whether it is note perfect, but it sounds just swell.  After the first listen, I perused for more recordings from the violinist, and he has some solo Bach.  The Gramophone review is interesting in that in praises the substantial aural beauty and basically states that's the draw.  After hearing this, I understand why.  I may have to get it.

Overall, very nice playing and superb sound.  Sony's Central European branches keep cranking out the good stuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 30, 2019, 05:44:02 AM
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Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla knocked it out of the park in her DG debut of Weinberg symphonies, and the good folks at UMG know it.  Here's a quick follow up.  It's an all-Lithuanian ladies special, with works by the composer Raminta Šerkšnytė, and with not just the estimable MGT waving a stick, but also the even younger Giedrė Šlekytė getting her shot at Yellow Label glory. 

The recording has three works, MGT leading the first two with the Kremerata Baltica, and Šlekytė leading the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, with choir, in the disc closer.  Vasarvidžio giesmė, or Midsummer Song, from 2009, for string orchestra and slight percussion, is up first.  Yet another woman's name pops into mind while listening, and that's Gloria Coates, because of the extensive use of glissando.  That written, Šerkšnytė's piece is more my speed in its uncompromising modernisn, with no real tunes or center, but rather a sort of textural and colorful unfolding of musical ideas through the roughly thirteen minute length.  MGT and her strings do the work full justice, and it strikes me as a piece perfectly suited to Carlos Kalmar, who routinely programs exactly this type of thing in his concerts.  Perhaps I should write him a letter encouraging advocacy of the composer.  Pairing it with a healthy sized check might be more potent.  Sort of like the De Profundis, from 1998, that follows.  Spikier, more intense, and with some very affecting, even gorgeous passages, especially in the Andante rubato section, Šerkšnytė delivers what might be considered an updated, refined, more modern take of something Honegger would have written.  Good stuff.

Saulėlydžio ir aušros giesmės, or Songs of Sunset and Dawn, from 2007, closes out the recording.  A sorta cantata-oratorio (apparently, the composer hates the oratorio form as it is typically understood) based on Indian raga structures and utilizing poetry by Rabindranath Tagore, it opens with Day, Evening, and one hears a wonderful blend of influences that result in something new.  Take the perfumed excess of Szymanowski, the harmonic daring of Debussy, some slight hints of Wozzeck just before the murder, and an aleatoric feel mixed with solo and choral parts that bring to mind Martinů's The Epic of Gilgamesh, along with something that comes close to sounding like Mongolian throat singing, and, well ladies and gentlemen, this here's the shit.  It's as lush and beautiful as one could hope for, but also simultaneously very post-post-modern and/or avant-garde-y.  And that's just the first movement.  The second piece, Night, offers an updated take on "night music" (duh) and introduces updated and refined Ligetian influences.  How about that?  As nicely as Lina Dambrauskaitė sings her part - and it is very nice indeed - I couldn't help but wonder what Isabel Bayrakdarian might do with the part, I mean other than reduce me to a puddle of goo.  The instrumental introduction to Morning, Eternal Morning has a Rossinian flair to it - as in William Tell, of course - though with unabashedly modernist sound, and the final piece itself has that Martinůesque feel to it, and the flute work seduces the ear.  The spectral violin writing and delicate percussion adds a sense of staying in a dreamlike state rather than awaking from one.  If the name dropping makes the music sound derivative, it is not meant to; rather, it is the easiest way to describe the formidable music Ms Šerkšnytė hath wrought.  On the strength of just this piece and recording, Ms Šlekytė emerges as another young talent to watch.  And Ms Šerkšnytė joins Vivian Fung as a contemporary female composer of no little interest to me.  I love recordings like this.

I went the hi res download route, and as in MGT's debut, sound is tip top.  DG had best not dally in getting something else from their new stars out to the public.   
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 07, 2019, 04:28:45 AM
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I'll just get it out of the way and admit up front that the only reason I even contemplated buying this recording is because Jamina Gerl plays the works.  Prior to seeing that she had released not one, but two new recordings at the same time, I'd neither heard of nor seen the name Ferdinand Pfohl.  Mr Pfohl was a music author and critic first, and a composer only second, somewhat like Gustave Samazeuilh, covered previously in this thread.

Turns out there are reasons Pfohl is better remembered in German speaking lands as a critic than he is remembered anywhere as a composer.  The piano music just isn't really that great.  It's not awful, or anything, but it's often fairly heavy and thick and modestly adventurous.  Some of the time, the music sounds like something Brahms may have eked out when hungover one Sunday morning before realizing that it was not up to snuff and duly tossing the paper in the fire.  Other times it sounds like what Brahmsian impressionsim might have sounded like - or rather what early, discarded attempts at Brahmsian impressionism would have sounded like.  At still other times, it sounds like Brahms and Grieg got together to mashup ideas for four-hands works, and then Brahms reedited them to standard solo fare.  And this is not just because one of the works is based on a theme of Grieg's.  If the gentle reader gets the impression that Brahms looms large, it's because he does.  It's sort of like how one can't help but notice the massive influence of Debussy on Samazeuilh, though the Frenchman ended up crafting better works. 

Ms Gerl is a fine advocate of this music, and possibly the best the composer will receive, sort of along the lines of the great Ragna Schirmer's advocacy of Clara Schumann.  Indeed, in her uncompromising, often hard-hitting, and never dainty approach, Ms Gerl very much reminds me of her older fellow countrywoman.  This recording, along with her two other, better efforts, is something to tide me over until she records something else.  She's already got Op 111 under her belt and on YouTube, so she really ought to just get down to business and record a big old slug of her fellow Bonner's music for 2020.  Maybe all 32.  She needs to hurry; I am understandably impatient.

Sound is what one expects nowadays and the 86 minute playing time is, if anything, too generous.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 26, 2020, 11:41:31 AM
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I figured I might as well go local again, this time employing the choral forces of the local commuter college.  The work needed something more spacious than Lincoln Hall on the campus of PSU can offer*, so it was recorded in St Stephens in the Hawthorne District, just off Cesar Chavez Blvd (39th to old timers).  Sound quality assessment will be more important than normal since no less than John Atkinson, Editor in Chief of Stereophile, performed engineering duties.  Eriks Ešenvalds is new to my collection, and had this disc not been brought to my attention when it came out a few years back, I would probably not have heard of him yet.  When I found the 24/88.2 download available for a whopping $3.60, I nibbled.

The short disc is comprised of four works written between 2005 and 2015.  The opener, The First Tears, is based on an Inuit creation story reimagined by the composer.  Set in English, and throwing in Native American flute, percussion, and Jew's harp, Ešenvalds evokes something of a modern Eastern European sound (as in Pärt or Górecki or Gubaidulina), though it is quite distinctive.  And the composer has his forces create a wonderful, blended sound from which the soloists emerge clear as day.  The use of percussion teeters on the verge of being too much at the end, but the use of drums in a mid-sized venue results in some satisfying heft.  The second work, Rivers of Light, including Sámi folk songs and a blend of other sources, is brief, colorful, and both measured of tempo and yet somehow swift, focused yet centerless.  A Drop in the Ocean follows, blending the Lord's Prayer, St Francis, and Mother Theresa in another brief and effective work.

The main work is the composer's setting of the Passion, Passion and Resurrection, blending soprano soloist, vocal quartet, choir, and string orchestra.  Mixing biblical passages, Byzantine liturgy, and Responsories, it's a compact, continuously unfolding work spanning about half an hour, and again it offers a blended sound, augmented very nicely by strings.  The composer uses dissonance most effectively, though listeners who rarely venture beyond the 19th Century may like it less than I do.  This is a major, or at least near-major work from this century.  No, it doesn't have the same elevated impact as the great liturgical works of the baroque era, let alone the Renaissance, but it shows there are still musical gems to be mined from the source material.

To sound, this is probably the best engineered recording I've heard from Mr Atkinson.  There are no recording hardware artifacts as in Robert Silverman's Diabellis, and the sound isn't too close, with too small a hall as in Robert Silverman's LvB sonatas or some of the Stereophile discs.  The sound is exceedingly natural and clear, when the composition allows it to be so.

It turns out that the same forces on this disc have just recently released a second disc of Eriks Ešenvalds' music entitled Translations.  They changed venues to St Mary's in Mt Angel for the new disc, which means they were just down the road from where they must record at some point: Mt Angel Abbey.  I'll probably buy the new disc, too.



* The large auditorium in Lincoln Hall is where I hear most visiting pianists.  It is near ideal for a Steinway B, with nary a bad seat in the house.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 26, 2020, 11:51:49 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 26, 2020, 11:41:31 AM
They changed venues to St Mary's in Mt Angel for the new disc, which means they were just down the road from where they must record at some point: Mt Angel Abbey.  I'll probably buy the new disc, too.
I had a trip booked to Oregon in March so my girlfriend could run a half marathon on a tulip farm, and our plan was to visit Mt Angel Abbey immediately afterwards and drink all the beer that the monks brew onsite. Alas, the world had other plans. We will try again next spring.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 26, 2020, 11:56:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 26, 2020, 11:51:49 AMAlas, the world had other plans. We will try again next spring.


If you make it out, and if you like chocolate, might I suggest visiting Amity, Oregon across I5.  The Brigittine monks there make sinfully good truffles.  The Raspberry and Orange are the best: https://www.brigittine.org/gourmet-chocolate/chocolate-truffles
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 03, 2020, 05:37:03 AM
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Whilst Qobuz had its Naxos sale, I took the opportunity to pick up this recording, in hi-res, for a whopping $3.60.  I always mean to get more Harrison, but I never do.  The only other recording I own is the Concerto for Organ and Percussion under the baton of MTT, and it's a doozy.  This disc is a bit less of doozy, but then Organ Concertos have a certain scale factor.  The Violin Concerto, pairing violinist Tim Fain with a gamelan orchestra, has many of the same features as the larger scale work, and it is just as successful.  Rhythmically incisive, bright, necessarily colorful, the lyrical string offers a stark and effective contrast to the clangorous but effective support.  It's unlike any other non-Harrison concerto in my collection, and it is something.  The Grand Duo for Violin and Piano from the late 80s, at about a half hour, is another beast.  It can best be described as a marriage of Prokofiev and Ives.  I happen to like such a musical marriage, though obviously others might not.  It would likely fall fairly easy on the ear of any 20th Century chamber music fan, and if maybe Fain uses a bit too much vibrato at times, such thoughts are fleeting.  Michael Boriskin's accompaniment is just dandy here.  The disc closes with Double Music with Harrison teaming up on compositional duties with John Cage.  It's a brief, repetitive swirl of percussion.  It's hardly a masterpiece, but it is nice enough for an occasional listen.  Performances and sound are all up to snuff.  It would be swell if Naxos did a complete Harrison collection.  It would force me to buy more. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 09, 2020, 05:34:11 AM
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It's been a while since I last bought a new Leonardo Balada recording, so this hot off the presses one seemed like as good a recording as any.  With the Hipgnosisesque cover, it actually looked better than most.  The brief disc contains three brief works for clarinet.  Ivan Ivanovs plays the clarinet throughout.  The first work, Caprichos No 7, "Fantasies of La Tarara", is a chamber concerto where right from the outset the soloist must explore the upper reaches of his instrument, play some demanding sounding trills, and otherwise have, at minimum, kick-ass chops to pull off.  The accompaniment is standard Balada fare.  A mash-up of folk influences and every modern compositional technique under the sun, the music unfolds in an orderly, very highly structured way, with every section seeming both inevitable and yet almost aleatoric at times.  Balada blends so many influences and techniques so fluidly that one doesn't even notice the dissonance, the potentially disorienting soundworld, the lack of pretty much any hummable tune.  It's like easy listening and off-kilter Elliot Carter at once.  Caprichos No 6 for Clarinet and Piano follows, and this quite brief four-movement work sounds knottier than the chamber work, sounding more potentially forbidding and uncompromising.  Yet even so, as the pianist works his way up an down the keyboard, and the clarinetist soars uneasily above it, the music creates a sort of Darmstadt School meets psychedelic music vibe.  Nice.  The closing work, a chamberfied version of the Double Concerto for Oboe and Clarinet, here for flute, clarinet, and piano, ends up perhaps the most surreal of all.  The sharper, tangier sound of the clarinet is offset by the warmer, at times delicate flute, with some occasionally groovy piano playing.  (I don't have the liner notes, but the piano sounds like a detuned upright.)  It moves beyond a fantasy into a musical dreamscape, changing moods, palettes, and rhythmic structures in almost cartoonish manner, all while sounding very un-cartoon-like.  The use of Mexican folk-tunes, some many or most listeners have heard, sort of enhances the dream-like state.  It's probably the most accessible work overall, though I doubt the bluehair donor crowd would go wild for it.  Once again, Balada's music hits the spot.  He's remarkably consistent qualitatively.   

Mr Ivanov is also an academic at UNLV and has written on Balada's surrealistic composition style, so he's spent more than a little time on these scores, and it shows.  Everyone else involved in the project does good work, too.

I went the hi res download route for this recording, and sound is SOTA.  Sounds like Carnegie Mellon has a bitchin' recording studio. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 23, 2020, 04:46:07 AM
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Until I bought this recording, I had zero (0) Harmonica Concertos in my collection. How could that be? Well, David Hurwitz's very enthusiastic review, and Qobuz's bargain basement price, made me give this Villa-Lobos recording a go. It is something. The first listen offers one of those "What the hell is this?" type listening experiences. The structure of the work is conventional - fast, slow, fast - and the orchestral support has that Villa-Lobos rhythmic sensibility and colorful orchestration, though it also sounds informed by Korngold, but it also offers a weighty background against which the closely recorded harmonica contrasts. And wouldn't you know it, but Jose Staneck is a super-virtuoso on the instrument, at times making it sound almost like an accordion - and I mean that as a compliment! It's almost like a cowboy went to Juilliard, learned flute, then decided he just couldn't quit harmonica and applied all he learned to the instrument. It's remarkable and unique and fun.

It's the third work on the disc, though. The disc starts with the Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra, and here the orchestral support sounds even more like what is on offer in the composer's symphonies, and the guitar is placed very forward so one can hear every note with clarity. Perhaps too much so, and it does become a bit too large in scale, with the low notes sounding almost like pizzicato cello notes on occasion, but otherwise it is as fine a Guitar Concerto as I have heard, which is not too terribly many. It turns out, though, that as good as the Harmonica Concerto is, it's the chamber music works that are the real draws. Both offer unique, not to say bizarre, instrumental combinations. The Sexteto Mistico does as good a job at creating a mystical soundworld I have heard in its brief, just under eight minute duration. Better yet, which is saying something, is the Quinteto Instrumental that closes the disc. Bright, colorful, light, open, eminently tuneful and achingly beautiful in parts, it entrances. Again, there's nothing quite like it.

All performers do high-end work. I am not wild about the sound. It is incredibly detailed, to be sure, and it is close, which is fine, but it is also airless and sort of "artificial" sounding, and seemingly rolled in the highs. But that's a quibble. Wow!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 06, 2020, 04:44:58 AM
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Always on the lookout for some snazzy Renaissance liturgical music, Antoine Brumel's Missa Et ecce terrae motus caught my eye when I found it cheap.  The fact that the work was recorded by Paul van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble sort of made it seem like a mandatory purchase.  Brumel is either new to my collection, or I have something by him buried deep inside a big box and forgot about it.  The main work is something a bit different: a mass with twelve parts.  Having listened to a good amount of polyphonic music from the era, I had expectations.  The expectations were not really met; they were rather handily exceeded.  Rather than rely on intricate, endlessly beautiful, intertwined melodies, the work seems to rely on interlocked melodic blocks that combine to create unearthly harmonies that at times almost undulate like heavenly waves of music.  It's dense yet ethereal.  It's almost like Brumel prefigured aspects of minimalism by a few hundred years, too, with some repeated musical patterns that enhance the impact of the music.  It's beautiful and elevated and moving and, yes, quite snazzy. 

The disc also includes the Sequentia "Dies Irae Dies Illa", with the famous Dies Irae music used so many times by so many composers.  Here, the singers are joined by some olde tyme brass in this Requiem bleeding chunk which only makes me want to here the whole thing, though it is more conventional in sound and approach. 

Since I first started listening to ancient liturgical music spanning the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, the twin colossi Claudio Monterverdi and Cristobal de Morales have emerged as my favorites for the unbridled creativity and vitality of the Italian's music and the unsurpassed and unsurpassable beauty of the Spaniard's music.  Cipriano de Rore sort of came out of nowhere as offering something nearly as singular as those two, and now, at least with the big work, Brumel joins him.  I will be investigating more music by the composer.

Nevel and crew do exceedingly fine work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 13, 2020, 04:05:46 AM
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Why not more Brumel?  Here, the the big work is the Missa Berzerette Savoyenne, modeled on a chanson by Josquin des Prez, which opens the disc.  It takes a bit of daring to take a chanson involving a bit of wooing and then weave that into a mass.  The piece lacks the intricate, unearthly beauty of Morales, but Brumel's music sounds unfailingly beautiful, with a beautiful top melody mostly audible throughout, and wonderful harmonies.  It's sort of punchy, in an a cappella sort of way, and gripping without being overwhelming or all-consuming.  The accompanying motets are superb, as well.  They may even be better than the main work.

Chanticleer is the greatest all-male choir in the history of the world, and as such even the counter-tenors fill parts to perfection.

I went a rare route to buy this recording, buying directly from Chanticleer in order to guarantee maximum income to the ensemble.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 20, 2020, 05:31:38 AM
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More from Chanticleer.  This time it's some music from the New World.  Ignacio de Jerusalem wrote his Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1764 while residing in Mexico City.  That's the extent of the New World influence.  Ignazio Gerusalemme was Italian and changed his name, making it even easier to live under Spanish rule.  This is my first exposure to his music, and it basically sounds like one of Handel's Italian Cantatas blended with Haydn.  That's a pretty heady blend, and it's not surprising that he doesn't quite match up to either.  That written, this work just sort of nonchalantly nestles right in with high end later baroque and early classical works qualitatively.  That's noteworthy, and the music's almost unfailingly sunny sound, excellent part writing and choral writing, and small scale orchestral support, make it joy to listen to.  But of course, the reason one buys or listens to a Chanticleer recording is for the ensemble, and as usual, they do not disappoint.  More here, more than even in the Brumel, the high voices are most excellent, probably because they blend in more and stand out less.  But every singer has his part dialed in just so, and the result is executive excellence of the highest order.  As expected.  The catalog does not exactly burst with recordings of Jerusalem's works, but maybe I will buy one of the few others some time.  Another Chanticleer recording is more likely in my near future.

I bought this directly from the ensemble again, just because.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 27, 2020, 06:21:56 AM
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In this grand Beethoven year I finally did something I never thought I'd do when I bought the Naxos complete Beethoven set.  To be sure, I've purchased complete oeuvres of composers before.  I've got the DG Webern edition, which is handy, and I have not one, but two complete sets of Decaux's output, but I never thought I'd go for a big old set of Beethoven, and then not from lowly Naxos.  But then it turned out that Naxos offered the best mix of price and repertoire, including rarities.  And Covid helped since I am bored, working from home, and able to listen to music all day long from my main rig.  And so now I am in the enviable position of being able to listen to a whole boatload of Beethoven that is new to me. 

Determining where to start was easy enough.  I've never heard the oft maligned Wellington's Victory before, so it got to go first.  For this box, Naxos did a repackaging, so the image posted shows the original release of this much booed piece.  The disc included pieces recorded between 1989 and 2019 by four conductors.  Ondrej Lenárd gets does the duties for the main attraction, but it's the disc closer.  Prior to that the listener gets to listen to Oliver Dohnányi direct 12 Menuette, WoO from 1795.  They are nice enough trifles that sound like more somber Strauss family works than the most famous Beethoven orchestral music, as does the 6 Menuette WoO 10 conducted by Leif Segerstam that follows.  (Though recorded three decades apart, the sonic differences are not as pronounced as one might expect.  I wonder if Naxos remastered/re-equalized the older recordings.)  Stanisław Skrowaczewski and the Minnesota Orchestra make a just under four minute appearance in the Gratulations-Menuet, which is much more distantly recorded and set at a lower level, but it sounds nice enough.  And then it's the big show.  The snare drum opener gives way to a fanfare and then popular tunes.  The set up of the orchestra, with timps and bass drums on alternate sides of the stage exchanging musical fusillades is mildly entertaining.  The second movement is filled with more exciting, middle period Beethoven music in its most triumphalist form, and in the inclusion of God Save the King, it's most patron-pleasing form.  Now, I've heard it, and I can say I hear where Tchaikovsky got his inspiration for his even more awful 1812 Overture.  Overall, the work is not as bad as I had feared, but I predict I listen to it in its orchestral guise perhaps once more in my life. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on June 30, 2020, 11:50:28 PM
Both Wellington's victory and the "1812" were among the pieces that got me into classical music as a teenagers. So I retain some fondness for them. They were on one LP with Karajan (I think with the silly choir in the 1812) but I also had another version of "1812", actually the one I heard first that had the "Soviet version" with a different hymn at the end, this was an anthology with Marche Slave and Capriccio italien.

For some reason, probably the 1984 Olympics and some other mid-80s sports events, I got interested in National anthems and my father had bought an LP with 20 or so of the best known ones. When I encountered Classical music more seriously a few years later, I guess, it was nice to get the familiar tunes in these battle pieces.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 03, 2020, 05:49:51 AM
Quote from: Dowder on June 30, 2020, 03:44:03 PMNot great but enjoyable maybe?


I can't stand the piece.  YMMV.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 04, 2020, 05:47:39 AM
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These seven discs represent one of the main draws of the Naxos Beethoven edition.  Here are seven discs spread across two releases that I likely would never have purchased otherwise.  I have a reasonably nice collection of art songs, but it is dominated first by Schubert (very rightly so), and then by various French composers (also rightly so).  Until this set, I had acquired only a handful of Beethoven songs sung by Heinrich Schlusnus in one volume of the prior DG Beethoven Edition, which was purchased expressly for the Annie Fischer and Ferenc Fricay recording of the C Minor concerto, and only one measly complete disc of Beethoven songs from the L'Oiseau-Lyre classical era big-box which was purchased expressly for the Malcolm Binns sonata cycle.  (Those evil transnational corporations literally forced me to buy a doorstop box.  I may never forgive the shifty execs who ran the company at the time.)  For this collection, even Mr Heymann didn't opt to commission all new recordings, instead opting to license a blob of them from Brilliant Classics.  (And another blob from Capriccio, coming later.)  Whatever works. 

Anyway, there are too many small songs spread across too many discs to really do an in-depth summation.  Rather, I can just report that Beethoven, author of some of the most radical and revolutionary music, music that smashed the strictures and limits of forms of the day in works like Op 55, and the visionary genius who pointed the way to the future in works like Op 131 while transcending feeble human limits of musical expression, also penned nifty, tuneful miniatures.  Having not listened to pretty much any of these works, and not reading any liner notes or anything online, I came in expecting serious and weighty songs for piano and vocalist, but instead I was greeted by something novel - and not coronavirus: Beethoven set his renditions of folk tunes mostly for soloist and piano trio.  How about that?  And wouldn't you know - and really you should - the combination works splendidly.  Beethoven provides lovely support from the piano, but the strings add an additional lightness, an additional sweetness in places, and an additional sense of subdued prankishness in places.  The tunefulness approaches Schubertian goodness in places, too.  The music is unmistakably Beethoven's, as some common figurations, phrasing, key choices, and so forth make their appearance, but it is lighter, funner Beethoven.  And how great is it to hear Beethoven's music supporting English texts, very ably sung and very easily understandable on top of all of that, including a proper setting of Auld Lang Syne?  It's pretty freakin' great, that's how great it is. 

Recordings involve many artists over decades, so sound quality varies, but that's perfectly fine.  Here's a big chunk of music that justifies the purchase all by itself.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2020, 07:43:22 AM
Quote from: Todd on July 04, 2020, 05:47:39 AM
Beethoven set his renditions of folk tunes mostly for soloist and piano trio.  How about that?  And wouldn't you know - and really you should - the combination works splendidly. 

Nothing new under the sun. Ask one Joseph Haydn.  ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on July 04, 2020, 08:22:04 AM
I think all or most of the tunes (not only Auld lang syn, God save the King etc.) were provided by the publisher. Still, Beethoven (and before Haydn) took comparably great care with these settings. I like them a lot, think they are extremely underrated and have a complete? recording on DG with some famous singers but my two favorite recordings (especially Daneman, Agnew, Harvey) are anthology discs that may entice listeners who do not want to get the whole bunch.

[asin]B00005RCZ0[/asin] [asin]B01G65X3AG[/asin] [asin]B0002IRY0E[/asin]
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on July 04, 2020, 08:24:39 AM
The new album of Haydn's Scottish Songs on BIS is a total delight.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 11, 2020, 05:34:26 AM
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The Creatures of Prometheus.  Beethoven's ballet.  I hadn't heard it until I got this recording in the Naxos big box.  How could that be?  I don't really know.  I've heard bleeding chunks, and that more or less worked for me, but now the whole thing is mine.  And it's pretty spiffy.  Now, Segerstam takes his sweet time, and I know that, so I don't know what someone like Mackerras, who takes fourteen fewer minutes to finish the work, might sound like, but Segerstam makes his conception work.  I have a strong hunch that the additional length stems from the slower music, though maybe others make cuts.  Whatever the case, the music sounds resoundingly like Beethoven in the opening movements of the Overture, and throughout the work.  But there's more.  I cannot remember harps playing so prominent a role in other Beethoven works, for instance.  The wind writing in some individual pieces is light and lovely and very clearly meant to accompany stage action.  That's pretty neat.  There's drama and grace in equal measure, where typically drama is the focus, and least in orchestral music.  And, man, Beethoven really liked that Eroica theme.  This vast expanse of Beethovenian music thus hits the spot and fills a musical void I didn't know existed.  Segerstam and his Turku band do good work, and Naxos delivers fully up to snuff modern sound in this recent recording.  I don't think I'll be building a collection of this work, though.  I mean there is the Mackerras set, and Kent Nagano does superb work for the stage, and - ah, crap.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on July 11, 2020, 06:16:56 AM
Speaking of that Naxos Beethoven box, I'm not sure how they treat the four works he composed for mandolin and piano, but there's a new Naive disc dedicated to that repertoire which features Vanessa Benelli Mosell on piano and adds a few bonus mandolin arrangements and variations by latter-day composers. Just got a rave review on ClassicsToday from our own Jens... "so much superior to rival recordings that in-depth exploration is warranted."
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 11, 2020, 06:41:04 AM
The mandolin works are tacked on to the disc of variations for Cello and Piano.  I've been following Mosell since I first spied her Decca Italia debut, and I saw this disc when it came out.  Amazon was selling it for something like $4 for a while.  I just could never muster up much excitement for the disc.  I'll give the Naxos disc a spin and maybe that will entice me to buy the Mosell disc, though I think I will buy her new-ish Ravel first.  Generally speaking, the more recent the composition, the better she is.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 15, 2020, 04:22:56 AM
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Buried in the Naxos Beethoven box is this twenty minute recording made in 2018.  The four short pieces all sound just swell, with Alon Sariel sounding quite fine on the headline instrument.  Somewhat unexpectedly, the use of fortepiano seems just about ideal here.  The two instruments compliment each other nicely, and Michael Tsalka does very fine work.  Some of the music sounds recycled, or like it was recycled, and the "big" work, the Andante and Variations, is mucho fun.  This is light Beethoven, sort of on par with the String Trios qualitatively, but it sure is nice to here.  Superb sonics.

(The music surrounding the new stuff is for Cello and Piano and Violin and Piano, and all that is quite nice, too.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 18, 2020, 05:47:03 AM
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About a year ago, on a whim, and thanks to now defunct Amazon Add-ons, I picked up Sofya Melikyan's concept disc called Women.  The concept is that a female pianist plays works by four female composers.  Melikyan selected works by two biggish names - Gubaidulina and Saariaho - to anchor her disc, and it was and remains a knockout, musically, pianistically, and sonically.  What were and are the odds that something similar could happen again?  (I mean from another pianist, of course; last year, Ms Melikyan performed eleven works by eleven Spanish female composers at a festival in Spain.  It's kinda her thing.)  Well, pianist Mary Kathleen Ernst, Juilliard alum and friend of contemporary composers, had done something similar a few years before by recording a disc of seven works by seven female composers, and in some cases, the composers themselves provide brief descriptions of the works on offer.  The big name here is Jennifer Higdon, though for me, Vivian Fung served as the biggest draw.  Well, the $1.10 price tag for the disc served as the biggest draw, so I just had to snag it.  At that price, it can be good or bad and it doesn't matter.

Vivian Fung's Keeping Time gives the disc its title and opens it.  It's an extended etude mixing steady accompaniment and varying staccato right hand playing that sort of emulates a gamelan orchestra.  It makes for a solid opener.  Jennifer Higdon's Secret and Glass Gardens offers a stark contrast in that it is a slow, introspective, meandering piece, like a musical stream of consciousness.  Katherine Hoover's Dream Dances comes next, and it represents a qualitative step up.  Fairly brief, it moves through various dance themes, with a premium on rhythmic and dynamic control.  It sounds vaguely French, meaning Debussy married to lighter Messiaen, with hints of Ned Rorem tossed in.  I would not mind at all if other pianists took up this piece.  Jing Jing Luo's very Stravinsky-meets-Ligeti Mosquito follows.  At times jittery and almost spastic music filled with little ostinatos depicts a modernist rendition of an insect.  Not bad. 

The big work follows, Judith Shatin's Chai Variations, which clocks in at almost twenty-one minutes.  Sort of aleatoric in that the pianist can play the variations in any order, the piece is based on Eliahu HaNavi, with the theme sounding vaguely Handelian, before moving into almost Brahmsian variations.  I mean Handelian and Brahmsian very loosely, as those are the first names that popped into mind; make no mistake, the music is a modern theme and variations on something ancient, and it carries some real weight.  The variations each have plain English descriptive titles ('Sly', 'Pensive', 'Tender', etc), and both composer and pianist do a fine job of evoking the titles.  Some of the pianistic effects, like the layered trills in 'Shining', beg for a bona fide Big Name pianist to take up the work.  Whether the piece ever makes it as a recital staple is unknown, but it should. 

The next big work follows, Spontaneous D-Combustion by Stefania de Kenessey, in bleeding chunk form.  The complete work is a concerto in seven movements, all in D Major, for various instruments and again the movements can be played in any order.  The three movements here take up sixteen-ish minutes and though modern in conception, the music is unabashedly tonal and neoclassical and light and fun.  The Vivace e giocoso lives up to its title in a tuneful manner, as does the strikingly beautiful Molto tranquillo that follows.  The ending Vivace is a light but motoric Toccata which seems to quote or allude to works by Prokofiev and Grieg, as well as some folk music (or something that sounds like folk music).  Nice, if not Shatin nice.

The disc closes with A Recollection by Nancy Bloomer Deussen.  It's a brief, simple, lovely reminiscence of childhood, evoking wistful memories in the composers and potentially feelings of the same in the listener.  It makes for a gentle close.

Overall, Melikyan's disc is more to my liking, not least because the pianist comes across as more of a pianistic heavyweight, but this disc works better than anticipated.  The paltry price tag makes it a steal.

Sonics are efficient, if not SOTA, and the Steinway sounds like a Yamaha more than a little of the time.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 25, 2020, 04:50:25 AM
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The Naxos Beethoven edition ends with a half dozen dozen fully packed CDs that contain music from eight other CDs from two labels, Capriccio and Naxos.  The first three discs are mostly just a repackaging of the Capriccio lieder set where the big draw was and remains Hermann Prey.  While the other two singers in that set do very good work, Prey sticks out like a sore thumb.  He sounds so much better and so much more familiar with the music that it can jar a bit at times as the music transitions between singers.  In the lied, it is clear that my tastes lean more toward Schubert, and I'm perfectly fine with that, but it is also clear that Beethoven could write some fine songs if so inclined.  On the first disc, Op 52 pops out.  Here are some old German texts supported by young Beethoven's piano writing from the time of the first piano trios and piano sonatas, and the combination sounds every bit as compelling as that implies.  And the fourth of them, the best of them, Maigesang, is a setting of Goethe.  Not too surprising.  One also gets some settings of Rousseau (yeah, that one) for those interested in such things, and WoO 118, from 1795 with what I will guess is the first appearance of themes later used in the Ninth.  (And yes, Prey sings it.)  Throughout the discs, it becomes clear that the works with opus numbers are just better.  Op 48 sounds very fine, and Op 75 sounds delightful, as Beethoven basically sets songs to piano bagatelles.  They must be good.  Es muss sein. Some of the works mix piano and chorus as well as soloists, and I'm not particularly keen on those, instead preferring the greater intimacy and directness of true lied.  Still, some of the individual pieces are nice enough.  Since Naxos jumbled the discs around a bit, one jumps in time, space, and recording venue, as well as recording style, and some of the switches are mildly jarring, but whatchagonnado?  The disc of full-scale orchestral songs led by Leif Segerstam includes Ah! perfido, which he leads in a slow performance, and the performances generally seem a bit broad but nonetheless well done, and certainly worth listening to. 

The box set as a whole ends with a heavily augmented Canons and Musical Jokes disc.  Not all of the works on the disc are by Beethoven, and some are questionable attributions, but most very clearly are by the Bonn master.  And one hears something new: a cappella Beethoven.  No foolin'.  And some of the pieces are late period Beethoven and the canons are very much informed by his massive, masterful fugues, just severely miniaturized.  Most of the pieces are less than a minute, and pretty much none of them are or can be deep, but one can marvel at the succinctness of Beethoven's canons, like small, lighthearted premonitions of Webern, with not a note wasted.  And for those who want a treat, and evidence that old Beethoven could poke fun and younger, more serious Beethoven, one of the pieces is called Es Muss Sein!, penned around 1826, with the singers chanting the phrase over and over with vibrance.  It really caught me off guard.  The singers and occasional accompanists all do good work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 01, 2020, 04:41:52 AM
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Time for some choral Beethoven beyond the most famous few choral pieces.  These are yet more blended discs as presented in the big box, combining work from Leif Segerstam and from Thomas Holmes, the latter of which leads the Musical Canons and Jokes disc.

The two discs open with Beethoven's choral setting of Goethe's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, which in turn ended up influencing Mendelssohn.  The brief cantata sounds very much from the same mold as the last movement of the Ninth, but with with more middle period muscularity.  It's brief and taut and rousing and quite good.  Given its brevity and the number of musicians involved, it's understandable why it is not performed more, but it would make for a good opening piece in a grand choral concert.  Next comes the big piece on the first disc, the Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II.  The death of European kings, queens, and emperors (especially the holy kind) is no joke (jk), and teenage Beethoven certainly took his commission seriously.  Heavy, dour, serious, with a funeral march vibe popping up more than once, Beethoven delivers the goods, and the work ends up both sounding a bit like other dour choral works of the time and offering hints of what Beethoven would later do.  It has more heft than his early orchestral efforts.  Segerstam again leads a fairly slow version, coming in at forty-four-plus minutes, but the recording serves its purpose.  If ever I get a hankerin' for another version, MTT will no doubt be the way to go.  The rest of the disc is filled with briefer, smaller-scaled choral pieces, and all sound nice enough. 

If a young composer is gonna make a thaler from an emperor croaking, he ought to make a thaler from a new one ascending to near papal greatness, and so the young Beethoven scribbled out the Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II that starts the second disc.  Unsurprisingly, the work for Leo is sunnier and more celebratory than the serious one for Joey.  One can hear very clear early indications of what Beethoven delivers later in the Choral Fantasy, and in other works.  I can't really say one cantata is better than the other, just that they are two sides of the Beethovenian musical coin.  A couple brief choral works follow, and then Segerstam takes on the the Mass in C Major.  This is not new to me, as I have relied on Carlo Maria Giulini's recording as my sole version for years.  Segerstam again does nice enough work, and while Giulini also was prone to a bit slowness, it is also unsurprising that Segerstam does not quite match the Italian master. 

These discs are very nice and are perfect examples of why I bought the box: I don't see myself spending much effort hunting down recordings of most of these works otherwise.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 08, 2020, 04:45:05 PM
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The lucky buyer of the Naxos Beethoven edition gets not one, but two versions of The Creatures of Prometheus.  There's the orchestral one, and then the solo piano transcription.  I do dig the orchestral version, but the solo piano version seems just a bit too much.  It's too long, and it lacks dramatic impact.  That written, a couple intriguing things occurred while listening.  First, I heard big hints of Schubert, making me wonder if Schubert didn't study this score and get some of his ideas from it.  There are more than a handful of such instances.  Second, this piece, more than Liszt's transcriptions of the symphonies, demonstrates that Beethoven worked out ideas on the keyboard.  While the orchestral version sounds better, there are numerous passages, little figurations, big figurations, and so forth that sound exactly like Beethoven's solo piano music output.  He started here and then orchestrated later, that much is clear, at least for more than a few passages.  Kudos to Warren Lee for making it through the piece and sounding at least like a world class répétiteur.  To be sure, I think the piece could be more successful with a more indulgent pianist, one prone to more dynamic swings and more precise touch.  Volodos could make it sing and dance, but he would never do it.  Same with Schuch.  YES, too.  I mean, can you imagine?  Maybe one day some great pianist will tackle the work, but I have my doubts.

As if the sixty-seven minute piano reduction isn't enough, Naxos packs in another eighteen minutes of music for a massive CD.  Carl Petersson plays a couple miniatures and the Music for a Ballet of the Knights most handsomely.   
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 15, 2020, 05:29:45 AM
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I blame the Schuchs.  A couple years ago, the dynamic duo made a kick-ass recording of works for piano four hands and two pianos that included Monologues for two pianos by Bernd Alois Zimmermann to mark his centenary.  On a superb disc, this work jumps out as superber than the others, which is basically nuts since the others are works by Mozart and Debussy.  But it's true.  The modernist pastiche hits the spot.  Until I spotted this disc, I cannot recall even having seen the name Eduardo Fernández, but since he's good enough for Lina Tur Bonet, he's most definitely good enough for me.  He's one of those contemporary pianists who has his stuff sorted.

To the music.  BAZ faced something of a challenge as a young artist, living and working in Germany in the 30s and 40s.  He had radical impulses, but they had to be restrained to ensure, you know, actual survival.  As such, the opening Drei frühe Klavierstücke is fairly conservative when compared to other works written during the war.  The three brief pieces sound fairly light and only slightly gnarly in a well-behaved, academic sort of way.  There's a Hindemithian conservatism, but in a good way.  Extemporale and Capriccio, both from 1946 follow.  The latter is a tuneful and often very lovely piece that also contains hints of modernist gnarliness (was everyone influenced by Messiaen at the time?), but not as much as the former work, which, though ostensibly a suite with baroque titles and influences, betrays something angrier and edgier, and it has some harder hitting playing, especially in the at times angry sounding Finale.  Nice.  After that comes three groupings of miniatures under the title Enchiridion, written between 1949 and 1951, and here dodecaphonic writing makes an appearance, and a welcome appearance it is.  The pieces sometimes have traditional names, dance or otherwise, but the music is not really tuneful, let alone danceable.  It's more abstracted and focused on various performing elements.  Dynamics play a huge role, and at times so does rhythmic incisiveness.  As the pieces continue on, the music sounds like Schoenberg more and more, and then, finally, one arrives at the concluding Konfigurationen which is a collection of eight pieces coming in at under ten minutes and yes, of course, it sounds reminiscent of Webern.  How could it not, really?   Now, how much a potential listener fancies the composers mentioned may offer a good indication of how much they may like this recording, but since I like them, I like the recording rather a lot.

Mr Fernández acquits himself swimmingly, and BIS delivers outstanding sound, as one expects. 

Need me some more BAZ.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 22, 2020, 06:40:15 AM
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Yet another of Beethoven's choral works I hadn't heard until I bought the Naxos box, the cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick was penned as a commission to celebrate - the Congress of Vienna.  (Imagine the towering work for the ages that the Security Council might be able to procure today.)  It celebrates the triumph of European goodness and the wisdom of royalty and the grand qualities of the host city, and what not.  Beethoven knew which texts to select to butter up benefactors, even if the texts have the originality and moral heft of a limply worded NGO memorandum.  Of course, it is unlikely that anyone nowadays cares about the text at all, the historical setting much at all, and, if they care about the work at all, it would be because of the music alone.  On that front, this late middle period celebratory work contains hefty hints of other, later works, namely the Ninth and even the Missa Solemnis, though it lacks the gravity and accomplishment of those more fêted works.  It's not Beethoven's best choral work, but it's nice enough and contains enough Beethovenian goodness to listen to one or two more times.

Though far more familiar, the Choral Fantasy ends up the highlight of the disc, and then for the pianism of Leon McCawley.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 29, 2020, 06:00:53 AM
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Here's another instance of the Naxos box offering a chance to hear a work that I had managed to elude until now.  I've heard some bleeding chunks from The Ruins of Athens, but never the whole thing until now, and certainly never the version with narration.  No one could have heard a recording of the version with narration until now since this disc offers the world premier of that.  Leif Segerstam and his Turku crew do the do again, and it is super-obvious that the conductor favors broad tempi from the outset.  That becomes somewhat of a liability throughout the duration as the piece does seem to drag on in portions of its fifty-two minutes.  Surely dramatic impact should be of paramount importance for incidental music for a play.  Where the listener knows Beethoven wants dramatic staccato, Segerstam instead offers something heavy and musically gooey, like Karajan, but distended and lacking absolute perfection in execution.  (Indeed, it became clear that if anyone should have recorded this edition, it was Fluffy.)  Now, that's not to say the work is a bust.  The overture sounds strikingly Dvorakian.  The 'Dervishes' movement sure sounds like it inspired various Italian opera composers, not least Verdi.  And it's pretty much impossible to botch the famous Turkish March.  Even the too slow music has its moments.  Of course.  The narration, with multiple speakers, sounds very clearly enunciated, to the point where even I could pick out and understand lengthier than normal chunks of German from my faded memory.  The nearly eighty-two minute disc also includes The Consecration of the House Overture, which is nicely done, but which has been done better by others, and a few other choral works.  They sound nice enough.  For some reason, rather than presenting the disc as-is, the complete set edition starts with the big work and then rearranges the others.

Not the best disc in the set, and the main work is not one I will turn to frequently, but again, it's sure nice to hear it.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 06, 2020, 01:04:01 PM
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Frank Martin is one of those composers I keep meaning to explore a bit more.  I've got a few works by him in compilations, and every single one of them sounds fantastic.  For no particular reason, I decided I needed to try something a bit bigger, meatier, more.  So it seemed like some big ol' honkin' choral works would fit the bill.  This threefer on Profil, with three different oratorios, caught my eye and ended up in my collection because I just had an itch.  The collection seemed like something designed to please.

The set starts off with the wartime In Terra Pax, led by Marcello Viotti.  A brief oratorio at only forty-five minutes, setting multiple biblical sections, the work immediately imparts a sense of earnestness, seriousness, and depth.  The sound is decidedly of the time, bringing to mind Martinů and Honegger, and it sounds dense, complex, yet easy enough to get into, with beautiful melodic content, though not really any tunes anyone may hum.  The blending of chorus and soloists sounds quite fine.  The orchestration lends to the weight and dramatic impact, whether the foundational impact of the timps, or the brass tracking the full chorus in some passages.  The string writing also lends some uncommon depth.  The work is unrelentingly serious, and that's a good thing.  Hit the first.

Next up is Pilate, with Ulf Schirmer conducting.  An even briefer oratorio at only thirty-one minutes, the piece from the '60s also sounds more modernist, leaving behind wartime sound and almost embracing the avant-garde at times.  The use of piano and the at times darker sound, with a focused, more intensely theatrical feel, results in something occasionally spartan, occasionally potent, and something always entirely engaging.  It's one of those pieces where not a moment gets wasted.  Hit the second.

Finally, the big work, Golgotha, with Viotti once again in the lead. Less theatrically dramatic than the other two works, it is more serious yet.  Everything is more better.  The solo parts sound simply fantastic.  There's a mix of Russian heaviness and unabashed modernity, like Mussorgsky meets the interwar crowd, something reinforced whenever either Gilles Cachemaille or Jerome Varnier sing.  The choral writing sounds more assured and is performed that way, and the orchestral support is often discreet, but packs a wallop when needed, aided at times by an organ and piano.  It's a kitchen sink type piece, but meticulously well crafted.  One can sense true dedication and faith behind the composition, the need to keep things properly proportioned, and the gradual development of events leading up to the crucifixion.  The musical presentation here has more impact than some older settings of the passions, but then Martin had the expressive power of the works of Berg or Berlioz to draw from, and while never, ever over the top, the work ratchets up tension and power in a most satisfying manner.  The work ends up coming it at just about the right length at roughly an hour-and-a-half, never coming close to overstaying its welcome.  This is a really fantastic work and it's one that basically requires comparative listening, so I will be trying other versions, no doubt.  Hit the third.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on September 07, 2020, 04:04:43 AM
You finally hit upon one of my favorite modernist composers beside Stravinsky. Try Le Vin herbé (Reuss on Harmonis Mundi) and Der Cornet (Zagrosek on Orfeo) though both are available in other versions.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on September 07, 2020, 04:45:17 AM
Golgotha is one of Martin's finest works. Le vin herbé (based on the Tristan and Yseult story) is hugely  fascinating and musically rewarding.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on September 07, 2020, 05:32:16 AM
Reuss has a great version of Golgatha as well.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on September 07, 2020, 05:40:59 AM
Mine is by Corboz (I think he recorded it 2-3 times). I don't know any other.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 12, 2020, 06:04:44 AM
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Beethoven wrote a nice chunk of music for the flute.  Who knew?  I mean, other than flautists.  I don't know the flute repertoire well enough to know whether or not Beethoven's works are held in high regard, though given the fact that the likes of James Galway, Pierre Rampal, Emmanuel Pahud, and Patrick Gallois (ahem), among others have seen fit to record the works, they seem to be held in at least moderate regard.  The jumbled discs in the Naxos big box - the assortment of chamber works for winds have rearranged in most bizarre fashion - means that these three discs have wildly different discmates.  I'll just stick with the works involving flute.

The Flute Sonata, Anh 4, Hess A11, which may or may not be Beethoven's, is conventional and conservative.  Four movements with a theme and variations ending, it lasts about twenty-two minutes, and has nice keyboard writing and nice flute writing that seems like it could be transcribed for, or transcribed from, another instrument, like a violin.  It contains some nice tunes and some figurations.  It seems like early Beethoven, and sounds perfectly pleasant.

The Op 25 Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola represents a definite qualitative step up.  The late-early/early-middle period work has the flute at the center with able and tuneful support from the strings.  The third movement Allegro molto, with the gently slashing strings, piercing flute, and refined raucousness, sounds like Beethoven having a splendid time.  It's not storming the heavens, but it's not too dainty, so it would likely have invited a knowing chuckle or two in drawing rooms.  Op 41 is just Op 25 transcribed for Flute and Piano, and this is an archetypal Beethoven chamber work, with the piano portion sounding just like something Beethoven himself would have written.  (Kudos to Franz Xaver Kleinheinz for a transcription job exceedingly well done.)  This version gets occasionally recorded by big names, and of course it entertains.  How could it not?  But I like the original version even more.  It's got more color, more snap, more pizazz, more mischievousness. 

Patrick Gallois and Maria Prinz deliver over seventy-one minutes of variations on various folks songs.  That's a lot of variations on folk songs.  Fortunately, though, this is late Beethoven, and the works are compact, economical, and probably better crafted and structured than they even need to be.  Of course Gallois plays well, and Prinz accompanies nicely.  These are not titanic pieces, but they are fun.  It is worth noting that Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace recorded four of the Op 107 works and elevate the quality to something just a bit more.  (This disc tacks on the well done Horn Sonata and comes in at a massive 85'+.)

The duets for Flute and Bassoon (?!), arranged by flautist Kazunori Seo, take up the first half-ish of a dog's breakfast of a disc that contains chamber music miscellany seemingly selected at random.  Fortunately for the listener, Seo and bassoonist (a word I rarely type) Mitsuo Kodama do excellent work in these very Mozart sounding pieces.  Also, the assorted artists who perform the other works also do good work.

Yet again, the benefit of the Naxos big box becomes clear in investigating works for flute, works I would likely not investigate otherwise. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 19, 2020, 06:24:45 AM
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Beethoven's chamber works offer quite an assortment of riches beyond the most famous works.  This disc has been repurposed, with the smaller filler dropped and Op 81b added.  Opp 71 and 103 are recent recordings with the very fine clarinetist David Shifrin in the mix, which, to my mind, offers a guarantee of quality.

The Sextet Op 71 for winds is just plain fun.  Tuneful as heck, spritely, uplifting and light, this early piece is a gas.  One can hear early hints of how Beethoven liked to use horns later on.  Op 81b, basically a string quartet with a horn duo thrown in, has more texture and is just as much fun.  Also, the engineers for this older recording deliver something more spacious and a bit opaque, which makes the piece sound larger in scale than it is.  That helps add a bit of gravity in the slow movement, but overall it's another light, early piece.  Op 103 closes out the disc, and this early work, later reworked as the delightful Op 4 String Quintet is the most delightful piece on this delightful disc.  What could a young Beethoven do with two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns?  A heckuva lot.  Bubbly and bouncy, with color and invention, and even a not at all heavy slow movement, this is sort of hidden gem.

The outer works were recently recorded and all involved do superb work in superb sound.  The Hungarians who deliver Op 81b do superb work, too.  A lovely disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 26, 2020, 05:43:57 AM
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In this unfortunately blighted Beethoven year, not just Beethoven deserves attention, and Sony Germany's Beethoven's World series offers a decent marketing tie-in opportunity to package up recordings of lesser composers from the era.  There are several discs in the series, but the one with works by Antonio Salieri, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and Jan Václav Voříšek caught my eye because of one of the soloists, so I figured here's a fun chance to explore some classical era orchestral works by people not named Lou or Francis.

The disc opens with Antonio Salieri's Twenty-Six Variations on La follia di Spagna.  Here I thought Handel owned this theme, but no, Salieri does some pretty darned tootin' things with it.  Starting with a bold statement of the theme, the composer takes the listener through an early 19th Century work that sounds like an orchestral showpiece akin to the later and more sophisticated Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók.  Every instrument in the band gets some love, be it the strings (of course), the timps, the bassoons, or the harp, here spotlit a bit.  Aided no doubt by the modern recording, the orchestral color and texture are quite striking, and in some passages one can hear the influence of Ludwig van himself, which I suspect is something of an homage.  The WDR Sinfonieorchester are far more than up to the task, delivering a crackerjack performance.  A delight.

Next comes the reason I bought the disc, Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Concerto for Piano and Violin, Op 17, with the great Herbert Schuch paired with Mirijam Contzen, who have worked and recorded together before.  The work immediately sounds even chipperer than the Salieri, and closer to Mozart and Haydn than Beethoven.  Light, transparent orchestration sounds quite wonderful.  Schuch enters first, forcefully but tastefully, and he quickly backs off for Contzen, who generates a somewhat thin sound that matches the massed strings, but the effect is not deleterious.  The brisk, springy tempo fits, too.  Make no mistake, though, this is the Schuch show.  Every time he takes center stage, his playing is on another level, one that makes one, well, kinda pissed that he hasn't made more concerto recordings.  On evidence of this disc, he needs to record Mozart and more Beethoven pronto.  And then the rest of the core rep.  Back to the concerto at hand, rather than fast-slow-fast, it goes fast-variations-fast.  The variations sound rather inspired by Mozart, and then by Die Zauberflöte.  If anything, here Schuch stands out even more than before.  The concluding Rondo is charming late-Classical era music with all that implies.  While not one of the great concertante works, it is nonetheless quite fine and well done here.

The disc ends with Jan Václav Voříšek, a composer who pops up here and there in my collection, and the Symphony D Major, Op 24 makes its second appearance in my collection.  The great Thomas Hengelbrock leads the other recording.  Goebel does good work, making the work sound weighty yet classical, but Hengelbrock is in a different class.  Much swifter, with a much more buoyant feel, the piece bristles with energy and life and sounds like a missing masterpiece.  Still, Goebel's inclusion of the work is nice to see and makes for a fine closer to the disc.

Sounds is excellent, if a bit artificial and compressed.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2020, 05:41:57 AM
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Gloria Cheng is new to me, though she really ought not to be.  A specialist in contemporary works and works by composers she has personally worked with, she covers all manner of tasty modernist, post-war, and current century works.  Yet this disc represents the first recording of hers to make its way into my collection.  Very clearly my bad.  Ms Cheng, as the album covers indicates, worked directly with Steven Stucky, who also wrote the liner notes, and the great Esa-Pekka Salonen, though for me the greatness derives from his conducting more than his still quite formidable composing.  Some Lutosławski gets dropped in the mix for good measure.  Time to listen.

The disc opens with Four Album Leaves by Stucky, from 2002.  The miniatures explore limited ideas, like lengthy ostinatos in Meccanico or Messiaen-like hypnotic sound in Serno, luminoso, and all sound quite nice.  The niceness is reinforced by Cheng's tone, which lacks edge and brittleness as recorded.  Next is the world premiere recording of Lutosławski's Piano Sonata, though it is the third to end up up in my collection.  (Fun fact: women have recorded five of the six available commercial recordings.)  Cheng sort of splits the difference between Ewa Kupiec's more romantic take (think Szymanoski) and Corinna Simon's leaner, more angular take (think Ligeti).  Cheng's tone evokes the former, and her clean playing evokes the latter, while she also plays with an affecting gentleness in some passages.  Kupiec sets the standard for me, but it's nice to have yet another version. (Maybe I end up with all of them.)

Next comes a trio of works by Salonen.  Yta II is a starkly modernist piece, forcing Cheng to skitter along the keyboard for effect, and while not deep or heavy, the surface textures and discernible musical line make it well worth listening to.  The Three Preludes are a bit more substantive.  The first starts off conventionally beautiful, only to move into harmonic development that renders the piece knottier yet still pleasing by the end.  The surprisingly Janáčekian second Prelude, or Janáček meets the avant-garde, belies the Chorale designation.  The last is a perpetuum mobile piece of note.  But it's Dichotomie that is the non-Lutosławski star of the show.  In the extended perpetuum mobile piece titled Mécanisme, Cheng deploys glissandi most effectively to create washes of sound from which clusters of sound emerge, creating a piece that's more about surface sheen and immediate, dissipating effect than depth.  It produces nothing concrete, per the composer.  Organisme blends trills and ostinatos into a better than Glass type Glass, with new ideas occasionally and almost randomly emerging from the busy surface.  Cheng seems ideally suited to produce the optimum sound the piece demands, though I would not be averse to hearing what Herbert Schuch may do with it.

The disc closes with Three Little Variations for David, as in Zinman, and originally played by Yefim Bronfman.  Small trifles, though they can pack an outsize punch in terms of dynamics, they make a fine end to a very fine disc of mostly contemporary music. 

While it seems unlikely Ms Cheng will record much core rep, I would not mind if she did, and in particular I'd like to hear what she could do with Debussy.  Sticking more with her musical milieu, I would surely love to hear her take on the Vingt Regards, any and all Ligeti, Gubaidulina, and hope against hope, Mompou.  Her Messiaen and Saariaho disc looks destined to enter my collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 10, 2020, 05:34:30 AM
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I very rarely listen to non-Bach solo cello compositions, and I rarely venture into chamber works for cello beyond core rep.  So when I spied this closeout disc entitled Violincello Italiano, consisting of four works by Italian composers, two of whom I'd never even read the names of before, I figured why not?  It's on Genuin, after all, and Genuin has a high hit rate.  The star of the show is Paolo Bonomini, winner of the Bach prize, and student of Antonio Meneses, Mario Brunello, and Enrico Dindo, among others.  That seemed to guarantee at least good playing.

The disc opens with four caprices by Joseph Marie Clèment dall'Abaco, selected from a larger set of Capricci for solo cello.  The composer was born in 1710, so these works come after Bach, but they sound more baroque in style than classical.  And they sound quite fine.  As a first recorded appearance of the cellist, one can hear absolute control of the instrument, outstanding intonation, and an ability to generate a big, fat tone, or a lean upper register as needed.  The music sounds pleasant enough, though it will never become core rep.  Next up comes the vastly different Ciaccona, Intermezzo, e Adagio from Luigi Dallapiccola.  The unabashedly modernist, immediate post-war work revels in dissonance and tunelessness, stark dynamic shifts, harsh accenting, and only occasional bouts of beauty.  Anger and sorrow rush toward the listener.  Here's a piece I really should have investigated before.  It sort of sounds like a solo cello equivalent to Memorial to Lidice or Nanking! Nanking!.  A familiar name follows, in the form of Luigi Boccherini.  I've got several Boccherini cello compositions in my collection, but not this work, the C Major Sonata for Violincello and Basso Continuo.  Here, Polish cellist Magdalena Bojanowicz joins Bonomini, and on evidence of this, she also has chops.  The standard fast-slow-fast sonata is tuneful, light on its feet - even in the Largo - and delightful, especially in the stupid virtuosic coda.  It has the Boccherini feel, which I mean positively.  The disc closes with four short works by Carlo Alfredo Piatti, including one world premiere recording of the Canzonetta.  Japanese pianist Naoko Sonoda (I don't know if she's related to Takahiro) joins Bonomini, and the duo deliver archetypal romantic miniatures, with the front and center Bonomini reveling in vibrato and cantabile playing of a very high order, indeed. 

All in all, this recording reveals a highly talented cellist who really ought to record more.  Heck, his musical partners should, too.

High end Genuin production values, though people strongly averse to hearing cellists breathe may dislike the recording.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 17, 2020, 05:39:26 AM
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When I recently listened to Gloria Cheng's disc of modern piano music, I read Steven Stucky note that Magnus Lindberg referred to the piano as a compositional lie detector.  I endeavored to try some of Lindberg's piano music, and as luck would have it, this disc popped up for under five bucks.  The Lindberg quote is included in the liner notes, so he meant it.  Fearless pianist-composer George King sets out to play Lindberg's Jubilees, and works by two other composers, and then a selection of his own Etudes, which reflect his background in classical and jazz piano.

The disc starts with the Lindberg.  That Lindberg plays piano seems obvious here, as he wrote Etudes with musical qualities that seem to descend from Debussy, with hints of Stravinsky, Szymanowski, and maybe Ligeti thrown in, all while sounding geared toward someone who actually plays piano.  While harsh and dissonant more than a little of the time, they are mostly, clear, clean, and linear, though the fourth opens in hauntingly beautiful fashion.  Next comes Philip Cashian's Six pieces by paintings by Ben Hartley, a world premiere recording.  Think of it as a severely miniaturized and modernized take on Mussorgsky's conceit, with Messiaen looming so very large.  The writing is not derivative, but the use of harmony, the occasional sparseness, and the bright colors all remind one of the French composer, with the fixations stripped away.  The Webernian brevity results in a neat trick: the listener just settles in to each piece, and then each piece ends.  Always leave 'em wanting more applies here, too.  It's the best thing on the disc.  George Benjamin's Shadowlines, or six canonic preludes for piano, follow.  The most uncompromisingly "avant-garde" composition on the disc, the canonic form often gets purposely buried under stark, terraced dynamics, harmonic clusters, and blurs of atonality.  It's something of a hard listen, though when, in a few instances, the canons emerge clearly from the din, the effect actually sounds exciting, which sort of makes no sense, but there you go.  Finally, King's Etudes sound like a mashup of Debussy, minimalism, Jarrett, and generic post-war avant-garde music.  The composer's intent is to make the pieces more accessible, even playable, and the mashup nature doesn't mean they don't sound good, because they do.  They do fall just a smidge outside traditional classical music expectations, which is just fine.

My biggest takeaway is that I need to explore more Philip Cashian.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 24, 2020, 04:04:42 AM
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Krzysztof Meyer is a name new to me.  I stumbled upon this closeout disc, and figured I might as well try something new, both to me, and in the case of the Imaginary Variations from 2010, to the repertoire.  OK, it's not new-new, but it's definitely contemporary.  The members of the Poznań Piano Trio perform the assorted works in what appears to be their only commercial recording to date.

The disc starts with the Canzona for Cello and Piano, and it starts with a deep, bold cello part that sounds tuneful but dark, sort of in the DSCH vein, but not as unyielding.  The piano part sounds sparser to start, and then as the music moves into a faster middle section, both instrumentalists are given more to do.  Energetic and, if not light, it is not dour, and the music moves along with astringent energy.  It makes for a solid disc opener, but the Imaginary Variations for Violin and Piano make for more than that.  Here, the name that immediately comes to mind is Bartók, with the dissonant, vibrant writing, and the complex structure, but with a neo-classical twist.  Not a traditional theme and variations, the variations, such as they are, emerge from repeated patterns.  This piece far exceeded any reasonable expectations I may have had.

Next is a brief Moment musical for solo cello, marking the second time in a few short weeks that I've added new solo cello music to my collection.  Written as an encore for Roman Jabłoński, it's a super-virtuosic piece, launching with bold, slashing playing, and filled with portamento and pizzicati and nearly everything that can be packed into a short piece.  It's not a great piece like a cello suite, but it's an exceptionally good encore.  Next comes the brief Misterioso for Violin and Piano, and here the emphasis is not on overt, gallery pleasing virtuosity, but rather, for the violinist, on the ability to play delicately and with a lovely sound without a tuneful base.  Fortunately for the listener, the violinist pulls it off.

The disc closes with a big old Piano Trio from 1980, in five movements, and spanning over half an hour.  Starting with a Stravinskian Impetuoso, then moving on to a sometimes bleak Adagio inquieto, then bridging with two intense movements before arriving at the thirteen-plus minute Con moto closer, the work covers a lot of stylistic and inventive ground.  While using more famous composers as a description has uses, here it falls short, because Meyer's invention is not derivative, nor is it beholden to any one style.  Here's some music penned in the last half century that really stands on its own and demonstrates mastery.  It also demands I try something else from the composer.

Sound and playing all meet modern standards. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on October 24, 2020, 10:40:09 AM
Nice disc/program indeed. His string quartets are masterful.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on October 24, 2020, 10:46:46 PM
Quote from: André on October 24, 2020, 10:40:09 AM
Nice disc/program indeed. His string quartets are masterful.
Agreed.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 31, 2020, 06:01:36 AM
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Recently, on the solo piano disc Jubilees, played by George King, the brief work by English composer Philip Cashian emerged as the most intriguing thing on the disc, so I figured I should seek out more music by the guy.  Coincidentally, or perhaps due to advanced Amazon algorithms, a disc of Cashian's chamber and orchestral music popped up at clearance price (five buck and change), so I just had to have it.  The disc includes five works spanning the period from the early aughts to 2012.

The disc opens with Tableaux, played by the Northern Sinfonia and conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, the very forces that commissioned the work.  A chamber orchestra work, the sound-world sounds like a sort of post-Schoenberg Schoenberg.  The work sounds rather sectionalized, and almost concerto for small orchestra like, with each section getting its due, with sparse textures and ample dissonance, not to mention a nifty if standard sort of fast-slow-fast structure, the piece unfolds continuously and colorfully.  It sounds both strikingly modern yet incredibly easy to listen to. 

Next up is the concerto for Cello and Strings.  Pizzicato strings contrast with the bowed cello to start, and then from there, over the course of the just shy of twenty minutes, Cashian mixes and matches snatches of astringent bowed string playing to go along with the frequent pizzicato continuo, and the undulating, at times searing, and times harshly singing (or maybe croaking) solo cello playing.  As the piece fades away, one concludes this ain't too bad.  Here's a work Nicolas Altstaedt should take up.

The title work, The House of Night, follows.  Basically, a concerto for oboe and strings, the five short movements find Cashian doing his thing.  The oboe starts off sounding very flute-y, and the strings offer a soft cushion, but as the first movement progresses and turn into the second, the oboe sounds sharper and the strings more astringent.  Moods and soundworlds shift fast to slow and back, right to the end.  As with his solo piano music, the brevity makes the music understay its welcome - perhaps something of a feat for an oboe concerto

Dark Flight, a cello sextet follow, and from the dark opening semi-quavers through the entire duration, the six players all do good work, and vary sounds and textures as much as six cellists can, but, while nice enough, it's probably too much cello to listen to frequently.

A nice, big Piano Concerto closes things out.  The piano starts things off simply and sparsely and solo for a good while, as the opening chord transfigures.  Only with first a harp doubling the piano, then a vibraphone and trombone entering the mix, does the orchestra finally enter.  The piano part is purely tuneless, as is the orchestral part.  Slow, single notes from the piano start the slow second movement, which also remains resolutely tuneless while still generating appealing music, more so than some other contemporary/avant-garde compositions.  No reason for harshness or hardness or ugliness here.  The extended sort of cadenza meanders, the sparse music lost in itself.  The concluding movement conforms with the standard fast-slow-fast model, and it sort of seems like a fusion of de-brutalized Bartok 1 and generic post-Darmstadt modernism.  That's not meant as criticism, and the way the entire movement moves continuously through to the end, basically following the simple-ish line of the piano really works better than it ought to. 

This disc reinforces my positive first experience with Mr Cashian's work.  I may have to sample some more of his work.  All artists involved do good work, and recorded sound is fully up to snuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 07, 2020, 05:50:35 AM
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Figured it makes sense to go for more Meyer without delay.  This Naxos disc includes the world premiere of the composer's 2009 Piano Quartet, and a recording of his big Piano Quintet from 1991.  The Piano Quartet is a long, twenty-four minute single movement that seamlessly moves between different sections.  At times harshly dissonant, with clangorous piano playing, sharp sforzandi, and striking dynamic explosions, the music at other times moves slowly and with no little beauty.  There are moments of gentleness, nearly violent outbursts, haunting unison string playing, jittery pizzicato playing married to skittish piano playing, all moving back and forth fluidly, sometimes for longer periods, sometimes for shorter ones.  It's like a expressionism meets atonality meets aleatoric music cacophony that still manages to entirely cohere.  Here's 21st Century chamber music to sinks one's teeth into.

The forty-minute Piano Quintet starts with bracing, bright piano playing and has an eerie, kinda Schnittke-meets-Coates sound, with the string drooping and searing, before branching off into an abstract, more amorphous avant-garde soundworld.  But the interlocking motifs and ideas make it jell.  The long Misterioso slow movement, which clocks in at over thirteen minutes, sounds like its description, with the strings often playing extended notes, which creates an intensity that never really breaks during the movement.  The short Inquieto likewise lives up to its descriptive name and comes off like a harsh musical assault of a Scherzo.  The harsh, brittle final movement closes out with uncompromising music, ranging from slow and somber to downright aggressive playing.  Here is a large scale chamber work tracing back to similar works of past centuries, the contemporary equivalent of Shostakovich or Brahms.  Magnificent.

For quite a few years, I've sort of summed up Polish composers as Chopin, Szymanowski, and Lutosławski.  I think I have to add Meyer to that list, at least for chamber music.  I have to check the string quartets.  Probably some orchestral music, too.

Exemplary playing and sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 14, 2020, 05:36:03 AM
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First Finzi!  It took me until late 2020 to finally snag a disc of Gerald Finzi's music, and then because it was on clearance.  Starting things off, the hefty forty-fiveish minute (as recorded here) setting of most of Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood presents a big intro, with textual quality guaranteed.  The music starts off sounding stereotypically British in that it sounds pastoral, with soaring strings, though Finzi mixes things up.  Truth to tell, the music is at its best when the chorus sings above the strings.  The use of percussion sounds a bit crude, or at least not at all to my taste in the third movement (too many cymbal crashes, among other things), for instance, but the blending of voice and orchestra generally works well.  So, too, does Philip Langridge as the soloist.  Few of the vocal works in my collection are in my native language, so when one comes along, and one with a solo part, and with a singer of the caliber of Philip Langridge, I sort of pay closer attention to the text.  He delivers, and the chorus delivers, and the work sounds substantive and generally quite good overall, quibbles about orchestration notwithstanding.

The disc closes out with the Grand Fantasia and Toccata for Piano and Orchestra.  Pianist Philip Fowke is new to me, and he acquits himself well in the work, but the work itself is overwrought in a generic sort of way, with neither of the movements particularly gripping.  A definite meh.

All forces concerned do good work, but the 80s vintage digital recording needs a fresh remastering/re-EQ, because this one sounds hard and glassy during tuttis. 

I know I won't be collecting the Grand Fantasia, and I would write that I doubt I go for another version of the main work, but I see that James Gilchrist serves as tenor in the Naxos recording.  His Schubert song cycles far exceeded expectations, so who knows?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 21, 2020, 05:43:46 AM
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Until I purchased this closeout disc, I had not listened to Kurt Weill in fifteen or more years.  The last time I listed, it was to Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in its first recording.  This el cheapo disc seemed like a good excuse to listen to his music again.  Songs, some extracted from stage works, comprise roughly half the disc, while the Second Symphony makes up the back half.  The symphony was the main draw, which ended up being a good thing, because the songs do not really work for me.  Diane Dufresne clearly is not and was not an opera singer and she is recorded much too closely here.  Her singing holds no allure for me, and each song kind of couldn't end quickly enough.  As with the full production of Mahagonny, the Alabama Song suffers in proper setting when compared to the vastly superior version from The Doors.

Now to the main attraction.  Weill's neo-classical symphony has a lot more appeal.  The opening movement sounds simultaneously breezy yet substantial, with a concerto for orchestra style segment for pretty much each section to gets its due, with the winds, in particular, delivering some tuneful music.  Partly a result of the recording technique - ample space - and Yannick Nézet-Séguin's theatrical conducting, one gets a blend of Stravinsky and less cholesterol-rich Korngold.  The Largo, not especially slow sounding here, has an almost movie soundtrack feel and some really superb brass writing.  (Maybe Honeck and Pittsburgh can take it up.)  Though the textures often seem somewhat light, a certain darkness pervades the transfigured march, weaving in and out.  This becomes more evident in the bolder, march-like closing movement, though Weill's bright orchestration, including doubled piccolos, sort of mask that fact.  The rhythmic verve is obvious, but the overall smoothness of delivery sort of doubles down on masking the darker overtones.  Not a complaint.  The work is good enough that I would not be averse to hearing one or two more versions.

Atma delivers good if spacious sound, though one must adjust volume rather significantly between songs and symphony.  All instrumentalists involved do excellent work, and young YNS shows that he had conductorial chops even early in the century.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on November 24, 2020, 11:03:51 AM
I don't know this recording but both Weill symphonies are quite remarkable pieces that deserve to be better known (I have only and oldish recording with Bertini). The first symphony is quite different (even further from the musical theatre Weill than the 2nd). And his best orchestral work might be the violin concerto. If he had not been so busy and successful with theatre music, Weill might have been a major composer of instrumental music of his generation.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 26, 2020, 04:50:19 AM
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Until I spied this closeout disc, I don't think I'd even seen the name Giovanni Platti.  A younger contemporary of Bach, he appears to have written a sizable slug of standard baroque fare.  Among his compositional output are these six Flute Sonatas bundled together in opus number three.  All six of the sonatas, and all twenty-three movements, blend together nicely.  It's one big, long, laid-back, beautiful, largely undifferentiated blob o' flute music.  It's pleasant.  And it makes for lovely background music.

None of this takes away from the artists.  Headliner Alexa Raine-Wright plays with a warm, beautiful tone and exemplary breath control, and her three musical partners play their various instruments (harpsichord, baroque cello, archlute, and baroque guitar) with aplomb.  Sound quality is just dandy.  I will never listen to this disc frequently, but I can see myself listening whilst performing some mundane and quiet chores.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on November 28, 2020, 05:31:53 AM
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A themed disc about female madness. Clare McCaldin pens her rationale for the program in the liner notes, which may inspire or not, but for me, the whole point of such an endeavor is to see if such a collection compels.

The disc opens with a pair of short, English-language works, one by Henry Purcell and finished by Benjamin Britten, Mad Bess, and one by Hariett Abrams, Crazy Jane, both informed by various famous works, and both make for a somewhat tepid opening to the disc.  McCaldin and accompanist Libby Burgess do nice enough work, but the music falls flat.

Things improve with Brahms' Ophelia.  Brahms' familiar and comfortable idiom works nicely, though the German diction does not sound quite so accurate as German singers produce.  As usual, it does not really bother me, it just must be mentioned.  Things improve yet again with a handful of Hugo Wolf's Mörike-Lieder.  Echt-romantic, properly proportioned and structured, and perfectly expressive, both composer and musical duo deliver the goods.  While some of the upper register piano playing delights, the limitations of the efficient rather than sumptuous sound make one wish for more mixing desk tomfoolery.  Still, as with all Wolf lieder I've heard, it works supremely well.  (I really do need to systematically explore the composer's oeuvre.) 

Turns out, though, that more modern music is where it's at on this disc.  Ned Rorem's Ariel, setting texts from Sylvia Plath, finds the duo, joined by clarinetist Catriona Scott, delivering songs both lyrical and tartly dissonant, and unabashedly modern, with a fluidity and sense of ease that seems to indicate true fondness for the style.  The near matching of clarinet and voice in pitch and sound at times works well.  Predictably excellent, given Rorem's high hit rate.

The disc closes with Vivienne, composed by Stephen McNeff for the singer, with texts by Andy Rashleigh, the work is about Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot.  The roughly half hour work sets a half dozen poems exploring brief segments of the subjects life.  The music sounds more like show tunes than heavy-duty art songs, but here it is the text that carries the weight.  Mostly narrative and direct, and reliant upon sharp allusions and turns of phrase, with bitterness and condescension and sorrow permeating the piece, it unexpectedly packs a wallop.  Here's a work I didn't know I wanted to add to my collection.  Given that the work was written for the singer, and that the singer and pianist premiered the work, it seems a bit lived in, in the best way - like Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's performance of the very different Neruda Songs by her husband. 

So a couple duds to start, but a rock solid program overall.  I can always start listening with track three from now on.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 05, 2020, 05:38:27 AM
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Various artistic forces in Poland conspired around the Chopin bicentennial to record works by various young(-ish) Polish composers as a national homage to the greatest of Polish composers.  The composers and works bear no resemblance to the master of piano compositions.  Instead, it's just new stuff, exploratory and potentially pushing boundaries.  One such composer is bear no resemblance Agnieszka Stulgińska, who was in her 20s and 30s when she composed the works presented on this disc.  It's a grab bag of five short works for various ensembles with no underlying theme of note.

The disc starts off with Let's meet, for two prepared pianos, something new in my collection.  Such a composition must sound modern, in a post-Cageian way, and Stulgińska shows a way to sound different.  The short piece includes rapid, repeated figurations, ample string strumming, hefty tone clusters, exaggerated low registers, shrill vocalization, and clashing musical ideas between the two instruments.  The Lutosławski Piano Duo possess real chops and dispatch the piece with ease.  An unexpectedly strong start to the disc, to be sure.

Next comes Ori, for the unusual combo of accordion, electric guitar, cello, and clarinet.  This marks another first in my collection.  Thinking I sort of knew what to expect, I got something I did not expect.  Apparently inspired by DNA replication, the first movement slowly gestates into existence, nothing but sound and occasional harmony (?) and blurred soundscape, where instrumental doubling creates new sounds fit for an avant-garde movie.  The second movement skitters along bizarrely, with the electric guitar adding a distinctive texture, and the third movement returns to a different variant of avant-garde movie soundtrack.  Not as strong as the opener, but unique.

In Credo follows, and the brief work for strings and percussion slowly expands as it is one big crescendo, and it sounds vaguely like various, severe post-war modernists with helpings of chaos thrown in.  There's no music center, no tune, nothing but gradually building music to the climax, followed by a disappearing coda. 

Stara Rzeka (Old River), for chamber orchestra is, for all intents and purposes, a musical stream of consciousness, not inspired by a body of water but by a river of thought, with musical figurations, fragments, and outbursts fading in and out in the continuous, cacophonous, yet still tightly focused piece.  It's sort of like Berio married to Webern.  Nice.

The disc closes with Flying Garbage Truck, for saxophone, accordion, violin, cello, and piano - and tape.  Whereas other works use conventional means to simulate electroacoustic music, here one gets a small chamber ensemble and chaotic sounds, be they digital creations or altered - heavily and lightly - sounds of the streets, blurring together in a cacophonous racket.  Once gets the sense that one could mix in any recorded sounds to achieves the desired results.  My general reaction to electroacoustic music is essentially meh, and this probably rates a meh+.

Overall, the disc offers a mixed bag of contemporary music, but the strongest music indicates that Ms Stulgińska warrants further consideration.

Fine playing from all involved, and Dux delivers its typical high quality recorded sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2020, 05:29:14 AM
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André Riotte is a composer entirely new to me.  Born the 20s, he grew up in the post-war avant-garde, and it shows.  The liner notes indicate that he follows in paths of Messiaen, Xenakis, and Barraque, and it shows.  The name Messiaen emerges as on obvious inspiration, as it does with so much post-war piano music.  Riotte work presented here, Météorite et ses métamorphoses, a massive 54'+ piece that is a theme and variations - or rather theme and musical metamorphoses - is a big old avant-garde sonic blob.  Inspired by mathematical and computer compositional models, as well as various schools of atonality and other forms of high modernism, the piece staggers and punches and bites and clangs and hammers at the listener.  It is hard listening start to finish, though the music does display some fine invention with very oblique references to composers older and newer.  Ultimately, though, even when compared to the much longer Vingt Regards, this work seems too long and too stylistically repetitive to satisfy enough to warrant many listens.  One or two more will suffice.  Thérèse Malengreau, something of a specialist in obscure fare, plays well, and sound is just fine. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 19, 2020, 05:46:12 AM
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Alexander Asteriades is another name I'd never even seen until I spied this el cheapo disc from the Audio Max sub-label of MDG.  A set of variations for Piano Trio and a dozen songs seemed like something to try for a few bucks from this apparently German based composer.  (His bio is thin and I didn't do any digging.)

The short set of variations for Piano Trio starts the disc, and one name immediately comes to mind: Shostakovich.  So much so, that it might be possible to pass it off as a newly discovered work.  Dissonant, often darkly hued, yet also kinda tuneful, it sounds nice enough, but ultimately it made me want to listen to DSCH.  That's no bad thing.

The dozen songs, with German text only in the liner notes, break away stylistically a bit more, but though modern, the music is not avant garde.  It sounds like a blend of Rorem and DSCH, with cold, hard piano music and mostly dark writing for the baritone.  The variety and mix works better than the work for piano trio, but I do not see myslef spinning the songs a whole lot.

Meh+.

MDG can't help but release recordings in superb sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 26, 2020, 06:21:49 AM
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Who doesn't like lieder?  Of course, Schubert looms gigantic in this field, and other later romantics of some fame seem to dominate the field, but when I stumbled upon a closeout of a disc of songs by Peter Cornelius, a name I may have seen but definitely forgot, I thought it could be a good time to explore a nook of the repertoire.  His age and homeland apparently placed him in thrall to Liszt and Wagner, quite understandably, but at least based on the evidence of this disc, they did not dominate his composing.  Also, Cornelius was apparently a poet-composer, having penned something like 700 poems and he set a big chunk to music, as did some other composers, notably Liszt.  A couple of his songs close the disc, but a couple works by Heine aside, the rest of the texts are by German poets I do not know.  The works were penned when the composer ranged from his 20s to his 40s.  In general, the music sounds very much of its time, namely mid-19th Century Germany.  It sounds squarely and unabashedly romantic, but a couple things become clear, at least for these songs.  First, the earlier songs tend to sound a bit more dramatic whereas the later works sound more economical and contained, though Reminiszenz from 1862 contains a bit of drama.  That's not to say they lack expressiveness, but rather that the compositional technique sounds more developed and more refined, and often simpler.  While lyrical, Cornelius does not match Schubert in this regard, an impossible feat, and he doesn't sound as daring and intricate as Wolf, but his music works well.  So well that I think I will probably plump for another recording or two.

The singers all do good work, and pianist Matthias Veit plays nicely, though as recorded, he can sound a bit strident in places.  The co-production with BR Klassik yields high quality sound.

A nice little discovery.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 02, 2021, 06:09:33 AM
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The second disc of music by Ēriks Ešenvalds in my collection more or less continues on from the first.  The disc contains seven short pieces, all sounding like a blend of modern spiritual composers like Gorecki or Part or Taverner, informed by older religious traditions and newer secular ones.  There's a slight difference with this disc, though, and that is that aural beauty dominates everything.  While contemporary, the music flows gently and washes over the listener.  In some ways the label "easy listening" could suit it, but that would be a disservice.  While not achieving the same type of transcendent, suspension-of-time feel that historical composers of note could achieve - Morales or Monteverdi, say - this disc does come close to achieving that in places. The composer's use of harmony, reinforced by frequent wordless choral work, creates a billowy, haunting, and enveloping sound.  Come the fifth work, Vineta, with eleven singers augmented by percussion, Ešenvalds creates a masterful soundscape, evoking the mythic, sunken Baltic city, with the instruments adding both a eerie sound and a massive, thundering sound.  The second best work on the disc is the closer, In Paradisum, set for cello, viola, and choir, and it offers music that perfectly suits the text and use, which makes sense since the composer wrote it for his grandmother.  There's a John Tavener like quality, except the music sounds more immediate, more gripping, more real, less saccharine, and it sounds achingly beautiful and mixes sorrow and resignation and acceptance. 

Sonics again take front and center since Stereophile Editor-in-Chief engineered the recording.  This time around, the PSU forces left Stumptown for the rural community of Mt Angel and the larger St Mary's Church, placing the crew a short walk from where they must one day record, Mt Angel Abbey.  The larger venue sounds larger, with an even more blended sound than on the last disc, and with even broader dynamic range.  When the instrumental music hits full force in Vineta, one feels it when played through floorstanders, but the spatial balancing seems slightly more focused through headphones.  Superb sound, but I am not entirely convinced it can be called SOTA, what, with some Glossa productions of choral works out there showing exactly how it should be done.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on January 02, 2021, 06:52:01 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 02, 2021, 06:09:33 AM
the PSU forces left Stumptown for the rural community of Mt Angel and the larger St Mary's Church, placing the crew a short walk from where they must one day record, Mt Angel Abbey.
Isn't that the abbey with the brewery? I was supposed to spend a spring afternoon getting tipsy there late March 2020, before you-know-what happened.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 02, 2021, 07:08:20 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 02, 2021, 06:52:01 AM
Isn't that the abbey with the brewery?


Yes, it's one of only three monastic breweries in the US, and apparently it purports to follow a 1500 year old brewing tradition.  I'm not a beer guy, so I have never had any. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 09, 2021, 04:47:23 AM
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Isaac Albéniz is well represented in my collection, what with that little ditty named Iberia, as well as some other rather notable works, like, say, España.  His piano sonatas, on the other hand, are much rarer, though as it turns out, the great Esteban Sánchez, arguably the finest overall Albéniz interpreter on record, recorded the Fifth.  So when the chance arose to hear all three completed sonatas on one disc for a few bucks (I still prefer to buy copies of my music, whether physical or download), I figured I might as well do so.

The disc opens with the Third Sonata.  The first two movements are fairly straight-forward and pleasant nods to classical era sonatas, with Chopin seeming to be an influence, and they make for pleasant listening.  The work comes alive in the Allegro assai closing movement, which sounds like nothing less than a missing Lied Ohne Worte, and a rather robust one, at that.  Now, is this the score or the pianist?  I pose that question because the first Suite ancienne sounds like more missing Mendelssohn.  That's no bad thing, though it is neither a necessarily great thing. 

The Fourth Sonata sort of soups up the Chopin-Mendelssohn sound with some more overt Spanish-sounding music, by which I mean music that looks forward to what Albéniz wrote later.  The rhythmic vitality is there, and the harmonies really endear and seduce.  Get to the second movement Scherzo, and one hears the makings of a mini-symphonic work, a feeling that lasts through the end, with the lilting dance rhythms and forward drive.  Nice.  The second Suite ancienne harks back to classical miniatures more, though the slightly darker hue and feel seems to evoke Chopin more.  That's OK.

Now to the Fifth.  A fairly languid, Albénizian Allegro non troppo opens things up, before moving to a snappy Minuetto, and then the gorgeous Rêverie, which is the heart of the work.  At times tender, at times displaying a Debussyian sound and feel, it hints at later works even more strongly.  The work wraps up with a lively Allegro that seems influenced by the acciaccatura from Beethoven's Op 79, though here the device is used repeatedly.  The pianist here does nice enough work, but when an A/B can be done, it can be instructive, and here the result is that one appreciates just what Sánchez can do.  His rubato is fluid, his touch so minutely variable and precise, his rhythmic sense so unerring, that one sort of just wallows in the playing and the music, whereas with the present pianist, one can dig the note hitting, but one misses what is missing.  Quite a bit.  One also ponders what Sánchez playing Debussy may have sounded like. 

Sebastian Stanley, apparently of Spanish birth, plays nicely enough, though one not infrequently wonders what a more interventionist pianist might bring to the table in these works.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 16, 2021, 05:46:06 AM
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Gonna listen to the daughter, might as well listen to the father.  Jia Daqun first ended up in my collection with an encore performed by his daughter on one of her Schubert discs, so he was on my radar, and now was the time to sample something else. 

The disc opens with the Rondo for Clarinet and Piano.  Decidedly modern, and alternating fast and slow music, the piece sounds very French.  It's light, rhythmically snappy in the fast movement, and quite colorful, with clarinetist He Yemo displaying some fine chops.  Ran Jia plays piano here, and her hard hitting Schubert style translates nicely to this work as she plays with verve, and no little left hand solidity in places.  Here's a fairly light modern work. Next comes Intonation for a fourteen member chamber ensemble.  More colorful yet, with more texture, and lots of Gloria Coates-like glissando, just done to my taste a bit more, the piece blends some lighter passages with hard modernist outbursts.  The music sort of unfolds continuously, and one hears abstracted Chinese (one assumes) elements blended into the mix quite nicely.  The cymbal crashes aside, the instrumentation works extremely well.  Nice.

Three Movements of Autumn follows, and here Jia is all about applying modern techniques to Chinese music.  Traditional Chinese instruments are used exclusively, and while inspired by Chinese opera, one can definitely hear the western academic influences as well.  While the soundworld varies widely from Western music, the rhythmic component sounds vibrant and it ties together very well.  It's not my first exposure to Middle Kingdom music, and it definitely won't be my last.  The disc closes with Three Images from Ink-Wash Painting.  Here, Jia uses western instruments to create a modernist impression of Chinese paintings, in a sort of Eastern Pictures at an Exhibition.  The compact work appeals to me more than any orchestration I've heard of Mussorgsky's work.  Again, Jia's writing sounds colorful, and it creates a soundworld both abstract and evocative of the underlying subject matter.  Whether delicate and smooth, or, in the last piece, inspired by splashed ink, with the potent percussion exploding with near violence, coming in waves, and an edgy thrashing sound, the piece engages and energizes.  More like this, please.

All instrumentalists do fine work, all the more so since these are concert performances.  Ms Zhang conducts the chamber ensembles nicely. 

A disc good enough to make me think I need to here more from the composer.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 23, 2021, 05:57:54 AM
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Over the years, I've listened to gobs of Chopin.  But until now, I'd never listened to a recording of the Op 74 songs.  How embarrassing.  This closeout 2018 reissue of a 1988 recording thus seemed a must buy.  Marrying Chopin's melodic genius to songs in what to my ear is the most beautiful Slavic language, at least when it comes to singing, seemed to all but guarantee enjoyment.  There's a lot to enjoy.  Basically, these almost all very short songs basically sound like delightful poems set to small, light mazurkas, which Chopin knew how to write rather well.  Perhaps the works lack the heft of the great German and French song writers, but man, this disc just flies by, one lyrical delight following another.  Henryka Januszewska sings quite splendidly, and of course she sounds right at home in her native tongue.  Marek Drewnowski accompanies more than ably, and the aged sound, which appears to have had analog action somewhere in the recording or mastering chain, is quite fine.  A peach of a disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on January 23, 2021, 07:03:23 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 23, 2021, 05:57:54 AM
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Over the years, I've listened to gobs of Chopin.  But until now, I'd never listened to a recording of the Op 74 songs.  How embarrassing.  This closeout 2018 reissue of a 1988 recording thus seemed a must buy.  Marrying Chopin's melodic genius to songs in what to my ear is the most beautiful Slavic language, at least when it comes to singing, seemed to all but guarantee enjoyment.  There's a lot to enjoy.  Basically, these almost all very short songs basically sound like delightful poems set to small, light mazurkas, which Chopin knew how to write rather well.  Perhaps the works lack the heft of the great German and French song writers, but man, this disc just flies by, one lyrical delight following another.  Henryka Januszewska sings quite splendidly, and of course she sounds right at home in her native tongue.  Marek Drewnowski accompanies more than ably, and the aged sound, which appears to have had analog action somewhere in the recording or mastering chain, is quite fine.  A peach of a disc.

I'm very glad you discovered Chopin's best kept secret.

My only quibble is that when it comes to singing Russian is at least as beautiful as Polish --- but given that I can understand the former* much better than the latter I might be biased.

* I can even undersign my name in Russian, I've been studying it in secondary school for 4 years. See below.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 30, 2021, 04:01:38 AM
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BAZ is growing on me.  Slowly, but surely.  When I could get this Ondine recording for a song, I went for it, and it's mostly new to me, which excites.

The opening work is not new to me, though.  That's fine.  The Violin Concerto just sort of explodes into being, a cacophonous, aggressive, musically violent racket, merging Berg and Prokofiev and Stravinsky and lethal doses of caffeine.  Musically jagged and really kind of ugly, it nonetheless grabs the listener and does not let go.  The Sonata moves forward relentlessly, with percussion exploding and strings slashing, the soloist navigating a precarious path.  It seems a vigorous, Germanic precursor to Bright Sheng's Nanking! Nanking!.  The Fantasia starts off slower and more aurally pleasing, but quickly assumes a nervous, twitchy mien, though the soloist gets to float some beautiful and sometimes not so beautiful notes right in the middle of the mess.  The Rondo returns to a relentless, constantly forward moving style, with the violinist rushing forward through another musical racket, with different instrumental combinations jumping into and out of the music frame.  Strings sound massed and frenzied yet hushed, the piano belches notes, percussion instruments rattle out discordant rhythms because they must, and the brass attack the listener's ears, all trying to distract, but failing to do so, from the soloist's progress.  (The almost randomness of the music and the use of percussion adds in a Cage-meets-Zappa element that delights.)  And so the soloist must put on a show.  Leila Josefowicz certainly does that.  She dispatches the music with ease and at times a lightness that offers a stark contrast to the music surrounding her, especially in the opening movement.  (She pulls off a similar feat in Scheherzade.2.)  Her tone remains pure and easy on the ear at almost all times, those highly dissonant double stop passages obviously excepted.  The Fantasia sounds, well, fantastic, in an intense, expressionistic, wrenching kind of way, though it would be well nigh impossible to not be seduced by the fiddler's trills.  Josefowicz frolics and romps and tears through the Rondo, and the band follows her.  Her cadenza sears but still sounds fun, and she and the band elevate the work to a qualitative level at least on par with Stravinsky's.  Susanne Lautenbacher, while no slouch, does not play as effortlessly, and sounds more serious, which the piece really doesn't need.  The bigger relative letdown of her take is the backing band, which is amplified by the now aged and constricted sound.  It is still a nice recording, but Josefowicz is in a different league.

Now to some new stuff.  Photoptosis is a massive, continuously unfolding piece in three parts that sounds like a lot of post-war avant-garde music, but with more punch and focus.  Being brief, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and the tonal color and scale and judicious theft of other people's music creates a fabulously entertaining pastiche, something Zimmermann mastered.  I mean, how can one not like the seamless transition from quotations from the Ninth straight to Le Poéme de l'Extase?  It's some of the best pastiche in the business.

I've been meaning to listen to Die Soldaten for years, but I just never have.  My bad.  While I thought of it as a poor man's Wozzeck, right down to a similarly old play on similar themes, the music is a bit more, um, intense.  Which is saying something.  Die Soldaten Symphony offers almost half of the opera's music, and it starts with a pulverizing Prelude which then transitions to bleeding chunks with singers and with nasty 'n' harsh dodecaphonic writing to rival to Lulu.  With the briefest of musical germs exploding and fading away here and there in support of the singers, one hears Webern, and in the grandiose and almost grotesque orchestration, one hears Schoenberg and Strauss duking it out for the listener's attention - attention given freely and greedily.  The unyielding style, even in quieter music, and the pastiche approach add to the appeal.  I will have to give the full opera a proper listen, but it seems unlikely to have quite the impact that Wozzeck does - a tall order - but it's no knock off, either.  This "symphony" makes a fine closer to a corker of a disc.

Mr Lintu extracts world-class playing from his Finnish band and sound is up there with Ondine's best.  As I write every time I hear something new from BAZ, I need me some more BAZ.  May need me all the BAZ.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 06, 2021, 05:31:08 AM
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Up to this point, I've had far more experience with the company that Tamsin Waley-Cohen's father used to run than I have with the violinist's playing, which is to say this is the first recording of hers that I have purchased.  For $9 bucks, I was able to get all of CPE Bach's Violin Sonatas, so, you know, it would have been silly to not buy.  Now, late baroque and very early classical chamber music ought properly to use a period keyboard, but fortunately James Baillieu and Ms Waley-Cohen could not be bothered to observe HIP niceties, so instead the lucky listener gets a modern instrument take.  Which is just fine with me, because - and I know this makes me a philistine - I prefer modern instruments for all Violin Sonatas, including, not at all incidentally, those of CPE's father. 

The set opener finds the pianist playing with clean articulation, sensitive touch, and a nice if not too plucky rhythmic sense.  Ms Waley-Cohen starts off as vibrato-free as any HIP player, but she delivers a delicate purity of tone that sounds both arresting and haunting in the D Major work.  At first, and for a few moments, I feared this could be a somewhat dull affair, even if exquisitely beautiful one, but fortunately with the second work, in D Minor, more peppy writing and playing appears, though the playing remains of the extremely refined variety.  And then comes the C Major, which is all playfulness and sunshine.  Heck yeah!  Again, the clean lines and purity of tone, and very fine piano and pianissimo playing from the violinist catches the ear.  In many ways, including weight and recorded balance, the piano is the center of the action, but the violinist keeps drawing attention to her instrument, not because of flash or showiness, but because of musical merit.  Really, the three discs end up providing one delight after another.  In download form, one gets a continuous set of tracks to listen to, so when the F Major starts the second disc equivalent, one doesn't even notice, but for the splendid keyboard part sounding, perhaps somehow, more delightful than before.  (And seriously, who would want something other than a modern grand here?)  The last disc starts off with a very fine C Minor sonata before moving to an Arioso and Variations and then Fantasia to close.  The former is mostly slow and gentle, with Baillieu displaying finely varied pianissimo-piano style, and the latter work has fairly significant contrasts, almost sounding proto-Beethovenian at times.  Overall, there's not a single dud in the set.

Now that I've given Ms Waley-Cohen a shot - and she was the reason I purchased the set - I think I should probably try something else.  The Hahn and Szymanowski disc looks most appealing.  And when she finishes her LvB Violin Sonata set, I think I shall snap that up.

Mr Baillieu does his thing quite well, and Signum delivers high quality sound as per usual.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on February 06, 2021, 10:15:27 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 06, 2021, 05:31:08 AM
I know this makes me a philistine - I prefer modern instruments for all Violin Sonatas, including, not at all incidentally, those of CPE's father. 

Welcome to the club! Nice review of this set which I've got last year but never listened to. I should rectify this sad state of affair asap.

How about this, which I also got but never listened to? Are you familiar enough with it as to review it?

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 06, 2021, 10:50:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on February 06, 2021, 10:15:27 AMAre you familiar enough with it as to review it?


Never heard it.  2021 is still new, though.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on February 06, 2021, 10:52:03 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 06, 2021, 10:50:00 AM

Never heard it. 

I can let you have it in FLAC.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 13, 2021, 06:31:30 AM
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When I got this disc, I figured it would be my Saint-Saëns year tribute.  It's got his two piano version of the Danse Macabre, along with a transcribed one with input from Liszt, Vladimir Horowitz, and Arthur Ancelle.  And of course it's got the French composer's transcription for two pianos of Liszt's Sonata.  Ancelle's two piano transcription of the Dante Sonata is thrown in the mix, too.  The two takes on the Saint-Saëns piece, his to open, the even more showy virtuoso transcription to end, both sound fine, though, somewhat unusually for me, the three artist transcription works better yet.

The Sonata is the Sonata.  It sounds like the Sonata.  It feels like the Sonata.  Except.  Except it sounds weightier and faster.  By reallocating piano duties, some transitions sound sleeker and swifter, less effortful.  The piece, even more than normal, sounds weaved together as one gigantic whole.  It also sounds scaled up, quasi-orchestral in nature, as if Liszt had written some lost, phantasmagorical orchestral tone poem that even Wagner and Berlioz would have blanched at, and then, to distribute it more widely and earn some scratch, transcribed it down to two pianos to spread its musical gospel.  Only in some of the even sleeker, lighter passages does the impact of Saint-Saëns himself appear, as one thinks Liszt may have done something beefier.  True, the writing goes right up to the point of garishness, and may cross it for some or many, but it works very well, and both Berlinskaya and Ancelle nail their parts.

The show stealer on the disc is Ancelle's transcription of the Dante Sonata.  I like my Dante Sonata to sound super-heated, intense, swelling, dynamic, and this has all that and more.  The more is mostly in scale and weight, as both pianists bear down on the work, but that doesn't end up being all.  When the two pianists both dispatch upper register playing simultaneously in a stretch before the coda, the effect is both hyper-colorful, as way too many notes are being hit at once, and spatially unique.  Sounds emanate from a big cloud of piano.  The coda itself sounds extraordinary in scope and scale, though here, one can appreciate the massive dynamic range and variation that some solo pianists can bring, like Julian Gorus. 

So there are some takeaways.  First, Arthur Ancelle, a most excellent pianist, may very well be an even more excellent transcriptionist.  He should put some more together and see what happens.  Second, Ancelle and Berlinskaya make a very fine piano duo.  Third, I didn't know it, but I probably wouldn't mind another take on the two piano Sonata.  Perhaps one day Schuch and Ensari could record it, or perhaps Bax and Chung, but in the meantime, the Kolodochkas and Paratores have recorded competing versions.  But the Silver Garburg Piano Duo have recorded it and they are on Berlin Classics, which is notable because the label execs believe in producing perfect sounding piano recordings.  And who knows, I may very well end up with more Saint-Saëns this year, though in transcription form.  (Ah, hell, maybe that Chamayou/Capucon/Moreau disc, mainly/solely because of Chamayou.)  Hopefully, other pianists take up Ancelle's transcription of the Dante Sonata.  That would be sweet.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 20, 2021, 04:43:02 AM
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The Ancelle-Berlinskaya duo's Liszt 'n' Saint-Saëns ditty was so nifty that this collection of French works entitled Belle Époque should certainly be worth hearing, I thought.  OK, both were bargain basement priced, so it seemed a simple decision to buy both.  Since only the Debussy was known to me, it also offered a fine chance to hear potentially choice new things.

Cécile Chaminade's Valse carnavalesque starts off the disc, and the brief work glitters and swirls and contains nice hints of a waltz-like lilt in a few places, and as performed and recorded has a bit of lower register weight underpinning the lighter fare.  It's fair to write it offers a delightful Chabrieresque opening - and that is most certainly a good thing.  Charles Koechlin's Suite for two pianos follows, and it sounds gentle and tuneful and lovely, very centered on limpid melody.  Quite impressively, these traits dominate the opening Andantino, only to become more pronounced yet in the Andantino con moto.  It's ridiculous.  The piece does swell in scale and energy in the closing movement, though it never sheds its focus on beauty.  Louis Aubert's Suite Brève receives it world premiere recording here, and it comes off as souped-up salon music, dance inspired trifles turned into something aurally weightier yet unyieldingly charming.  It also sounds like a Chabrier-Ravel hybrid, which turns out to be something the world needs.

Reynaldo Hahn's Le ruban dénoué follows, and it forms the core of the disc.  While ostensibly twelve waltzes, the opening Décrets indolents du hasard sounds so ridiculously beautiful and enchantingly languid, that any notion of a waltz is more or less imaginary.  Something similar happens in the third piece, Souvenir...avenir..., where one hears Johann Strauss as more of something dreamt about.  There are some nice contrasts in tempo and style between the first four pieces, but then the end of the fourth just blends seamless right into Le demi-sommeil embaumé.  A couple tracks later Danse du doute et de l'espérance and then La cage ouverte offer something springier, more energetic, and more waltzy, but the melodic beauty moves rather past something like those written by futzy old Austrians.  Ancelle and Berlinskaya draw out Le seul amour to over six miuntes, which takes its innate beauty and hypnotic quality to a most satisfying level.  This is a corker of a piece.  Now that I've heard the work, I must hear another take, and I have my eye on the one from Huseyin Sermet and Kun Woo Paik.

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The disc rounds out with a much better known work, at least for me, in the form of Debussy's En blanc et noir.  This offered as good an opportunity as any to perform some comparative listening.  The duo starts off with an Avec emportement imbued with a rather vibrant feel, which contrasts nicely with the slow, somber, almost heavy Lent.  The duo create some nice basically super-legato sound in the Scherzando, creating a lovely, shimmering musical surface. 

Mr and Mrs Casadesus offer an even more potent Avec emportement, with the duo slightly desynchronized for effect, before moving on to a more serious Lent that contains even broader dynamic contrasts, and it ends with a lighter, cleaner sounding Scherzando.  They've got the music down cold.  Mr Richter and Mr Britten go for a comparatively leisurely opening Avec emportement which sounds spontaneous but not as well coordinated as the studio efforts.  The slower than average Lent stretches the musical line to the point of breaking, the dynamic contrasts are not so hot, and the whole thing kind of just moves along slowly but not impactfully.  The Scherzando comes off probably best of all, though one of the pianists seems less steady than the other.  I don't think this will be a top four choice going forward.  Mr and Mrs Kovacevich imbue ample energy in their opening Avec emportement, but they also, aided by fine major label recorded sound, offer much gentler and more nuanced playing than one may typically expect from this pairing.  The Lent, taken at a slow overall tempo to almost exaggerate contrasts, has very nice momentary effects, and the Scherzando comes off swift yet light.  The whole piece ends up sounding less coherent and more about really nifty moments, though.  Mr and Mrs Schuch, benefitting from basically SOTA sound, take the opening movement at a well-judged clip, and they deliver something more flexible, more fluid in terms of tempo changes and less effortful in terms of dynamics.  Of particular interest are the widely divergent dynamics between pianists.  And I will surmise that it is Mr Schuch who delivers the more finely nuanced upper register rubato.  (I could be wrong.)  The Lent stretches the line wonderfully, and displays the benefits of two pianists playing with finely honed dynamics, and the duo make sure to deliver an austere, hymn-like playing.  The Scherzando, benefitting from some extremely fine digital dexterity, flits along, clearly demonstrating the influence of some of the composer's earlier works, and sound light yet weighty at once.  Nice.  So in this work, the Casadesuses and Schuchs deliver equally compelling, if stylistically different takes.  The Ancelle-Berlinskaya duo make for a fine addition to my small but still growing collection of the work.

Only sonics detract from the Ancelle-Berlinskaya recording.  Distant, efficient, and metallic, it could have benefitted from some better Steinways or Bechsteins in a proper, high end studio paired with mixing desk tomfoolery, which would have accentuated beauty even more.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 27, 2021, 04:32:46 AM
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I found my way to Allen Shawn's music via pianist Julia Bartha, who recorded a nice Debussy and Encke disc.  The pianist clearly enjoys taking on contemporary works, and in the case of Shawn, the Fourth Piano Sonata is dedicated to her.  The disc of the American composer's music starts off with Five Preludes from 1994.  Brief, somewhat stark, and infused with pre-war modernism (hints of Prokofiev, as the composer himself notes), and though not one of his explicitly jazz-inspired compositions, the slower Preludes have a free, jazz-like rhythm to them.  The Jazz Preludes (three of four are included) continue on with the slow jazz feel, infused with Berg and Schoenberg, in music that seems quite well suited for a high end bar around last call.  Recollections maintains the free feel of the jazz pieces, but moves back to more abstract writing, and it keeps the nice, slow feel until the piece entitled Playful, which sounds, well, like the title denotes.  The Fourth Sonata is structured fast-slow-fast, and offers a more abstract, less jazz-infused sound overall.  The slow movement is the heart of the work, which, while very flexible as designated, sounds quite expressive, with repeated, dissonant chords hitting home, while the quicker outer movements have more energy and impact and a structured chaos sound.  Valentine is, as one would surmise, a gentle, lovely piece, while Growl sounds predictably aggressive, gnarly, and spiky.  The disc closes with Three Reveries, written while the composer's father was ill.  They are all slow, quite contemplative, with a lot going on in p-pp range.  While it seems unlikely to happen, Volodos could take this work and play it like a masterpiece for the ages. 

Mr Shawn's brother is - inconceivable - Wallace Shawn, with whom he collaborated on a chamber opera, The Music Teacher, which has been recorded.  Maybe, maybe.

Playing and sound is up to modern snuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 06, 2021, 05:30:17 AM
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Gabriela Demeterová is one of those violinists I've long meant to listen to far more than I actually have.  I've heard some snippets on YouTube, but this is the first proper full-length recording I've heard, in this, its reissue guise.  Looks like I have foolishly not been listening to a fine fiddler.  The works, one from a composer I've at least heard and heard of before (Benda) and two I've not (Pichl and Vranický) are all classical era violin concertos of quite fine accomplishment.  While not perhaps as much fun as the last couple from Mozart, or as well crafted as those of Haydn, or with as beautiful a solo violin part as that by Pleyel (though this is likely due to the stupid beautiful playing of Sebastien Bohren in the recording that I know), all three major key works sound bouncy and fun in the fast movements and deeper and more beautiful in the slow movements.  The Benda, if perhaps predictable, benefits from Demeterová's ability to float a musical line nearly as beautiful as Bohren's in the slow music.  The pretty, petite Pichl piece presents plenty of gently beautiful music for the listener to savor.  While the last movement, in particular, has a bit of drive, as recorded and performed it's a light piece, and one that almost seems to presage romanticism with its meltingly beautiful music.  The lion's share of the credit goes to Demeterová who never produces anything other than a beautiful, pure tone.  She keeps things constrained yet expressive, contained yet exuberant.  This is the very model of a chamber concerto.  The more vibrant, vivacious Vranický verily veers into Mozartian territory.  A fairly weighty, extended orchestral introduction segues to Demeterová's unfailingly lovely playing.  That unfailing loveliness permeates the slow movement, which ends up sounding bold and rich such that one can easily tell this comes from the tail end of Haydn's era and the beginning of Beethoven's.  Nice.  The Alla Pollacca closing movement infuses some energy and some very dance-like rhythm into the mix.  Not the last word in super-charged music, and not up as spunky as the closing of Mozart's last violin concerto, it nonetheless falls squarely in the smile-on-face composition category.

Excellent support and sound cap off a delight filled disc.

Since Ms Demeterová recorded the Rosary Sonatas, I now know I must get my hands on those recordings.  I hope she sees fit to record Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, as well. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 05, 2021, 06:43:07 PM
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Time to take a musical journey to the Caucasus, here in in the form of three works for string quartet by two composers named Sulkhan, and played by the Georgian State String Quartet.  Not only was the bargain basement closeout disc worthwhile for the music alone, it also gave me the chance to hear how Lisa Batiashvili's father, Tamaz Batiashvili, also a fiddler, played.  (Ah, Commie nepotism - the best kind!)  Anytime I listen to music from beyond the eastern shores of the Black Sea, I expect something a bit exotic sonically, and I look forward to it.

Sulkhan Nasidze's Fifth String Quartet, Con Sordino, goes first, and as it happens, it is dedicated to Sulkhan Tsintsadze.  The single movement quartet is in a slow-fast-slow structure.  The first slow section sounds slightly funereal, drawn out, and uncentered - perhaps weightless, as the booklet notes suggest - and is spiced with judicious sul ponticello playing, sounding like a mish-mash of high minded modernism and folk elements, like a less compelling Bartok.   The middle section sounds like a Glass-Bartok-vaguely folkish blend, and finally raises the volume materially beyond mezzo piano.  The second slow section maintains greater tension and dynamic range than the opener, but regains something of a funeral sense, especially in the low strings, and what sound likes nods to Janacek in the coda.  It's a pretty spiffy modern quartet.

Sulkhan Tsintsadze gets two works, starting with a collection of eight Miniatures for String Quartet.  Here, the folk element is baked right in as the pieces are explicitly based on Georgian folk songs, all are about three minutes or less.  Some are dance-like, some more song-like, and they all have varying degrees of more eastern influences.  The peppiest, most "exotic", and definitely most fun of the bunch is Sachidao, apparently a fighting song.  One can sense the influence of Bartok, but one also gets a sense that the music is even closer to its folk roots than the sometimes more abstracted works by the Hungarian.  The composer's Sixth String Quartet ends the disc.  Another single movement work, this time split into five sections, the works is the most unabashedly modernist piece on the disc, and blends elements of DSCH, highly abstracted Georgian folk elements, some middle period Bartok, and various post-war influences.  It's not so much a mashup as it is an original, effective, well structured and proportioned work, mixing high art and (probably more for seasoned listeners) an easy approachability.  It's like the disc gets better with each work, as though the artists and producers planned it that way. 

The quartet plays at a very high level, which does not surprise, and the mid-90s sound is perhaps a bit too close and airless, but otherwise far more than acceptable. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 11, 2021, 05:56:20 AM
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I kind of stumbled upon Miloslav Kabeláč when I picked up an Ivo Kahánek piano recital disc with some familiar fare, including Janáček's very familiar sonata.  It was and is Kabeláč's Preludes that made the disc special, and so I started buying some more.  Including this, the first recording of his complete symphonies.  And, well, wow. 

The set starts out with a Symphony No 1 in D for Strings and Percussion, from 1942, and this joins the ranks of the great wartime orchestral works.  Martinů's Memorial to Lidice, works by Honegger, DSCH, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, whomever, this work matches them.  Pretty brief, with at times searing string writing, and brilliant use of percussion, including, as one would expect, the potent force this mix of instruments can impart, and one has a tense, nervous, dark work that packs a huge wallop.  One can certainly hear various influences, including the names I mentioned and Bartók, but this is as non-derivative as a symphony can get.  Whew.  The Second Symphony in C for Large Orchestra gives away its bigness from the outset.  Hints of Straussian gigantism and DSCH stings combine into a big ol' orchestral good time.  Not light, not at all, but not so dark as to make a listener potentially feel gloomy, it just works.  Does one detect the influence of one-time teacher Schulhoff in the bold inclusion of sax in the second movement?  Whatever the influence, it adds something a bit different.  Not quite as different as the Third, scored for Organ, Brass, and Timpani.  Say what?  At times it sounds like a huge, angry funeral march, moving forward grimly, with the fanfares cutting right through the organ and timps.  Hardly easy or frequent listening, here's something new under the sun, at least in my collection.  The much smaller scale Fourth, for chamber orchestra, follows, and here one gets a feeling on DSCH and Janacek combining forces, with some Stravinsky and generic French composers in the mix.  That seems cool; it sounds cool.  Light, certainly, and rhythmically buoyant, but with moments of bite, it bounces along, causing no little delight as it does so. 

The Fifth starts the third disc, and the wordless soprano part paired with music containing some very lovely passages lightens portions of the piece, but otherwise it packs more of an intense, at times bitterly angry punch, coming off as a mix of DSCH, Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs but really good, and something entirely unique to the composer.  Apparently, the composer favored this symphony, and it is not hard to hear why.  (And the composer does like timps.)  The Sixth, the "Concertante" for Clarinet, gives the listener no respite after the stinging end to the prior work.  Shrill, sharp, and aggressive, the piece launches ferociously, as the "Feroce" designation implies.  The solo part takes on an eastern flavor, the brass slice through everything else, blaring at the listener, and the percussion rattle things.  Except when they don't, as with some gentle snare taps, carefully spotlit.  In a nod to the avant garde, the Lento movement includes some string music played back through loudspeakers as a sort of musical doping agent - as if the music needed it.  The concluding Presto, where one gets some really nice texture from the two pianos, wraps the whole thing up in a big, weighty, impactful musical ball.  This is one of the biggest, baddest, most severely mislabeled Clarinet Concertos out there, but whatever one calls it, the work kicks ass start to finish and represents a (a, not the) peak of the cycle. 

The Seventh, for Orchestra and Reciter, sets to music the Book of John and the Book of Revelations, as well as an elegy from New Guinea.  The opening fanfares remind one of the harshest blasts from Mahler's 10th - and then the listening gets harder.  Dissonance here, there, and everywhere (thankfully), loaded with percussion and eerie pizzicato and everything else that 60s era avant garde music had to offer, Kabeláč's composition has the benefit of actually being good.  Without delving into the text, it comes off as a harsher version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, or even Die Jakobsleiter.  I adore both works, so now I adore this one, too.  Just a whole lotta wow in there.  The Eighth, Antiphones, starts off where the Seventh leaves off.  Borrowing from his third, this is scored for organ percussion, mixed choir, and soprano, and sets biblical text.  It comes off as an industrial strength liturgical work, and almost hints at the works of Gubaidulina that came later.  Since I really dig her religious compositions, I am predisposed to dig this.  Also, the organ reminds one of nothing less than the Glagolitic Mass.  Yeah.

Conductor, soloists, and band do excellent work, and sound is just fine, though a bit low in level, necessitating cranking the volume a bit.  (Or was that my desire to listen loud?)

Here's music that I now know has been missing my whole life.  Rarely have I experienced complete symphony sets that go from strength to strength, offer such variety, such superb craftsmanship, and so much unique invention.  What a find!  A purchase of the year.  Almost certainly the decade.  Probably the century.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 18, 2021, 05:53:03 AM
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My small collection of recordings and experience listening to the Vlach Quartet has centered on core rep, but in their day they performed and recorded some new stuff.  Such as on this disc.  Hugo Wolf is not new to my collection, but Iša Krejčí, Jan Rychlík, and Pavel Bořkovec all are.  The Bořkovec Second String Quartet starts things off, and it sounds like a work straight out of turn of the century writing, and sounds like a blend of Dvořák and Szymanowski, which is quite alright, thank you.  Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade follows, and the Vlach unsurprisingly nail it.  The only surprise is that it sounds like the music is transferred from LP.  Jan Rychlík's Chamber Suite for String Quartet follows, with five movements structured on baroque models, at least in terms of naming.  The pieces vary in style, and the Danza mixes things up quite a bit all by itself, with multiple influences apparent, none of them dominating.  It's hard to call it especially modernist, or neo-anything.  It is easy to call it enjoyable.  Iša Krejčí is apparently labeled a neo-classical composer, but this Second String Quartet, a memorial, comes off as more emotive and romantic, especially in the lovely and affecting Moderato movement.  As with the other Czech works, it sounds quite lyrical much of the time, and if it does not emerge as a masterpiece of the highest order, as none of the works here do, it and they nonetheless have seriousness, a beauty, a listenability that make them nice to just sit and listen to.

The Vlach play very well, of course, and the style, rich with vibrato and some nice dollops of portamento unlikely to be heard these days, adds something of an appealing old-time feel. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: foxandpeng on September 19, 2021, 12:48:54 AM
This is such a very informative and interesting thread, Todd. Just wanted to say thanks.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 25, 2021, 04:12:59 AM
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Haydn pretty much rules the roost when it comes to classical era string quartets for me.*  Not even Mozart really compares.  No shame in that.  Haydn knew his business and cranked out masterpiece after masterpiece.  Well, along comes Leopold Koželuch.  I've previously sampled some Koželuch piano sonatas and found them to be exceptionally good, if perhaps expressively limited - fairly light classical fare without any romantic affectation or even Sturm und Drang weight, at least in the selections I've heard.  Turns out he wrote a half dozen quartets, too, including his own Op 33.  Okay, he does not match Haydn overall, and certainly not the Austrian's Op 33, but damned if he the Czech didn't write some nifty chamber music.  One quartet is in two movements, and all the others are in three, with all of them following a fast-slow-fast model.  The same overall impression left by his piano sonatas gets reinforced here.  Light, tuneful, quite lovely, with beautiful but not deep slow movements, one never gets bored while listening and just lets the good times roll.  There's literally nothing to kvetch about.  Even the relative sameness of the works works as one just bops along from one sweet movement to another.  The different, all major key works just delight.  It may even be possible to appreciate the writing more than some of Mozart quartets.  The Stamic Quartet, veterans of the recording studio including one of the few complete Dvorak sets, play superbly well, reinforcing just how good Czech string quartets can be.  Wonderful discs both.



* Beethoven resides in his own category.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 02, 2021, 06:20:15 AM
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[Cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]


Chang Ping is a composer new to me.  Not yet fifty, the composer received his training at the Central Conservatory of Music in China before getting some additional training in Berlin.  He has written a pretty good number of works in a variety of genres, so these are no beginner works.  This massive, 80+ minute collection of four concertos, completed in 2015, for four different traditional Chinese instruments and western orchestra, blends east and west as a sort of whole with a very unwoke name by contemporary occidental standards.  I've got works for the Pipa and Ehru in my collection already, but the other two instruments are new to my collection. 

The disc opens with The Wind Washed Clouds, for Guzheng (a Zither-type thing) and orchestra, with Ji Wei the soloist.  The harpsichord-meets-harp sound of the instrument adds a eastern sound to what otherwise sounds like orchestral music that could very easily have been recorded as part of Claudio Abbado's Wien Modern series way back when.  Now, how one responds to post war orchestral music in general may very well inform how one responds to this.  Me, I like said music when done right, and for the most part, this is done right.  Lots of bold dynamic contrasts meet with clangy orchestration and, somehow, the Guzheng offers a significant contrast in texture and sound.  The Noble Fragrance, for Erhu and Orchestra, starts off with giant, Mahlerian drum thwacks and then the orchestra enters in full-on Henze mode before the ehru emerges like some ethereal voice which plays solo for an extended period.  The longest work on the disc, at just over a half hour, it sounds remarkably close to a contemporary violin concerto, but for the widely different tonal characteristics of the solo instrument.  And it sounds like Yu Hongmei knows her erhu, because she meets what sounds like taxing demands quite well.  While it doesn't sound like the instrument can produce a massive sound, it sure can produce a gentle one, and I have to guess this piece demands high end playing.  Also, in some passages, and I don't mean to make it sound like the work is derivative, but I could swear, especially in the solo part, that the impact of DSCH can be heard.  Which is no bad thing.  The Movement of Wash Painting for pipa and orchestra, with Zhang Qiang the soloist, enters into a field with at least one outstanding work, Nanking! Nanking! by Bright Sheng.  This work lacks the dramatic back and forth of Sheng's piece, and sounds more generically avant garde, but anytime this instrument and a big band merge, it seems like there will be some type of unbalanced dialogue.  (Makes me wonder what a chamber work might be like.)  The almost French sounding Blue Lotus for Zhudi (bamboo flute) and orchestra is probably the most easily accessible work of the lot, at least for big swaths.  The music starts off smaller scale than the other pieces, and big, thumping tuttis, which do arrive, don't pervade as much as in the other works.  When orchestration is sparse, the instrument pops, and it can have the brightness of a piccolo without the shrillness, and when mixed with fewer instruments, it makes for ear-catching music.  Yuan Feifan does what sounds like splendid work here.  All of the works are worth hearing, but Blue Lotus and The Noble Fragrance make the disc, and make me want to hear more from the composer.

This live recording, taken from a single concert, has expected audience noise, and it must be noted that it sounds like some Chinese orchestras are catching up to, or have caught up to, western orchestras in executive ability.  Conductor Lin Tao gets good work from all involved.  Sound quality is pretty spiffy, too. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 09, 2021, 05:51:38 AM
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More of the Vlach playing lesser known works.  The very short download starts with Viktor Kalabis' Second String Quartet.  Zuzana Růžičková's husband wrote in his time and place, which means that his music cannot escape the influence of the avant garde or Bartok or Shostakovich in this medium.  There's nothing wrong with that, and indeed, the taut, tense work moves forward with sometimes grinding dissonance, sometimes appealing melody, sometimes austere writing letting for the first violinist, and various other techniques (eg, playing the instrument pizzicato like a lute), and the overall effect is one of focusing the listener's mind on the musical here and now?  DSCH 9 or Bartok 4 it is not, but it does not have to be.  Of an earlier generation, Pavel Bořkovec's Fifth Quartet dates from 1961, but it harks back more to the first few decades of the 20th Century stylistically.  At times dissonant, it does sound more lyrical much of the time, though with something of an edge.  It comes off as a blend of styles, with late romantic flourishes one might associate with Dvorak, but with dashes of Martinu and Prokofiev thrown in.  It's not merely derivative at all, and indeed, the composer was lucky to have advocates as strong as those on offer here.  This recording makes a welcome addition to my collection, and the big mono sound works just fine. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 16, 2021, 04:43:45 AM
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If you're gonna listen to one version of Kalabis' Second String Quartet, you might as well listen to two.  The Panocha strip away some of the bite and harshness and deliver a smoother, more meticulous rendition.  The slower music generally sounds more beautiful here.  So outta the gate, one can hear contrasting styles.  Best to have both, of course.  (The Panocha barely gets the nod.)  Ladislav Kubík short String Quartet in One Movement follows.  The early 80s era work is at times a taut, nervous ball of energy, at others an almost grim, nervous slow grind.  Astringent and dissonant, packing in all the string quartet tricks in a short span - think Webern, Bartok, and nameless avant garde composers mashed together - the piece moves along with striking logic, with no musical idea coming close to wearing out its welcome.  Vladimír Sommer's String Quartet in D Minor ends the short recording.  It starts off gently, beautifully, harking back to late 19th Century music, but after little more than a minute, the music adds some intensity.  It never really sounds harsh or modernist as its mid-50s vintage might imply.  In that it's sort of like Martinu, but it sounds nothing like Martinu.  The Adagio ends up upping the beauty and the tension, somehow, and the concluding Vivace adds more energy and pulsating energy alternating with playful, light music that again harks back to the 19th Century, or maybe the early 20th.  One may detect whiffs of Korngold, too, which is no bad thing.  All things considered, it works rather well.

Of course the Panocha deliver the goods, and sound is better than expected given vintage and source.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 23, 2021, 06:15:34 AM
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A second disc of chamber music by Jia Daqun.  The disc opens with Flavor of Bashu for two violins, piano, and percussion.  A blend of western and eastern styles and sounds, one can easily think of it as an even more eastern Bartok, with hints of John Cage thrown in.  That doesn't really do justice as a description, but it's decent shorthand, and fans of dissonant music and some aggressive percussion may very well dig this piece a whole lot.  Counterpoint of Times switches over to a wind ensemble written using the golden section ratio in parts.  The bright piece sounds more vaguely avant-garde French than Chinese, but that's OK, too.  It lacks the impact of the opener, but it ain't too shabby.  Next is the String Quartet from 1988, and it offers a basically perfect merging of Chinese folk tune inspired music and avant garde string quartet writing one hears more commonly.  You get the night music pizzicato thing and glissandi, and so forth, but here it emerges even more colorful and varied than is often the case.  Muy bueno.  The disc closes out with the brief The Prospect of Coloured Desert, for Violin, Cello, Percussion, and both the Sheng and Pipa, so this work has the most decidedly eastern sound to it.  Jia, does not fall back on straight up folk music at all.  Instead, the instruments play fully contemporary, abstract music, like an up to date Bartok.  The more distinctive and unusual sound makes it stand out more than the other works, which says something.  Overall, the music sounds most compelling and makes the listener want to seek out yet more works by the composer. 

Tip-top playing.  Tip-top sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 31, 2021, 06:10:59 AM
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Picked up on a lark when spotted on closeout, this disc ended up far surpassing any reasonable or unreasonable expectations I may have held.  The pleasant surprises start with Korngold's Unvergänglichkeit.  Tuneful, yes, as expected.  Lush, kinda, yeah.  But more than that.  The theme of immortality sparked the composer to write music that presages Messiaen's later religiously themed good stuff.  Karl Goldmark offers good, (literally) old-fashioned German lied in the Schubert and Brahms tradition, never daring to tread an original path.  But that doesn't matter a whit since the songs works so darned well, melodic and unchallenging but unyieldingly inviting and lovely.  Cornelia Hübsch nails her part, singing with beauty and superb diction, with Charles Spencer tickling the ivories in a most becoming way.  Superb in every way.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 30, 2022, 06:57:25 AM
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When two of the best instrumentalists recording today put out a duo recording, especially when one is William Youn and the other is Nils Mönkemeyer, then it's only a matter of time before listening.  This recording, entitled Whispers, is devoted to the music of Konstantia Gourzi, and she also plays some percussion in some pieces and penned the brief intro.  The pieces are all inspired by nature and were written for Youn and Mönkemeyer specifically. 

The listener gets to hear tip-top shelf playing from two artists at the top of their game, and production values are high end as well.  The music does not quite work as well as I had hoped.  wind whispers for solo piano opens, and the overall mood is set.  A blend of minimalism and almost New Age inspired music has multiple beautiful parts, all but guaranteed with Youn playing, but doesn't really engage this listener.  The second piece, evening at the window II, for viola and percussion, leaves a similar impression.  With call of the bees, starting with a beefy piano ostinato underpinning some more gnarly but lovely viola playing, one gets to something more enjoyable, a bit closer to chamber music with oomph.  The back half of the recording, comprised of messages between trees, a love song, and melodies from the sea, inhabits a stylistically similar world as the first couple works, with the brief duo a love song the strongest piece.  While the earnestness of the project can plainly be heard, the recording as a whole does not match up to the best from either main artist.  Others may very well love Ms Gourzi's style, of course. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mirror Image on April 30, 2022, 07:10:33 AM
Why don't you just start a blog, Todd? Seems like that would be a better idea rather than take up GMG real estate.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2022, 07:35:49 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 30, 2022, 07:10:33 AM
Why don't you just start a blog, Todd? Seems like that would be a better idea rather than take up GMG real estate.
Wtf is this? These are substantive, descriptive posts about music most of us have not heard. They're some of the most valuable (and relevant) posts here. We have lots of "real estate" taken up by one-word posts, politics, TV, every topic under the sun (all of which is good), and when someone posts about music you want them to leave?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 07, 2022, 06:06:05 AM
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Brahms is basically the end of the road for me when it comes to piano concerto gigantism.  I love 'em and listen to 'em rather frequently.  There are a handful of other big beasts out there, like Henze's Second or, at the end of the concerto rainbow/nightmare, Feruccio Busoni's bloated monstrosity of interminable musical notes strung together in almost music.  (Henze was lucky to have a champion in Christoph Eschenbach, back when he tickled the ivories with the best of them, so the piece remains listenable for that reason.)  I wasn't really looking for a really, really long piano concerto, but then I found Kimmo Hakola's fifty-six minute monster for a few bucks, I figured it couldn't hurt, not really, to give it a shot.  I believe I've seen Hakola's name before, as he's part of the Finnish musical scene, and that this recording was made by Ondine ensured some spiffy sonics, so it seemed worth trying.

The concerto starts off with hints of Ravel's D Major, with growling low strings laying the foundation, but that's essentially the only similarity.  The work unfolds over nine movements, and it's a journey, and something of a chore to sit through.  It's from the clang-boom pastiche school of contemporary classical composition.  Alternatively, one could say it's an everything but the kitchen sink style work, with the kitchen sink being tunes.  Tunefulness is most definitely not needed to make a work successful, but it often doesn't hurt.  The work manages to flit from idea to idea, with homages to jazz and Bach and Rachmaninoff and Puccini and Harrison and Ligeti and Klezmer music and organ and almost everything else.  There are multiple assaults by percussion instruments, and passages of oodles of piano notes with no discernible purpose.  And it seems to more or less just unfold as one long, flowing wall of sound, like a piano concerto modelled on Coma by Guns N' Roses.  As an instrumental exercise, it does actually work well enough.  The pianist has a ton to do, and every section of the orchestra gets a workout.  All involved give their all; Hakola is lucky modern conservatories pump out grads who can play anything.

The disc also comes with the Sinfonietta from 1999, and it's more to my liking, and not just because it's only fourteen minutes long.  The string heavy sound, though percussion gets lots of love, is more accessible and nearly tuneful, albeit in a strident, pungent way.  It betrays influences of Lutoslawski and Bartok and various and sundry others, and it just kind of cruises along.  In many contexts, it would be the hard-hitting piece, but following a nearly hour long piano concerto, it's the light entertainment.

Fine playing and predictably fine sound for a disc I listen to maybe once more in my lifetime.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 14, 2022, 05:34:01 AM
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This disc marks the third appearance of Huang Ruo in the New Music Log thread.  The disc includes multiple, diverse works inspired by multiple artistic and cultural and historical influences, which the composer outlines in his own liner notes.  The works date from roughly 2000 through 2019, so some of the music is super fresh.

Shattered Steps opens the disc, and it starts with the composer himself singing a manufactured language in a Chinese style before segueing to a full-scale orchestra that adopts the overall pulse of the music as set forth by the singing and merging Chinese music, Aaron Copland, and movie soundtrack style music.  That sounds derivative, but it's not really derivative, as I've not heard anything quite like it.  The relentless forward drive and at times chaotic, cacophonous feel works rather well.  It's formless yet focused.  Nice.  Becoming Another, derived from a Chinese saying, combines rich strings and colorful percussion in a Strauss meets Streitenfeld kind of piece, with eastern sounds generously thrown in.  As with the opener, it kind of unfolds continuously throughout its modest length, though it sounds smoother and more continuous, thanks to the low strings.

Next come two excerpts from Ruo's opera An American Soldier, which sets the tragic tale of Private Danny Chen to music.  Mezzo Guang Yang sings two pieces as the soldier's mother, and it immediately calls to mind Britten, Berg, and Zimmermann in overall mien, though it sounds distinct from any of those.  The two pieces amount to only a short interlude and make at least this listener most interested in hearing the whole opera.  The disc turns back to orchestral music with Still/Motion.  Commissioned as a modern companion piece to The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, Ruo relies on Chinese Opera and Tang Dynasty court music as inspiration, as well as motives from The Butterfly Lovers and Emperor's Princess Flower.   While the eastern influences are obvious, the western tradition offers the overall structural and technical framework for the music.  It's incredibly cohesive, and marks one of the finest blendings of East meets West in my collection.  This melding of styles and Chinese influences continues in Two Pieces for Orchestra, the oldest piece on the disc.  Eastern influences sound less pronounced in the opening Fanfare, with (unabashedly) modernist style pervading, though it sounds much more noticeable in Announcement, including in this Chinese singing that the orchestral players offer up in the coda.

Finally, the disc closes out with Folk Songs for Orchestra.  The songs come from different portions of China, including, quite purposely, Xinjiang, in the closer The Girl from Da Ban City.  The pieces all fall into the folk-music inspired category, with no question whatever where the influences come from, even if western ears may not be familiar with the source material.  Ruo manages to orchestrate most successfully, evoking the appropriate feel from a modern orchestra using regular instrumentation.  It ends up a crowd pleasing closer for a concert and reinforces Ruo's formidable talent.

The disc is taken from a single concert by the Shanghai Philharmonic from October 2019.  Conductor Liang Zhang appears to have had plenty of prep time with the band because they put in some good work. 

A keeper.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on May 14, 2022, 10:35:34 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 30, 2022, 07:10:33 AM
Why don't you just start a blog, Todd? Seems like that would be a better idea rather than take up GMG real estate.
No No No No No. This is really valuable real Estate and goes to the core of this board.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 21, 2022, 06:46:07 AM
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Argentinian composer Graciela Jiménez gets the Naxos treatment with a disc comprised of five works for solo piano and one for piano and cello.  The disc displays a couple consistent traits.  First is poor sound quality.  The disc was recorded in 2017 and the composer acted as producer, so even if one accepts that there are practical considerations to achieving good sound quality (eg, available instruments and technicians), one must conclude she was satisfied with the sound quality.  The piano sounds ridiculously close, almost claustrophobically so, the dynamic range is blunted, the sound is compressed, and there is no edge, though one gets overdone lower register weight if that appeals.  The cello sounds marginally better, but the reverbless sound grates quickly.  The next trait is rhythmic flexibility and, at times, vitality.  At times, the music sounds dance influenced, and at other times it sounds very jazz influenced.  These traits hold whether the music is fast or slow.  The music generally sounds nice enough, and this is about as far from gnarly, academic or avant garde style contemporary classical as one can get. 

Cellist Marinis Villafañe and pianist Dora De Marinis do fine work, though I would rather have heard the composer play piano since she is apparently an accomplished pianist.  No matter, ultimately the sound quality is just not up to snuff and makes this disc not pleasant enough to listen to.  It may get one more listen in my life.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 10:36:23 AM
Quote from: Todd on May 21, 2022, 06:46:07 AM
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Argentinian composer Graciela Jiménez

How a contemporary Argentinian composer could be construed as being a "Classics from Spain" is beyond my power of comprehension.  ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Mapman on May 21, 2022, 10:54:27 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 10:36:23 AM
How a contemporary Argentinian composer could be construed as being a "Classics from Spain" is beyond my power of comprehension.  ;D

According to Naxos (https://www.naxos.com/person/Graciela_Jim%C3%A9nez/321108.htm (https://www.naxos.com/person/Graciela_Jim%C3%A9nez/321108.htm)), the composer now lives and works in Spain.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: ritter on May 21, 2022, 10:55:30 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 10:36:23 AM
How a contemporary Argentinian composer could be construed as being a "Classics from Spain" is beyond my power of comprehension.  ;D
Because she's been living in Spain for more than 30 years....
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2022, 11:03:25 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 21, 2022, 10:55:30 AM
Because she's been living in Spain for more than 30 years....

Ah, okay, thanks. Still, this explains only the "from Spain "half of it. If she's a Classic, then what is Arriaga or Sor?   ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 28, 2022, 04:12:13 AM
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Yet another disc of new music, for me, from Mr Heymann's company.  Deqing Wen is a Chinese born Swiss composer, and another artist who deftly blends disparate influences and cultures in his artistic corpus.

The recording opens with Shanghai Prelude, which is really a Cello Concerto, and while it purports to mix baroque and Chinese music, it sounds more varied than that.  Sure, there's the baroque(ish) form, and some folk music, but one hears Strauss and Stravinsky and Balada and a hodge-podge of post-war neo-isms.  The music sounds ridiculously well blended together unfolds in a continuous almost twenty-minute stream.  It demands some gnarly playing from the soloist - and band - and it almost seems to end just as it's getting good.  I mean, like, yeah.  Nicolas Altstaedt must perform and record this piece.  The high register playing and virtuosic writing also mandates that Sung Won Yang take up the work, as well. 

The Fantasia of Peony Pavilion, based on the work by Ming Dynasty writer Tang Xianzu.  One can hear folk traits, but here expressionistic opera and post-war, aggressive orchestral music dominate proceedings.  The energy, texture, and vitality make it pop.  Where has it been all my life, or at least since 2013?  The oldest work on the disc, Variation of a Rose, from 2000, is based on a Xinjiang folk song named A lovable Rose.  The composer was inspired by personal events to write a piece that very much sounds like a more dissonant, tense, updated version of Barber's Adagio for Strings.  Nice.

Inspiration moves from east to west with Nostalgia, a set of variations based on a French folksong.  The same fluid, continuous musical unfolding from prior works occurs here, while the music sounds less intense and dense.  It still packs a lot into a brief nine-minute span, with ample color and elegance and refined bite.  The disc closes with Love Song and River Chant, an orchestration of a set of piano variations.  Based on folk songs again, only the percussion sort of give away the far eastern influences, because it sounds more Slavic or middle eastern, and then filtered through dense, very western sounding writing with hints of known names (Strauss again, for instance).

Overall, another fine collection of works deserving more performances (the opening piece, especially), and further exploration of the composer's work.

Superb playing and sound from all involved. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 04, 2022, 06:32:11 AM
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An all-New Zealand affair.   Composer, soloist, conductor, and ensembles all hail from the country.  The Lilburn Trust underwrote the recording, just like it funded one of Michael Houstoun's LvB sonata cycles.  Yep, this here's a fully southern hemisphere deal.

Geographical niceties aside, it's time for the music.  For no reason at all, I expected something melodic and tuneful, like an updated Vaughn Williams.  Nope.  The seven movement Piano Concerto that opens the disc starts off in full boom-clang mode, which initially made me think of Hakola's chore of work to sit through, but fortunately the work is more properly scaled and much more satisfying.  The first movement is a Funeral March – it was written in memory of a deceased friend – and that material serves as the inspiration for the rest of the work.  Sure enough, the faster music in the form of two scherzo and a Presto sound similar, but the atmospheric magic happens in the two adagios and the middle Addolorato.  Sparser, quieter, sometimes trailing off into near silence and sometimes peppered with some night music, it compels. 

The second work, I passaggi dell'anima, or Landscapes of the Soul, gives the disc its title and explores links between painting, music, and landscapes, and was undertaken in conjunction with the painter Maurizio Bottarelli.  Whether one agrees that the work successfully links the subjects at hand or not, the music does sound string-dominated, close to tuneful at times, or least aurally pleasing to this listener, and it does mix accessible contemporary compositional style, nicely varied rhythm, and as promised by the composer, evolving motifs.  This sound like precisely the type of work that orchestras ought to program in well balanced concerts.  Most enjoyable.

The disc closes with a fairly rare type of concerto, a concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.  (The not properly edited liner notes refer to a Sting Quartet in one instance.)  Martinu wrote one, and I have a recording of that, but I think that's it for this type of concerto in my collection.  The New Zealand String Quartet take the four soloist parts, and the eleven section, single movement piece unfolds in a fragmented fast-slow-fast structure.  Unabashedly contemporary but also eminently listenable, one must wait for about five minutes before hearing the full string quartet play together, but one is treated to some concerto like playing from the individual members before that, like brief musical intros.  Some dark brass and string playing from the band add some nice variety, like modern Wagner as filtered through the Second Viennese School, with some Schnittke adding further color.  Weighty, properly proportioned, and taking just the right amount of time, the piece works splendidly. 

Everything here is up to modern standard, including sonics, and artists all do excellent work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 11, 2022, 06:18:39 AM
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As with Mr Ruo, this marks the third appearance of Jia Daqun in this thread.  This time the disc is devoted to percussion music.  Generally, I do not listen to a lot of percussion music since it lacks a lot of what I usually want.  But I was game.

Generally speaking, rhythm, clarity, timing, and precise execution rule in percussion music, and so it goes here – for the most part.  The opening piece Pole is an exercise in rhythm and punchiness.  Same for the opening movement of The Song Without Words.  But come the second movement, Arias of Gong and Vibraphone, one gets treated to color and harmony not necessarily anticipated going in.  The final movement, Sonority of Drums is back to rhythm and punch.  The disc closes with Sound Games, for five Chinese percussion players.  This maintains the "generic" percussion music vibe with some vocalization tossed in.

The biggest surprise comes in the third work, the nine-ish minute Prologue of Drums, scored for Chinese drums and Chinese winds.  It's the winds that make all the difference.  The way Jia combines them really evokes some Wow! moments.  Sometimes they sound like a chamber organ.  Sometimes they sound like modern electronic instruments.  Sometimes they sound eerie and ethereal.  At all times they offer wonderful contrast with the percussion instruments.  The work also has some vocal contributions of the seemingly random shouting variety, which I have heard more than a few times in various works.  Generally, I am not a huge fan of this, but it works better than normal here.  It blends in with the rhythmic elements and reinforces them nicely.  It's an unusual work, but it offers something very new.  (Okay, it's from 1994, so it's not new.)  It's definitely the highlight of the disc.

Mr Jia's hit rate in his three discs is quite high, and I should very much like to hear what he can do with a full orchestra and with some solo instruments.  Maybe he can write more for his daughter, including a concerto.  That would be nifty.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 18, 2022, 04:37:52 AM
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Until I stumbled upon this closeout disc, I do not think I had ever even seen the name Douglas Weiland.  Born in 1954, the British composer still cranks out works, with these two dating from 2011 and 2012. 

The disc opens with the Fifth Quartet, and it can best be described as classical era music with some light modernist touches thrown in.  The first violinist of The Melbourne Quartet, Will Hennessy, writes the notes, and he cites the biggest of big names – Haydn, Beethoven, Bartok (more of the first two quartets), Schubert – and it's easy to hear why.  While the music most certainly sounds more dissonant than all but Bartok wrote, there is nonetheless a great deal of beauty.  The opening movement does sound lovely, but man, the Siciliana second movement sounds like a Haydn-Schubert mashup, with some Korngold tossed in, all delivered with some gently spicy dissonance.  The concluding two part final movement maintains the gentle modernity soundworld to start, but the Presto section adds some verve, and even a little bite, but it sounds light rather than weighed down.  Weiland crafts easily accessible contemporary music in this quartet.

The disc then moves back to the Fourth Quartet, which comes in at almost thirty-eight minutes spread across five movements, and sounds more modernist, with Bartok the most obvious influence for much of the work.  Weiland does not merely imitate, but some of the techniques sound very close to the Hungarian's work.  Weiland does maintain a dissonant yet attractive sound, and with the ensemble layering on the vibrato in places, one also gets the sense of some hints of Britten tossed in the mix.  The Scherzo Germanesque has hints of Schubert, but also Zemlinksy and Schoenberg.  After that, the brief Intermezzo sounds relaxed and quite beautiful, and the concluding Allegro molto has some verve and edge, but sounds more relaxed than the opening movements.  An altogether satisfying and varied work that does not sound as long as its timing suggests. 

The Melbourne Quartet play the works magnificently and sound quality is basically SOTA. 

A treat of a disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 18, 2022, 10:14:50 AM
Quote from: philoctetes on June 18, 2022, 09:37:50 AMJust wanted to comment so this thread doesn't seem like a void (I am confident that Todd doesn't view it as such)


I see the view count, and even discounting bots, it is clear someone reads the posts.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: premont on June 18, 2022, 02:40:18 PM
Quote from: Todd on June 18, 2022, 10:14:50 AM

I see the view count, and even discounting bots, it is clear someone reads the posts.

Yes, I'm one of the regular readers.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on June 18, 2022, 03:11:09 PM
I read every post when it's new. I've tried to contribute occasionally to keep notes on something I've never heard before, but not often enough. (EDIT: in fact, not in the last three years at all.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: The new erato on June 21, 2022, 07:28:09 PM
Quote from: (: premont :) on June 18, 2022, 02:40:18 PM
Yes, I'm one of the regular readers.
Me as well.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on June 25, 2022, 05:38:45 AM
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Here's something new, a blending of South American and Japanese musical influences, along with the centuries-old classical tradition.  Esteban Benzecry is an entirely new name to me, so this whole disc is like a miniature world of musical discovery.  Since I went the download route, I did not end up with the liner notes, but that never distracts from just listening.

The recording opens with the nearly half-hour Violin Concerto, and it sounds dandy.  Strangely, one name that comes to mind listening is the rather non-South American, non-Japanese Einojuhani Rautavaara, though in a general sense in how orchestral colors are drawn out.  One needn't strain to hear rhythmic elements found in the works of some other South American composers, and one also needn't strain to hear both the virtuosity of violinist Xavier Inchausti and the knotty yet accessible writing in the cadenza.  The short second movement, Évocation d'un tango, is a languid and freely unfolding piece that sounds exotic and familiar, dissonant yet gorgeous, and truly captivating.  The final movement means to evoke pre-Columbian South American traditions, and as such it ends up having hints of Revueltas in it, either by chance or on purpose.  It definitely does not sound merely derivative.  The low brass and the percussion are used to superb effect in a slow-motion movement of no little drama and impact, with the violin floating above the band.

The second work is a five song, well, Song Cycle.  It mixes poems by four different female poets, including the composer's wife Fernanda Victoria Caputi Monteverde, Nobel prize winner Gabriela Mistral, and ends with a setting of ancient text by the Quecha people.  The first song has a very Queen of the Night style opening, and then each piece mixes the closely recorded soloist delivering somewhat cool but precise singing, backed by colorful and blended orchestral music, with hints of the piano version in the end of the third song.  It was impossible not to be reminded in a vague way of Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs, but this work does not match that qualitatively, and as good as Ayako Tanaka is, she cannot match the great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, but the works shoot for different things, and this definitely works very well indeed.

The disc ends with the Clarinet Concerto, which launches with almost two minutes of just the clarinetist playing before the strings enter.  The soloist, like in the Violin Concerto, seems to float above the orchestra, due partly to the recording, but also due to what sounds like shifting musical pictures in quasi-programmatic music.  It works best when the orchestral music sounds quiet and continuously shifting, but in the percussion heavy stretches of Danzas volcánicas it also works well.  One also gets treated to a blending of the folk and the academic in Baguala enigmática, which displays its folk origins but has some hints of Wagner (or something similar), and then in the concluding movement one hears something reminiscent of Leonarda Balada in its blending of old and new, and one also gets another nice and very easy listening cadenza in the final movement.  Perhaps the piece does not equal the Violin Concerto for overall impact, but it offers much to the listener.

This Naxos disc immediately brings to mind two other similar blockbusters from the label: Vivian Fung's Dreamscapes and Stephen Hartke's Clarinet Concerto.  Here's contemporary music that can hold every second of the listener's attention.

All sorts of wow.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on June 29, 2022, 11:34:48 AM
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Carl Vine is best known by me as a composer of piano music, especially the one monster piano sonata which has become a competition favorite of young virtuosos worldwide, and which has even been adopted by eminences like Sergei Babayan. This new Australian release offers an opportunity to meet Vine the orchestral composer, in works written since 2003.

The album starts with V, a 5-minute fanfare concert opener which Vine says came from his longtime wish to give a piece a one-letter name. He then says that he wants to give it an equally short liner note, and stops describing it. All I'll say is that it perfectly fulfills the fanfare opener brief, sounding like a rambunctious Aussie cousin of Shostakovich's Festive Overture.

The Concerto for Orchestra brings us back to the Carl Vine I know from the piano sonatas: energetic, fierce, virtuosic, wild, thrilling, fun. It's an unusually literalist approach to the idea of an orchestral concerto, as everyone takes turns having big solo moments. The drums' solo around 2' is especially fun. Instruments converse in duets and trios, bounce off each other in fun ways, and in general, cool stuff happens. The bassoons get to duet with the contrabassoon. It's an attractive, engaging, very fun 20 minute arc that succeeds totally in its goal of letting all the orchestral players show off.

The MicroSymphony (Symphony No. 1) is very very similar, but with less overt soloistic showing off. The bass drum helps to pound out an opening motto theme which animates the rest of the piece. It's just 12 minutes long - the length of some Röntgen symphonies - but full of variety. It really feels like a shorter version of the Concerto for Orchestra (and therefore might be preferred). It would make an exciting concert opener, at least as exciting as V, despite the surprise quiet ending.

The title piece, The Enchanted Loom, is subtitled Symphony No. 8 (wow, I've been missing out) and is about 25 minutes long. The title is a metaphor from the 1930s, describing the function of the human brain. Each of the five short movements is supposed to depict a different brain function - creativity, euphoria, trying to imagine infinity, etc. Whether those images are successful is debatable, although the euphoria movement is pretty intoxicating ("trying to imagine infinity," it turns out, sounds like Debussy gamelan music but in the desert). In general, this is an optimistic, extroverted contemporary-tonal piece which will sound familiar to people who listen to Aaron Jay Kernis, Jonathan Leshnoff, Stephen Albert, or Jennifer Higdon. It's not especially deep, challenging, structured, or memorable, but it is varied, colorful, and would be interesting enough to hold my attention for 25 minutes in the concert hall. Vine is an immensely colorful orchestrator, although Andrew Davis smartly buries some of the unneeded extra percussion in the balance.

All in all, a pleasant album with a lot of smartly-scored music. This is crowd-pleasing stuff, meant in both a complimentary and a slightly derogatory sense - what tunes do show up are sometimes a little bit easy-listeningy.

I have to get to the store; tomorrow or another day I'll listen to the 17-minute bonus track (that's a long bonus), Smith's Alchemy for strings.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on June 30, 2022, 12:00:14 PM
Update on the last track from that one: Smith's Alchemy turned out to be the most "modern," "tough" piece, less spangly and contemporary-chic than the rest. Still, it kind of follows along in the modern English string tradition of guys like Walton, Tippett, etc. Not bad.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 02, 2022, 05:30:15 AM
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Now here's something a bit different, but also a bit familiar.  Alexander Kastalsky was a Russian composer who studied under Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, worked with Rachmaninoff, and specialized on religious music for most of his career, though he changed course after the revolution.  This work, Requiem for Fallen Brothers, was written in response to the Great War.  Writing religious works in response to war is not new and was not at the time, but the style and approach with this work is a bit different.  It's a gigantic musical collage that blends musical styles from the allies, so one is treated to Russian, English, French, Italian, Greek, Serbian, American, and of course Latin sources and inspirations.  It's like Mahler, Ives, and Scriabin in their grandest styles all mushed together and written in a most serious way.  The work also went through several versions, with this recording the first of the complete, final version.

The work opens with Russian music and style, and the name Mussorgsky pops into one's consciousness immediately, but Kastalsky ends up weaving in multiple musical inspirations, including Orthodox sources, the familiar and ancient Dies Irae, which goes through nifty variations, and various folk and religious melodies, including the Rock of Ages, which gets paired with the funeral march from Chopin's Second Sonata.  Some of the music sounds gorgeous, filled with luscious melodies, while some sounds pastoral and gentle.  Indeed, this sprawling work for massive forces almost always emphasizes beauty and gentleness, sort of coming off as a scaled-up Faure Requiem.  Upon first reading about the work, it came off as a bit kitschy, but it is not.  It is as earnest a piece of religious or religiously inspired music as one can imagine.  That earnestness, combined with the immense beauty, ends up producing something more effective and affecting than a written description may indicate.

That this version of the work has a champion in Leonard Slatkin is fortuitous.  He was able to put together the massive forces needed and have it recorded on a single day in DC.  The sound is distant and resonant, but then that is what is needed for something of this scale.  The whole thing comes off better than anticipated, and one hopes that others may take it up in the future. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on July 08, 2022, 09:52:04 AM
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Spicy, folksy, dissonant, tuneful. If you created a chart of Brazilian music from the knottier works of Claudio Santoro and late-period Camargo Guarnieri to the more simplistic populist fare of "Batuque," Francesco Mignone, or early-period Camargo Guarnieri, then César Guerra-Peixe would be all over the chart from middle-left to middle-right. This is just a first listen, and I'm not yet sure if any of it will hold up to repeated listens as well as some of those other composers. I also don't think the craftsmanship gets to as deep of a level of orchestral genius as Mignone or Guarnieri show. But the mix is absolutely charming.

Folk influences are more important than European ones on this album. Although the orchestration and harmonies show the author was trained in Euro musical styles (and was part of a clique which introduced serialism to Brazil, although he quickly turned against it), the Suites especially are based almost entirely on folk idioms and dances. The "Round of Friends" is a short suite honoring his woodwind soloist friends by giving each of them a solo that reflects that individual friend's personality. (The bassoon's solo is called The Grumpy One.)

This will absolutely get repeat listens from me, but only when I want to have a little bit of fun. Perfect Friday afternoon disc. Oh, look, it's Friday afternoon!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 09, 2022, 05:47:34 AM
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Last year, I finally stumbled upon some chamber music written by Krzysztof Meyer.  It was revelatory, in that it revealed to me a composer who writes chamber music every bit as good qualitatively as some core rep greats.  The music sounds dense, knotty, gnarly, uncompromising, and brilliant.  Perusing offerings at various recording vendors, I found other available recordings, but I waited until now to go for something else.  That something else is the composer's set of thirteen string quartets since very often composers write some of their best music for that ensemble.  With a Naxos sale, I scooped up the set for the princely sum of $14 and change.  Even if the quartets ended up sounding lousy, something I thought essentially impossible, I'd be out of pocket next to nothing.  If they met expectations, well, now we're talkin'.

Listening proceeded in volume order, so quartets 5, 6, and 8 came first.  The Fifth starts off with an opening movement where the cello plays almost every note, and the music sounds dark and brooding and unforgiving, like Shostakovich minus the laughs.  Things get more intense from there.  The second movement is a nervous, grueling piece of music, like an Allan Pettersson symphony but in string quartet, but good.  Meyer never lets up on the tension in the faster second and slower third movements, though maybe he does just a bit in the fourth movement, which ends with heaping helpings of solo cello, but the dark but not overwhelmingly heavy fifth movement returns to unremitting seriousness.  This is one heckuva of a way for an ensemble to launch a quartet series.  The Sixth sounds lighter in mood to start, but its dissonance and reliance on pizzicato and Sul ponticello lend it a modern sound, which remains whether music is fast or slow, and Meyer returns to unremittingly serious music in the concluding Lento.  The Eighth can hardly be considered light, and the somewhat tart, slow, and serious opening gives way to intense and unwaveringly serious sounding music.  It just never lets up for its duration, but it never sounds anything less than absolutely compelling, forcing the listener to await every note with something approaching aural avarice.  A monumentally great opening to the cycle. 

Volume two includes the Ninth, Eleventh, and Twelfth quartets.  The Ninth, closely and airlessly recorded, which aids the work, starts off with high voltage stridency which doesn't let up for the duration of the movement, and then the second wallops the listener's ear with some superb harmonic invention that is at once hard to hear and impossible not to devour as greedily as possible, and the third dances around with all those pizzacati.  The work continues along on a similar trajectory, returning to high voltage playing in the final, fifth movement, revisiting styles from earlier and revealing influences, but sounding distinct from them.  The single movement Eleventh follows, and the dark, intense work fills a void, a void of music for those who think some of DSCH's quartets sound too lightweight.  The tension never really yields in this work, yet it does not wear the listener down.  The massive Twelfth goes on and on, taking the listener on a ride, with much debt to DSCH, on whom the Meyer is a published expert.  The movement names end up properly descriptive as well.  The Vivo perks up, with nifty tremolos, and the Dolente expresses sorrow as well as any quartet has, and the Prestissimo is truly prestissimo.  The whole thing works and hides its duration as the listener gets absorbed in every musical moment.

The third volume opens with the Seventh Quartet, and it continues on with the supremely high quality from the first note.  The single movement work sounds like a discombobulated, almost unsteady musical representation of a troubled dream, though not quite a nightmare.  The individual instruments at times sound uncannily distinct, and though they are playing the same piece, it sounds purposely disoriented, and the tension never lets up – fast, slow, those are just variations in how quickly the tension assaults the ears.  Yet it never sounds too harsh or oppressive.  Neat.  The slow Lento that opens the first movement of the Tenth Quartet sounds like late DSCH in its desolation, but it transitions to an Allegro assai that switches to biting playing, and then it alternates styles seamlessly.  The long, slow second movement likewise alternates between slow and slower music, yet it maintains tension such that its over fourteen-minute length doesn't matter, and it does so while not feeling quick or feeling long – it feels like fourteen minutes well spent.  The brief Scherzo starts off plucky and sort of playful, but Meyer ratchets up the intensity significantly in the middle section, and then in the long final movement, the music veers between melancholy and tense and fast and intense playing, again with transitions so seamless and old Lou would have approved.  A big, beefy, weighty work.  The disc closes with the composer's Thirteenth.  The five-movement quartet played attacca has four descriptive titles for the first four movements (Calmo, Impetuoso, Appassionato, Feroce) and then a perpetuum mobile Prestissimo closer.  The second and fourth movements are brief, while the other three are more standard.  It's almost like a valedictory work, with every compositional device crammed in, in perfect proportion, in each movement, and at times it takes on an almost neo-romantic feel, in an uncompromisingly modern way.  It's a peach. 

The cycle ends with the first four quartets, and here one can hear a younger composer at once expressing music in his own, unabashedly modernist voice, and some influences, including a bit of Bartok, to name one, which includes some near quotations.  (Might as well borrow from the best.)  The first two almost sound like apprentice works, but an apprentice destined to greatness, as it takes only until the single movement Second for the composer to hit his stride, where the intensity factor gets ratcheted up with some fierce unison writing and searing tension.  The Third and Fourth sound like qualitative steps closer to the quartets that follow, with transitions nearly as seamless, scale just about as large, harmonies just about as dense, and every compositional technique included in just about as satisfying a manner.  I do not want to make these seem like lesser works, because they are humdingers and hold the listener's attention more than almost any quartets, it's just they the quartets that follow offer even more.

For these recordings, I had high expectations going in.  They got smashed.  For the first time in a long time, probably since I discovered the music of Cristóbal de Morales, listening to these works provided experiences where I listened as excitedly and intensely as I did when I first started discovering core rep classics.  I cannot think of a body of post-war quartets that sound better, more significant, more immediately impactful than these, and Meyer's achievements immediately rival the works of the Holy Tetrarchy.  This is great music; these are masterpieces.  For real.  Clearly, I need to explore more of the composer's music.  He needs to have some Big Name conductors, artists, and ensembles take up his cause.  In the meantime, in the cycle, the Wieniawski String Quartet delivers the goods at a world class level and Naxos delivers up to snuff if not always SOTA sound.  I need to see about getting the Wilanów Quartet's recordings. 

One of my purchases of the century. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: André on July 13, 2022, 05:30:01 AM
The Wilanows are hard to find, but just as good as the Szymanowskis. Meyer is easily my favourite modern Polish composer.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 16, 2022, 05:54:56 AM
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After decades of collecting, this recording marks my first purchase of a recording containing only works of Mario Catelnuovo-Tedesco.  I have a few of his works sprinkled across compilations, but not these.  I bought this disc for the composer only secondarily.  The main reason I bought it was to hear something new from Tianwa Yang, and to hear Pieter-Jelle de Boer's conducting.  The single disc of de Boer playing Rachmaninoff in Etcetera's complete set of the composer's piano music was one of the highlights, along with that from Nino Gvetadze, which was the reason I bought that set.

As a showcase for Ms Yang's fiddling, this disc works very well.  Yang belongs to that elite group of modern young-ish artists who can play anything without ever seeming to have any difficulties.  Her tone is unfailingly lovely, she plays perfect highs, perfect lows, and everything in between, with perfectly executed vibrato of just the right amount.  She presents the same sense of ease that Hilary Hahn does.  Seriously, these neo-romantic works seem to offer no challenge to her, and in return she delivers just about as good playing as can be imagined.  Given her Brahms Concerto and Rihm chamber music, this does not surprise.  The conducting of de Boer sounds entirely satisfactory, with the conductor acting as second fiddle and letting the soloist shine.  I'd like to hear him conduct some core rep.

As to the music itself, well, the Concerto Italiano sounds lush and movie soundtrack-y, with lovely tunes and nifty orchestration.  One might almost swear that the Violin Concerto No 2 is a movie soundtrack from the height of the 50s, with the violin the musical stand-in for Charleton Heston from some movie that was never released due to contractual issues.  The music often achieves a downright Korngoldian level of lushness, and in addition to the supreme opulence, the solo writing sounds technically accomplished and satisfying to listen to.  Still, this does not stand with the great violin concertos of the last century. 

These are not great works, and I will not listen to them frequently, but I will listen to them again to hear top notch violin playing for its own sake.

The only downside to the recording is sound quality, which is a bit opaque, but otherwise fine.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 23, 2022, 06:16:32 AM
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The word dreadful does not begin to describe this disc of non-music.  Forty-five minutes of electronic noise, starting off with over six minutes of tweeter-only exercises, it slowly and excruciatingly unfolds, grating and annoying for the duration.  Apparently, it was meant to be Xenakis' equivalent of a Gesamtkunstwerk, merging in performance with architecture, mirrors, texts – and laser beams.  And laser beams!  This is as good an example of (quasi-) intellectualism as art run amok (or maybe 'a muck') as exists.  This is so bad it couldn't even be included in a Rob Zombie movie.  Rather than stream this, I paid $1.49 for the download.  I feel like requesting a $17.99 refund. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on July 30, 2022, 05:40:18 AM
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New to me Stephan Krehl was a music teacher of no little renown in his day, ultimately ending up as Rector of the Leipzig Conservatory, a position first held by Mendelssohn.  He also wrote several influential textbooks.  Born in the same decade as Mahler and Strauss and Debussy, his music, or at least the music here, has none of their forward-looking or revolutionary qualities.  The two works included are the very definition of backward-looking musical conservatism, proudly and competently bringing forward the music of the German romantics.  The opening Op 17 String Quartet sounds like a well-crafted melding of Brahms, one of Krehl's teachers, and Mendelssohn, with the latter most evident in the third movement Vivace.  It does not rise to the level of the works of the greats, and it sounds sort of academic in that some writing seems to be illustrating exactly what an aspiring composer might do to write a successful string quartet.  It sounds relaxed and tuneful and beautiful and unchallenging.  The Op 19 Clarinet Quintet, not too surprisingly, sounds very similar.   

While the music contained in the recording will not receive too many airings around here, I would not be averse to hearing more from the artists involved.  The all-female Larchmere String Quaret, out of Indiana – Evansville, not Bloomington – play splendidly, and two of the members co-wrote the liner notes.  As recorded, they produce a most pleasing, warm sound that would work well with Szymanowski or Debussy or early Schoenberg, and Wonkak Kim, born in Korea but now hailing from Tennessee, can certainly play the clarinet well.  The Larchmere have hustle as they used a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the recording, and in using the performance hall at the University of Evansville, they chose a fine sounding venue.  Perhaps they can go that route again. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on August 02, 2022, 12:54:04 PM
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I've done a lot of GMG things over the years. I've met almost a dozen GMGers in person. I've been to concerts, collected CDs based on GMGer recommendations, hosted blind listening games, gotten in flame wars.

But there was one thing I never did. An initiation ceremony, uncompleted.

I've never listened to Hans Rott's notorious, GMG cult favorite symphony "No. 1." (Haven't heard anyone mention No. 2, although Wikipedia says it's just a sketch.)

Well, that ends today. Let's see what all the fuss is about.

First impression, just halfway through the first movement: I thought people said this was popular because it foreshadowed Mahler. What I'm hearing here is imitation of Bruckner. He's got the repetitive tics, brass writing, expansive orchestral palette (I hear the contrabassoon at like 5:20), trumpet calls, etc. It sounds less forward-looking than I was expecting, and more like a secular Bruckner or a bloated Raff.

Second impression, in the slow movement: Rott's main weakness here is his melodic material. It's all "feel-good," with simple emotional manipulation harmonies. The tunes sound like Christmas carols. He's constantly stretching for high notes. And although it was reasonably subtle in the first movement, the fact that the slow movement is pretty much full of triangle parts...must have been a symptom of his mental illness.  ;D Toward the end of this movement, the Frankfurt timpanist has a great time pounding away, and then the trumpets come in with a recap of the...oh wait...now I get it...this does sound like the trumpets recapping the main melody at the end of the slow movement in Mahler 3! And then the triangle comes in at the end like Will Ferrell holding a cowbell hahahaha what a joke.

Scherzo: this sounds like the scherzo to Mahler's First until the last bar of the main melody, when we hit another of those trite "easy listening" cop-out phrases. The way the melody ends, and the way the counter melody dances along (with triangle) - it's too sweet. If Mahler is like dropping a shot of schnapps into a pint of beer, these Rott melodies are like making an ice cream sundae. The triangle is a real problem here again - it makes the waltz sections sound like carnival rides. I was wondering why the scherzo was so long, but it's because there's an extensive quote from the slow movement.

Finale: Okay, the middle two movements were quite un-Brucknerian, but now we are back in Brucknerland. The slow introduction, with its mysterious horn calls and wind solos, made me check how many symphonies Bruckner had written at this time - he was done with 5, though it hadn't been performed; perhaps Rott, as his organ student, got to see parts of it. Around 5:00, the massed French horns do bring to mind moments in Mahler 2 and 3.

Structurally, I don't understand this movement at all. There's the long slow introduction, then some kind of random faster episodes, then at 8:30 there is a Grand Finale Theme stolen straight from Brahms' First. It reminds me a little bit of the triumphal marches in George Lloyd's Fourth Symphony, which succeed each other in an insane cavalcade of successive emotional climaxes. Only this theme has a lot more triangle. The big climax and sudden key change at 16:25 or so do sound more like Mahler than Brahms.

At risk of annoying some people...
This is a very youthful symphony. A stereotype that older people have about younger people is that younger people are always experiencing emotions like joy and heartbreak for the first time, and they're completely bowled over by the impact of all those emotions and feel them more strongly than experienced people do. It's a total cliché but you can see it depicted in things like Romeo & Juliet or an Austen novel (both written by an older, wiser, gently kidding author). Hans Rott's symphony is a total expression of that youthful emotional excitement, by somebody living in it. Today, he'd be a YouTuber talking about his emotions or an indie songwriter singing break-up ballads in bars. Honestly, I should have listened to this at age 18; it would have spoken to me much more strongly then. It's like a musical equivalent to The Catcher in the Rye.

Rott pushes all the emotional buttons, hard and fast. The biggest contrast with Bruckner, for example, is that Rott doesn't want to spend loads of time with the buildup. He wants to go straight to the payoff. Even the first movement's first theme feels like an emotional landing place, rather than a taking-off. The biggest contrast with Mahler is probably the melodic simplicity.

So, is it good?

I see both sides. The jury which looked through the first movement and thought that it was trash (except Bruckner, who liked it) had a point. It's trite, simplistic music. But Rott's death, mentally ill beyond repair at age 25, was still tragic. Some day, if he really followed Bruckner's example, he was going to grow out of this and revise the symphony 7821 times. And at the end of that revision, maybe there was a good piece to come out at the end. It's easy to see a mentally normal Rott growing older, gaining experience, and using the obvious skills and obvious influences to put together a really epic symphony. There are a lot of individual moments in this one that are really great! The Frankfurt Radio Symphony plays the heck out of it - truly an outstanding performance.

But at the end of it, I feel like I've watched a Hollywood movie that's made up of nothing but emotional climaxes. Like if you watched 53 straight minutes of lovers being reunited and loyal dogs rescuing kids and heroes sacrificing themselves for noble causes, without watching any of the lovers getting separated or kids falling down wells or noble causes being betrayed first. To watch the full movie, with the emotional struggle before the payoff...well, you have to go to Bruckner or Mahler.

And god...that triangle  ;D ;D ;D ;D you guys have talked about how much triangle there is in this symphony for 16 years now, and STILL I was not prepared for how much triangle there is. Wow.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 02, 2022, 02:12:30 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 02, 2022, 12:54:04 PMSo, is it good?

Not particularly.  I detected a good bit of Wagner as well when I covered this a decade ago - https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,31.msg638371.html#msg638371

I never did get around to listening to it two more times.  Maybe I should revisit it.  Later.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on August 03, 2022, 12:22:25 AM
I think some conductors edited the triangle part and damped it down; I am pretty sure the very first? recording ony Hyperion with a US university orchestra did this when the symphony became a dark horse recommendation in the early 1990s?

It has been a bit overhyped in the 25-30 years since having become better known through recordings but in addition to stemming from a 20-22 year old composer, one should also consider that it is contemporary with Brahms 2nd and Bruckner's 5th. For me, the scherzo certainly sounds more like between Bruckner and Mahler than like a poor copy of Bruckner. The rest is rather uneven and I also think it is much closer to Bruckner than to Mahler. (And as mentioned elsewhere, I think "Das klagende Lied" shows that the young Mahler didn't need Rott as an inspiration.)

However, there was also a Volume of the German musicological journal "Musik-Konzepte" praising Rott in 1999. This is a journal originally launched by two Darmstadt-avantgardist, far leftist (and gay couple) Heinz Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn (who finished Schoenberg's chamber version of LvdE). I am not sure how much these original editors were still involved at the time of the Rott volume but they are usually not the type jumping on to any dark horse of musical history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz-Klaus_Metzger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Riehn
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 06, 2022, 06:49:31 AM
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It's been a while since I last tried something new from Bright Sheng.  That's a shame and my bad.  His masterful concerto Nanking! Nanking!, for pipa and orchestra, rates as one of my favorite concerti from the last quarter century, so I have no real excuse.  So, I went for something else.  As per usual, Naxos is the go-to label for this composer, so this disc of three works got the nod.

The disc opens with Let Fly, a violin concerto that was originally a triple commission by the Detroit Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, and the London BBC Symphony.  The dedicatee was no less than Gil Shaham, who premiered it on three continents.  (I mean, really, a Shaham/Slatkin recording would be the dream recording with this piece of info.)  The nearly half-hour piece is big, brash, bold, loud, colorful, and sounds like an Americana infused work with passing elements from other cultures, not the least of which is Chinese, which provided the folk song that partially inspired the work.  Oh, and Mexican, with the trumpet parts sounding like 'roided out Mariachi music.  The orchestration is over the top, but except in a few big tuttis, where that five-foot tam-tam and bass drums roar, it is expertly deployed.  The violinist has lots to do, whether rushing through virtuosic passages or a beautiful slow movement where Chinese influences are obvious at times, and per Sheng's instructions, the soloist is encouraged to come up with a cadenza before, well, letting fly in the playing-to-the-gallery finale.  Dan Zhu plays nicely for the most part, but some of the top registers do not sound ideal.  The work lacks the impact of Nanking! Nanking!, but it is fun enough.

Zodiac Tales, a commission by the Philadelphia Orchestra when under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach and premiered partially by Slatkin and then in total by Eschenbach, follows.  Comprised of six movements, each referencing a different zodiac animal, the piece is another big piece, scored for tons of instruments, including four cowbells, surely enough to please Christopher Walken.  It has that joyous, cacophonous, not at all bothered with Western traditions feel to the music, combined with rigor of western forms.  The second movement, Of Mice and Cats sounds like it pays homage, however loosely, to Bartok, especially in the string writing.  The fourth movement, The Elephant Eating Serpent, has the same intensity as Nanking! Nanking!, and sort of just steamrolls over the listener.  Awesome!  That is followed by The Tomb of the Soulful Dog, an elegy for the composer's mother who was born in a year of the dog.  It is quite lovely and solemn to open and includes grander scaled tuttis, very reminiscent of Mahler, but with a much less Western sound.  And if one wants to hear a nice trombone solo, there's one in the final movement, The Flying Horses.  Overall, this is a most satisfying work and one that hopefully gains traction in concert halls.

The disc closes with the Suzhou Overture, commissioned by the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, and played by the orchestra here, the piece pays homage to the three-thousand-year-old city.  Gobs of beautiful string writing, with some of it sounding like luxuriant reworkings of discarded extracts of the Turangalîla-Symphonie, and more playful passages, some sounding like a Chinese equivalent of Copland, make the work a very fine concert opener. 

Sheng himself conducts the works, with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra also covering Let Fly and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra doing the honors in Zodiac Tales.  Hopefully, other conductors take up the works and record them.  Sound and playing are both up to modern standards.


----------


As a fun little bonus, I have attached a snippet of a Microsoft Word Editor suggestion I received when reviewing my scribbled text: Sensitive Geopolitical References.

Thanks, Microsoft!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on August 11, 2022, 08:31:26 AM
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I started streaming the 1797 symphony "La Paix" not realizing that that subtitle is laughably misleading. The real title: Grande Sinfonie caractéristique pour la paix avec la République française.

In other words, this is a program symphony, and the peace only happens at the end. We begin in C minor, with a menacing tone that captures Wranitzky's view of the French Revolution and its chaotic evils. Occasionally the proceedings are interrupted by marches representing different warring countries fighting against those nefarious French. There's a clarinet-led funeral march for Louis XVI (not often you see musical sympathy for him) and the scherzo is a full-on battle scene with extremely loud bass drum thwacking and piccolo piping. Finally at the end you get a pretty standard late-classical finale (think Haydn or a very young Schubert) with a slow, serene, "peace" introduction and then some victorious happy music. At 7' in the finale, Wranitzky clearly quotes the finale of Mozart 36. I think there are other Mozart quotes, too.

Although "La Paix" is all fun and charming, not everyone thought so. Archduke Max Franz of Austria listened to a performance and wrote detailed criticisms of the symphony, including that he thought the finale should have been in B flat minor rather than A major, that he thought the finale should have included a fugue, and that the performance would have been better if Haydn conducted it. (He did like the battle, "in which there was noise of every kind." By the way, this was the same Max Franz who was an early patron of the youthful Beethoven and who, before he died at age 44, was going to be the dedicatee of Beethoven's First Symphony.)

The other explicit program symphony here is "La Tempesta," where, you guessed it, the bass drum represents a thunderstorm. That's in the finale; the first two movements are a pretty standard Sturm und Drang symphony, before the Sturm becomes literal. (There's also some kind of primitive wind machine effect.)

The third symphony in this set is not programmatic, but it does still have a "Russian" movement and a "Polonaise." Which means that, between three symphonies and a bonus overture, there are only two slow movements in this 2-CD set. The Russian allegretto includes sleigh bells and vaguely martial music; the booklet thinks this is to represent janissaries (who are not Russian?) but I wonder if it's a reference to how their army has to tromp around in winter. Wranitzky is all about these colorful but meaningless effects. Just take it as a bit of fun and move on. The polonaise isn't Chopin, but it's thoroughly entertaining, and the finale is notable for giving the winds and brass such a prominent spotlight that the violins go silent for whole minutes at a time.

Overall, I would say this is definitely worth seeking out on a streaming service where the booklet is available, or in a physical copy where you can read the amusing notes. The conductorless Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin does terrific work and sounds very appealing, especially the piercing bassoons in the Tempest. I love the characterful sounds of their winds and the punch of their percussion. And the music, if ultimately not unforgettable or inspired, is a very entertaining example of the kinds of "character" pieces which were trendy in the 1790s.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 13, 2022, 04:26:20 AM
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Krzysztof Penderecki pops up only a few times in my collection, and always in compilations, so I thought it about time I purchased at least one album dedicated to his music.  I opted for the string quartets played by the Tippett Quartet since I have had good luck with them before.  All four quartets fit easily on one disc, so the Tippett throw in a nice sized String Trio and the super-brief Der unterbrochene Gedanke as filler, and the disc still lasts just over fifty minutes.

The First quartet, coming in at just a smidge over six minutes, is compact and jittery and eerie and night-musicy and avant-garde, all of which is just fine, especially when the work is so properly proportioned.  The eight-ish minute Second offers a qualitative step up, and deploys some new techniques.  He uses the high strings to create and eerie and impactful whistling effect, and the music stays largely quiet, with only intermittent outbursts.  A big, beefy cello starts Der unterbrochene Gedanke, with everyone getting to do something, but it ends so quickly, and develops so little, that it's like a sketch for an intro for a bigger work.  Finally, with the thirteen minute and change String Trio from 1990/91, the listener gets something bigger, and the work has slashing and thrashing action, back and forths between the strings, and some delicate and quiet playing, and that's just in the first couple minutes.  The second movement Vivace sounds almost like DSCH and shows that a string trio can pack a wallop too.  The Third Quartet also reminds one of DSCH, and perhaps Schnittke.  More accessible, it nonetheless has extended passages of musical relentlessness, grinding away at the listener.  After the sixteen-minute Third comes the six or so minute, two movement Fourth.  Compact like the opener, and containing music much closer to the Fourth, it just gets going, especially when folk inspired music gets introduced, and then ends.  At least it leaves the listener wanting more.

As far as post-war quartets go, this set is pretty good, if not up there with the very best.  The Tippett Quartet play superbly, and Naxos delivers fine sound, if perhaps it sounds too close at times.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 20, 2022, 04:27:04 AM
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Ever on the lookout for some new chamber music to hear what is out there, I stumbled upon this disc of Turkish Piano Trios right after hearing Fazil Say's disc devoted to violin works, so I was predisposed to want to hear more Turkish music.  The ensemble is Turkish, and the recording took place at Bursa Uludağ University, so it's a homegrown affair. 

The recording opens with Hasan Ferid Alnar's Piano Trio from 1966, which while not the oldest work presented, sounds the most conservative.  The most Turkish sounding sounding music is reserved for the strings, particularly the violin, which contains melodies not usually heard in western art music, though if one has listened to Saygun or even Bartok, they shall not startle.  The structure of the work is entirely conventional, and the use of some Turkish compositional techniques involving intervals offers the main departure in what might otherwise be described as Anatolian Goldmark.  And the abrupt ending to the whole work kind of leads to a huh? type response.

Ferit Tüzün's short, under seven-minute Piano Trio from 1950 follows, and it sounds more modernist in a standard post-war type of way, though it too relies on some rhythmic patterns less common in western music.  Its brevity increases its relative punch, a brief work that could serve as an energetic opener for a recital. 

İlhan Baran's single movement Dönüşümler, or Transformations, from 1975 follows.  It represents an even more modernist work, though one more accessible than some of the drier academic works.  The single unfolding movement work is fairly common, and here, after the slow and somber opening, the piece moves all over the place, from more vibrant, rhythmically complex music to tuneful, beautiful music where the violin more or less stands in for a singer.  Baran's use of pizzicato stands out in one transformation for its slow plucking, which is then echoed by the piano.  One can also detect a bit of jazz influence in some of the writing.  The constantly forward moving piece ends up sounding mighty satisfying. 

But not as satisfying as Oğuzhan Balci's Piano Trio No 1, from 2019.  Written for the Bosphorus Trio, with one movement dedicated to each member.  The opening Sunrise Red boasts vibrant, dissonant, rhythmically alert writing which the performers dash off with brio, making complex but listenable modern music fun.  The long, slow second movement, Pure Water, starts with a sparse, lonely piano, setting the pulse which comes back as a simple ostinato laying the foundation for the strings as the music slowly develops and builds to weighty but not pulverizing climax before fading to silence.  The Mare ends the work, and as its name suggests, a galloping rhythm and pulse dominates the movement right up to its effectively abrupt end.

This disc, which apparently represents the first in a new series, offers some new music of no little accomplishment, and most exciting of all, the Bosphorus Trio has got the goods and should record some core rep, and hopefully more installments in the Naxos series.  Oğuzhan Balci emerges as name for me to look out for going forward as well. 

Playing is tip-top, and sound is very fine. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 27, 2022, 05:47:23 AM
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I'd seen the name Ye Xiaogang before when Naxos released various prior titles, and I recognized it from the DG release of Das Lied von der Erde, played by the Shanghai SO and conducted by Yu Long, where for filler Ye reset the poems in the original Mandarin.  Turns out he also composed one of the works played to open the 2008 Olympics.  I won't hold that against him.  When this brand-new recording became available for a few bucks, I figured I'd go with the latest release just because. 

Twilight in Tibet opens the recording, and it's something else.  Just shy of nineteen minutes long, it has an extended, sparse, beautiful opening, with percussion gently pairing with winds and strings, before the tenor sings his part, and then the piece transforms into an at times dissonant as all get out musical behemoth, though the score often veers back to sparser, more beautiful support.  The horn soloist blats out his part effectively, and Yijie Shi sings everything in at least adequate manner, but some of the gentler singing really sounds affective.  Various influences can be heard, and the much-welcomed eastern influences are obvious but also transformed.  Mahler and Strauss and Puccini (La Boheme) can be heard, but this is no mere pastiche or copycat work. 

Seven Episodes for Lin'an follows.  An over half-hour song cycle for soprano, tenor, and baritone and orchestra, it marries some light, clear music to some occasionally thunderous and wonderfully dissonant music.  And who can resist marimbas, properly deployed?  The wonderfully named Song Yuanming (to these western eyes) sings her songs splendidly and offers a bright, lovely contrast to the musical background, though all singers sound quite good.  The whole mixed song cycle really works well, with an at times very operatic feel.  Think of it as a Chinese Canteloube meets Chinese Mahler meets Chinese Strauss. 

The Tianjin Suite concludes the recording, and it sounds like a mix of a film soundtrack and orchestral arrangement of various operas.  The second movement also sounds like Debussy and Stravinsky blended together – at last.  Ye deploys all orchestral forces deftly, at times providing heaping helpings of strings, at others sparser orchestration focused on winds, and at others massive, colorful, tuneful tuttis sure to satisfy many, most, but never all listeners.  As each piece progresses, the feeling of operatic extracts grows.  Indeed, I can't recall another case where hearing a disc of music has made me so keen to hear what the composer can do with opera, but I surely want to hear an opera written by Ye.

For some reason, two conductors are used and split the Seven Episodes between them, and the recordings were made between 2014 and 2016.  A belated release is a welcome release. 

Sound is excellent if not quite SOTA, and the orchestra does excellent work. 

A most excellent disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: springrite on August 27, 2022, 06:05:08 AM
Ye Xiaogang is one of those first generation of Chinese composers after the Cultural Revolution. Other notables include Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong, Chen Yi and Zhou Long. They are all about the same age and were classmates.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on August 27, 2022, 06:35:16 AM
Tan Dun I know, but the others are new to me, and so expand the list of composers to explore.  Many thanks.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2022, 08:15:39 AM
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Two big, long, silly cello concertos from different centuries, clearly intended as amusing diversions.

The Offenbach is from the composer's early days, before he became an operetta legend. It's enormous (42 minutes), especially the sprawling 18-minute rondo finale, which has some very big, chunky, full episodes for "military" percussion. As you'd expect from Offenbach, the tunes are immediately catchy throughout, and the cello gets to sound cantabile most of the time.

The overall effect is quite surprising. I think this is because Offenbach writes in the Rossinian "light"/operatic early romantic mode - the orchestral style sounds like Rossini overtures, Paganini concertos, or Adam ballets. And not only are cello concertos already rare enough from the early romantic era, but cello concertos in this style? It's kind of hard for my brain to compute. I don't think this is any great masterpiece, it's certainly too long and episodic for that, but it is a load of fun to listen through.

And speaking of loads of fun, Friedrich Gulda's concerto runs the gamut of pastiche. The second movement "Idylle" is actually very similar to Offenbach in mode, with operatic soft brass (shades of Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel), an arioso cello, and a strumming acoustic guitar serenade a la "Beatrice et Benedict". But it's preceded by an "Overture" with rock music guitar/drum interludes, where Edgar Moreau is, I must say, extremely persuasive laying down a memorable rock cello tune.

He also has a pensive, melancholic, phantasmagorical 7-minute cadenza (!) to get through before the final dances: a Boccherini-tribute minuet with a tinge of Spanish sadness and an extremely silly polka with oompah tuba and perpetuum mobile cello dancing. Overall, the piece is a load of fun, and honestly, I think you could convince me that the three middle movements are "great." But the finale's light-hearted romp makes it clear that Gulda is not going for "great." He's going for "fun." Even though polka is going out of style in the concert hall, I feel like this kind of polystylistic, extremely melodic, witty mashup music would still be successful before a live audience. Probably a lot of people don't know classical music can be like this.

Recorded sound is very flat, bright, and close, as if we are all either in a studio room or in an opera house pit. The ensemble sounds a lot like opera pit orchestras, in fact, especially in the Offenbach, with its "military" cymbals and triangle. The volume level is very high, too, so I guess this was recorded like a pop album. The cover photo was shot that way, too, I guess.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on September 02, 2022, 09:40:04 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 30, 2022, 08:15:39 AM
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Gulda is not going for "great." He's going for "fun." [...] Probably a lot of people don't know classical music can be like this.


Amen, brother!

I know and love both concertos but not this specific performance which your review made me set in seek-and-capture mode. Thanks.

Incidentally, Offenbach was an accomplished, professionally trained cellist and wrote some beautiful music for cello and piano. Worth checking out as well, should be right up your salon-music-fan alley.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 03, 2022, 04:19:28 AM
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The name Jon Deak did not enter my consciousness until I spotted this 2019 Naxos release on clearance.  Turns out the recordings themselves were made in 1993 and 1998.  I'm guessing this got released because Marin Alsop conducts the two orchestral works.  The conceit with all the works here is that they are narrated by the performers. 

The disc opens with Jon Deak the double bass soloist for a snarky tribute to wildlife by offering an apology for the big bad wolf in B.B. Wolf  (An Apologia), with the text provided by the composer's friend Richards Hartshorne.  Deak can play his instrument very well indeed, and his narration works well enough.  It's not bad, overall.  The next work, Bye-Bye!, for flute and piano and based on a Haitian folktale, offers a tribute to immigrants.  It works marginally less well musically, but the instrumentalists both handle their parts well.  The 1993 recordings sound almost like some audiophile recordings of the era, with what sounds like minimal microphones, very clear sound, and clear spatial presentation.

The big works come next.  The Snow Queen Finale: The Ice Palace, based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale.  The music is unabashedly modern, pastichey, and not bound by any stylistic constraints.  Boisterous, clangy, romantic (I hear some Wagner in there), rough, chaotic, and offering homage to cartoons, the music sort of wanders all over the place in an ADHD sort of way.  The last work is The Legend of Spuyten Duyvil, originally influenced by the body of water the bridge connecting Manhattan and the Bronx covers, but per the composer's notes, that in turn is influenced by ancient New Amsterdam folklore.  It, too, rapidly wanders all over the place, but it sounds more serious and occasionally darker.  Ms Alsop ends up an excellent narrator, with clear diction and impeccable enunciation.

Deak's compositional ability seems clear enough, so I perused his other compositions and available recordings, and everything is like the compositions here.  I'd prefer more traditional, or at least more serious, music-only forms for further exploration, so this disc probably represents the only thing I'll hear.  I'll probably spin it again once or twice.

All artists are up to snuff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on September 03, 2022, 04:56:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 30, 2022, 08:15:39 AM
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Two big, long, silly cello concertos from different centuries, clearly intended as amusing diversions.

The Offenbach is from the composer's early days, before he became an operetta legend. It's enormous (42 minutes), especially the sprawling 18-minute rondo finale, which has some very big, chunky, full episodes for "military" percussion. As you'd expect from Offenbach, the tunes are immediately catchy throughout, and the cello gets to sound cantabile most of the time.

Actually, I think you conflate two different concertos: the Concerto militaire and the Concerto-Rondo.  The former is about 25 minutes long, the second indeed about 19 minutes. ;)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 10, 2022, 07:01:10 AM
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Years ago, I picked up the first volume of Edmund Rubbra's string quartets and thought to myself I should pick up the other volume.  It took a while, but I finally got around to it.  The disc opens with the second quartet, and it is an arch-conservative, neo-romantic piece.  It flows quite nicely, often sounds quite beautiful, particularly in the gorgeous and at times haunting Adagio, and rhythmically vital.  At times it has a dark and mysterious hue to it, but it sounds out of time.  Forgetting that, this work sounds fine and would snuggle right in with a recital including Dvorak and Szymanowski.  OK, it would be better to mix and match with more diverse styles, but it sounds old-fashioned. 

The disc then moves to works for voice and string quartet, starting with Amoretti, which sets Edmund's Spenser's poems in the collection of the same name to music.  Charles Daniels has a pleasing sounding voice, though his diction is not perhaps ideally clear.  The string quartet writing underpins the music in retro arch-conservative style very well, thank you.  The disc closes with a Piano Trio in a single movement, though Naxos provides individual tracks for the different sections.  Beautiful for sure, but often almost morose sounding in the long opening, it does not invigorate except in the brief middle section, instead bathing the listener in nearly opulent musical introspection.  I doubt it becomes core rep for performing Piano Trios, but it is nice to hear.  It's the highlight of the disc, which while not great, has more than a few good moments.

The Maggini play well, as does Martin Roscoe, with Charles Daniels not coming off as ideal to my ears. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 17, 2022, 08:00:02 AM
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The first recordings of Alessandro Striggio's Mass for 40 Voices eluded me back in 2011 when it first came out, and again in 2012 when Glossa released another recording, paired to the same composer's Mass for 60 Voices.  That recording can be streamed from my streaming vendor of choice, but this Decca recording cannot, so I opted to spend some dough for a download.  The composer was apparently the son of a well-to-do nobleman, and he ended up writing works for the Medici family, so he had a pretty cushy gig.  Seeing such a massive mass from the Renaissance of course conjures thoughts of Thomas Tallis, and indeed that composer's more famous Spem in Alium closes out the disc. 

The recording opens with Striggio's Ecce beatum lucem, which includes period instrument support.  It sounds lovely in a generic Renaissance music sort of way.  The main attraction comes next, the Missa Ecco si beato giorno.  Again, aided by orchestral forces, the work starts off in a leisurely and lovely fashion, but the Kyrie sounds rather smaller scaled than expected.  The Gloria dispels any concerns of scale.  True, it's not full force all the time, which of course helps, because when the full forces sing and play the polyphonic goodness, it adds an almost physical component to the piece.  The relatively brief work then proceeds along similar lines through to the end.  It sounds lovely and luxuriant, but it does not pack the punch that Tallis' masterpiece does.  In some ways, it resembles the later, even grander Missa Salisburgensis by Biber, but it obviously lacks the punch of that work.  Part of it stems from the recording, which renders the massed voices as an almost too blended, indistinct sonic blob. 

The next work is a little instrumental piece by Vincenzo Galilei, which sounds quite pleasant, and then the disc moves on to an assortment of short pieces by Striggio, with varying numbers of singers and instruments, giving it a grab bag feel.  Each piece sounds nicely realized, and the smaller works have a more pleasing recorded balance.  The penultimate piece is a bass only Spem in Alium, and then the Tallis setting of the same text closes things out, with some instrumental support, in a shorter than normal performance.  While influenced by Striggio, per the liner notes, there is no question, from the very first notes, that the Tallis work is the greatest work on offer.  Denser yet easier to follow, more gripping and immediate, and more transcendentally beautiful, the well-known (in relative terms) piece almost hypnotizes.  So good is it, so great, that immediately after finishing this, I listened to the Jeremy Summerly led version and then the Paul van Nevel led version.  The Summerly, by adopting slower than normal tempi, has an even more transcendental feel, while the Nevel has a more immediate feel.  All three kick ass, in a heavenly way.

So, this recording is most welcome in my collection, even if it is not perfect.  The music is glorious and beautiful, and that's enough.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 24, 2022, 06:07:44 AM
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Always read the fine print.  This disc reminded me of that.  You see, I saw the name Franck attached to a pair of string sextets and thought that César Franck had composed them, so I happily plumped down the four bucks needed to procure the physical disc.  Only when I received the disc and read the name on the cover did I see that the German composer Eduard Franck composed these two works.  Oops.  Fortunately, the purchase did not end up a waste of money.  Ed, it turns out, led a life of privilege, which included studying under Felix Mendelssohn, and his music is very much of its time and place.  There's really not that much to write in describing the music.  Take Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, mash the music together, stir a bit, and presto, Eduard Franck pops out.  The music does sound derivative, but when it derives from composers like that, it's really not bad at all.  The music sounds beautiful and tuneful, properly structured, and proportional.  The only potential complaint one could level is that it often sounds almost too relaxed and beautiful.  Almost.  A HIP ensemble could take care of that, but nobody wants that.

The augmented Edinger Quartett plays splendidly and Audite delivers superb sound in this now twenty-year-old recording.  A most pleasant purchasing mistake.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on September 24, 2022, 09:15:15 AM
Quote from: Todd on September 24, 2022, 06:07:44 AM
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Always read the fine print.  This disc reminded me of that.  You see, I saw the name Franck attached to a pair of string sextets and thought that César Franck had composed them, so I happily plumped down the four bucks needed to procure the physical disc.  Only when I received the disc and read the name on the cover did I see that the German composer Eduard Franck composed these two works.  Oops.  Fortunately, the purchase did not end up a waste of money.  Ed, it turns out, led a life of privilege, which included studying under Felix Mendelssohn, and his music is very much of its time and place.  There's really not that much to write in describing the music.  Take Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, mash the music together, stir a bit, and presto, Eduard Franck pops out.  The music does sound derivative, but when it derives from composers like that, it's really not bad at all.  The music sounds beautiful and tuneful, properly structured, and proportional.  The only potential complaint one could level is that it often sounds almost too relaxed and beautiful.  Almost.  A HIP ensemble could take care of that, but nobody wants that.

The augmented Edinger Quartett plays splendidly and Audite delivers superb sound in this now twenty-year-old recording.  A most pleasant purchasing mistake.

You might want to explore more oif his music, because there is more and it's all on the same level.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on September 26, 2022, 12:42:59 PM
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Richard Dubugnon (b. 1968) had a reputation early in his career as a continuance of the French late romantic school of music-making, particularly influenced by the dark lyricism of Fauré. To judge from the chamber symphonies and piano concerto on this disc, he has evolved forward in time since.

Chamber Symphony No. 1 begins in bustle, with the chamber orchestra chopped and scattered into individual parts and everyone given something to do. It reminds me of fast Messiaen, especially with burbling hyperactive winds, and Dubugnon also says he was very strongly influenced by Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, which is audible too. At the halfway point, there is a long solo cadenza for violin which slows down the momentum of the piece and includes some alternation of bowed and plucked notes. This leads next to a cello cadenza with a little bit more expressive shape. Things build back up from there; the piece (which has essentially no repeated thematic material, though lots of interesting sounds and instrumental solos) is structured like a V, going from more active to calm and back to active again. (There is, though, a quiet ending.) By the way, the world premiere was conducted by Leon Fleisher.

Klavieriana starts out with an "Allegro febbroso" - feverish! And it's true. The toccata begins immediately, as a perpetual motion piano part is overlaid on lots of nervous tremolo strings. It's a real striking, hyperactive, memorable beginning to a 26-minute concerto with another interesting feature: an obbligato celesta which frequently acts as a "shadow" to the piano. The celesta is a critical part of the fabric of the slow movement, which is an interesting mood piece, somewhat of a nocturne, with slightly "off"-seeming sicilienne dance rhythms at times. As colorful as it is, Dubugnon clearly wants to get back to the good stuff (i.e., the fast stuff), so the piano sets off into a rocket of a cadenza and then, with a big bass drum roll, into a furious finale. The interesting thing about the chamber orchestra scoring is that as kinetic as the music gets, it never feels truly Big. This is a bit of a weakness at the very end, where the last orchestral flourish sounds more like an angry robot than a vision of doom. But this is a really fun little concerto with loads of energy.

Chamber Symphony No. 2 is very different from No. 1. The structure is this: slow chaconne, fast fugue, slow chaconne, fast fugue. It's inspired by the artwork on the cover of the album, an early religious depiction of musicians in the Swiss town of Winterthur. The Musikkollegium thought it would be a natural thing for a commission. I am not sure that the chaconne structure is kept too strictly; the textures are very transparent and light, and prioritize soloistic lines rather than counterpoint. There are distant, echo-like evocations of Bach throughout the first movement. I wish the ending had less triangle/cymbal, but then we launch into the first fugue, and it is delicious, with lots of snapping French horns, snarling violas, and pounding timpani. The second set of chaconne and fugue follows the pattern of the first, but shorter all around, and with a little bit of jazzy syncopation sneaking into the Bach tributes of the final fugue.

Overall, an interesting listen and an engaging hour spent in the company of a composer who tends toward a modernist sound language but neoclassical forms and shapes. His skill at fast, energetic, rhythmic music is unusual among "popular" contemporary orchestral composers, who tend to excel most at slow, atmospheric stuff. Not in my personal stylistic wheelhouse and not likely to be a favorite disc of mine, but that's a personal thing. Interesting dude.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on September 26, 2022, 12:48:18 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 26, 2022, 12:42:59 PMIt reminds me of fast Messiaen


This combined with Zehetmair conducting piques interest.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on September 28, 2022, 11:53:54 AM
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Wow, this is cool stuff. Mayuzumi was a contemporary of Takemitsu, but his international reputation never took off in the same way. Bugaku is a two-part ballet, not even 25 minutes, with extraordinary character. The first part starts with long, creepy lines of string instruments slowly building up in a way that's evocative, captivating, and reminiscent of both traditional Japanese instruments and the European avant garde. The second movement, meanwhile, is more of a folk dance, with banging drums, wavering piccolos, clicking col legno strings, and a strong rhythmic sense. It all gets mixed up with complex chords and harmonies reminiscent of, say, early Ligeti. Although the fast movement is a little episodic, with long pauses between sections, Bugaku as a whole makes a great impression.

Mandala Symphony is a tougher nut, a more modern work that's full of percussion (I wonder how many players it takes). It also has exactly the opposite structure of Bugaku: still short (18 minutes), but this time the short fast bit is first and the long slow bit is second. The long slow bit reminds me a lot of the 5 minutes or so of lull at the beginning of part II of the Rite of Spring. It builds to an impressive climax before fading out to darkness. It is based on the Buddhist principles - how Buddha descended to teach man, and how man can ascend - though the most recognizable product of this, sonically, is the use of tone rows derived from the overtones of temple bells.

The Rumba Rhapsody is more interesting for its backstory than its musical material. During WWII, music from Allied countries was banned, but South America was perfectly OK, creating a brief fad for Latin dance. This is a student work which the young Mayuzumi immediately discarded, reworking the melodic material into Symphonic Mood instead. The recording rehearsals were the first ever performances. He was clearly an accomplished student, but the music moves in fits and starts, without the cohesion or imitative skill of fake Latin stuff by, say, Gershwin or Copland.

Symphonic Mood, that resulting work - still a product of early student years - is an intriguing mishmash of styles, much like Bugaku, but with a totally different mix of ingredients. Here, instead of Stravinsky, Ligeti, Japanese folk tradition, and ritual drumming, the main contributors are French impressionism a la Debussy, South American dance music, and the Ballets Russes. It's a lot like Respighi's Brazilian Impressions or maybe Camargo Guarnieri.

What a wild, diverse trip this CD is! Exceptional playing and leadership from Takuo Yuasa. Tops sound. A total blast.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 01, 2022, 06:22:00 AM
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This marks the second appearance of the Lysell Quartet in this thread, and the first appearance of Dag Wirén in this thread and my collection.  The Swedish composer lived a big slug of the 20th Century, but one wouldn't necessarily guess that on evidence of the music alone.  While I long ago abandoned the notion that all modern music must be unpleasant or dissonant or modernist, Wirén goes one step further.  Always wanting to appeal to rather than challenge the listener (apparently), the first couple quartets here sound almost easy listening light, as though some British pastoral composers might sound too intense.  The music does not fail to please.  The Fourth and Fifth quartets maintain a surface approachability, but somewhat like some of Schubert's music, though sounding nothing like the Austrian's music, a generally sunny mien allows for tenser, darker elements to be heard at the same time.  It's quite a nice result, almost like a smiling Schnittke, shorn of the unyielding modernist style without sounding antiquated.  Overall, it's quite a nice disc with four excellent works.

The Lysell Quartet play splendidly, and the recorded sound is exemplary.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on October 01, 2022, 06:45:48 AM
Wiren's string serenade is notorious(ly light and fluffy) and the CPO two-disc symphony cycle is well worth investigating. 2 and 3 on the lighter side, 4 and 5 on the darker/more abstract (1 was withdrawn).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 01, 2022, 07:28:58 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 28, 2022, 11:53:54 AM
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Wow, this is cool stuff. Mayuzumi was a contemporary of Takemitsu, but his international reputation never took off in the same way. Bugaku is a two-part ballet, not even 25 minutes, with extraordinary character. The first part starts with long, creepy lines of string instruments slowly building up in a way that's evocative, captivating, and reminiscent of both traditional Japanese instruments and the European avant garde. The second movement, meanwhile, is more of a folk dance, with banging drums, wavering piccolos, clicking col legno strings, and a strong rhythmic sense. It all gets mixed up with complex chords and harmonies reminiscent of, say, early Ligeti. Although the fast movement is a little episodic, with long pauses between sections, Bugaku as a whole makes a great impression.

Mandala Symphony is a tougher nut, a more modern work that's full of percussion (I wonder how many players it takes). It also has exactly the opposite structure of Bugaku: still short (18 minutes), but this time the short fast bit is first and the long slow bit is second. The long slow bit reminds me a lot of the 5 minutes or so of lull at the beginning of part II of the Rite of Spring. It builds to an impressive climax before fading out to darkness. It is based on the Buddhist principles - how Buddha descended to teach man, and how man can ascend - though the most recognizable product of this, sonically, is the use of tone rows derived from the overtones of temple bells.

The Rumba Rhapsody is more interesting for its backstory than its musical material. During WWII, music from Allied countries was banned, but South America was perfectly OK, creating a brief fad for Latin dance. This is a student work which the young Mayuzumi immediately discarded, reworking the melodic material into Symphonic Mood instead. The recording rehearsals were the first ever performances. He was clearly an accomplished student, but the music moves in fits and starts, without the cohesion or imitative skill of fake Latin stuff by, say, Gershwin or Copland.

Symphonic Mood, that resulting work - still a product of early student years - is an intriguing mishmash of styles, much like Bugaku, but with a totally different mix of ingredients. Here, instead of Stravinsky, Ligeti, Japanese folk tradition, and ritual drumming, the main contributors are French impressionism a la Debussy, South American dance music, and the Ballets Russes. It's a lot like Respighi's Brazilian Impressions or maybe Camargo Guarnieri.

What a wild, diverse trip this CD is! Exceptional playing and leadership from Takuo Yuasa. Tops sound. A total blast.

Nice disc. "Bugaku" is the name of ancient music in Japan around the 7th century.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 09, 2022, 06:17:38 AM
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Qigang Chen is one of the many composers I do not recall reading about until very recently, let alone hearing.  Born and trained in China until the Cultural Revolution, he had to undergo a few years of Maoist reeducation, as was the style at the time.  He resumed his training years later, and he ultimately ended up studying under Messiaen for a few years in the eighties.  He ended up moving to France and became a French citizen.  His adopted Frenchness ends up rather important and obvious in his music.  Which is a wonderful thing.  These three works are informed by an obvious French tradition.

The opening work Er Huang, a sort of piano concerto, informed by Peking operas is one of the most enchantingly beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.  The composer's French education shines through, though not in merely imitative fashion, in this single movement, slow-fast-slow piece.  The slow piano introduction, which gradually adds low strings then orchestra, sets the pace.  One revels in instrumental contributions from the entire orchestra, and only gradually about halfway in, the music takes on a Ravelian character, with virtuosic turns from the soloist and band, before returning to slower music possessed of even greater beauty.  The massive climax blends French music, Rach, and Chinese elements in one of the most irresistibly syrupy pieces of music this side of Korngold.  It's a heckuva way to open.

Enchantements oubliés follows, and the first six minutes or so sort of makes the opener seem aurally displeasing.  It does indeed enchant.  After the string heavy opening, with western violins taking on Chinese characteristics, faster music with lots of percussion arrives, and the mallet work fleetingly reminds one of Frank Zappa.  The orchestra creates a vastly scaled work, and one that even in tuttis often seems to just sort of float, and while there's a movie soundtrack quality to some of the writing, it's like one of the very best movie soundtracks ever written, creating its own world.  While the first work was based on Peking opera, this sounds at times like an orchestral reduction of an opera, with hints of Puccini at his most beautiful.  It's a heckuva second work.

Un temps disparu, basically an Erhu Concerto reworked from a Cello Concerto, ends the recording.  The solo instrument creates the most Eastern sounding work, which is further reinforced by the use of the Three Variations on the Plum Blossom melody.  The work also sounds more uncompromisingly modern, with some boom-clang elements, but even so it never completely abandons passages of string laden beauty.  The very stark contrasts between solo instrument and band leads to immediate mental comparisons to Nanking! Nanking! by Bright Sheng, though the purpose of the music and the violence of the contrasts differ substantially.  As with the other two works, the music moves seamlessly back and forth between slower and more robust music, and here the at times generous use of thundering timps packs a real punch.  The Erhu also has lots to do, so listeners who dislike the sound of the instrument, though I don't know how that could be, may dislike this work.  There's no denying that Jiemin Yan plays splendidly.  It's a heckuva a closer.

So here are three new to me orchestral works, each one quite remarkable and beautiful and captivating.  Each also demonstrates the benefits of combining different cultural influences in forging a new musical language.  To aid matters, all artists involved do excellent work, and sound quality overall is superb, though the lows sound a bit plummy at times.  I'll take plummy and thunderous and impactful over scrawny any day.  This here's a heckuva recording.

Hat tip to Brian for the heads-up on this splendid recording.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on October 10, 2022, 11:41:03 AM
And in turn I have to tip my hat to Brewski for bringing Qigang Chen to my attention. Very hard, after reading your thoughts, to resist going back and putting that album on again.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on October 17, 2022, 07:42:41 AM
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As the title promises, this is a disc of mostly new Estonian music, with the addition of a 1980 work by Lepo Sumera which was written for the Olympics. Things kick off with the 2020 work "To the Moonlight" by Tonu Korvits, which takes pandemic loneliness and the blues as its inspirations. I'll be honest: it sounds like pure cheese. Right from the first seconds, the orchestra indulges easy-listening tunes and comfort harmonies. It is, in a word, sappy. The piece unfolds in three slow movements, 5-6 minutes each. The second one is kind of nice. It sets kinda Brahmsian woodwind harmonies in a contemporary-slow Silvestrovish landscape. The third one makes Hans Rott look like an amateur, because there is a triangle part which constantly dings and tingles the whole time. Literally five straight minutes of triangle. This is my first ever experience with Tonu Korvits and if I ever listen to any of his music again, it had better have 10000% less triangle.

Ulo Krigul contributes two short overture-like works with punnish names: Chordae (like chords!) and The Bow (which is simultaneously inspired by violin bows, musicians bowing to applause, archery, and a Korean movie with that title). They share a purpose as concert-opening attention-getters. Chordae goes about its business with lots of stabbing effects, percussion, and...well...jarring chords. The Bow is pretty similar, especially in its heavy reliance on percussion (church bells), but with more of a minimalist mood, like John Adams, with phrases and ideas cycling through the orchestral sections. Very brassy piece. Since there is not really a change in tempo or mood or volume until 5:30, just constant andante climax, aural fatigue does set in and the quiet ending is helpful.

Helena Tulve's L'ombre derrière toi (The Shadow Behind You) does a remarkable job living up to the spooky, suspenseful atmosphere conjured by its name. Lots of flickering, nervous little string figures, including many soloist parts, make for a haunting beginning. The whole piece - 11 well-sustained minutes - is evocative of the part of a horror movie where everybody is lost in the woods, but nobody is getting slashed up yet. Tension ratchets up. A highly accomplished piece.

Finally, there are two pieces motivated by patriotism: Tauno Aints's Estonia overture and Sumera's 1980 Olympics incidental music. Unsurprisingly given its title, Aints supplies the most conventionally tonal, melodic piece on the album. It's got a big xylophone part, which for whatever reason I enjoy more than all Krigul's church bells. The booklet's vague program for the overture is "what the composer would say about his Fatherland"; because of the two-part structure - menacing minor-key buildup followed by soloistic calmer quieter music - I can't help imagining my own program about Estonian resistance of its big bad neighbor.

Said neighbor, of course, hosted the 1980 Olympics and had some water events at Tallinn, and Sumera wrote his short piece for those events. The surprisingly dour but evocative beginning brings a colorful combination of harpsichord, harp, and alto flute. Perhaps this is Sumera's way of evoking the ancient Greeks. As woodwinds and brass enter, bringing up the energy level, I'm strongly reminded of Sibelius tone poems, especially Night Ride and Sunrise, since there is a minimalist/chaconne element to Sumera's slow, patient buildup.

The Tulve piece is remarkable and spooky - it should go on all of your Halloween playlists! I also enjoyed the Sumera piece. However, the rest of this album does not inspire me. The live recorded sound includes rare coughs and a slightly overreverberant sound on some tracks (the recordings were made over 9 years).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on October 17, 2022, 07:53:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 17, 2022, 07:42:41 AMLiterally five straight minutes of triangle.

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Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on November 07, 2022, 12:30:08 PM
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Alexander Veprik is a name little-known in music history and little-discussed even here on GMG, where the only previous post to mention his name was the announcement of this 2019 release. Well, we need to talk about him now! I want to stand up and yell at nearly everyone on the board: listen to this guy!

Veprik's dates, 1889-1958, tell a story. He was in roughly the same generation as Prokofiev, a bit older than Shostakovich. Unfortunately, Veprik was a Ukrainian Jew, so when Stalin's anti-semitism reached its peak, he was thrown in jail and then the gulag, accused of "Jewish nationalism." (Weinberg would have known and been chilled by Veprik's example.) Veprik was released shortly before his death, a tired, broken, and malnourished man who lived on to compose only a handful of pieces.

You'd think that recent political events would make Veprik fashionable to program, especially since his pre-gulag orchestral language is overtly melodic, even Hollywoody, more crowd-pleasing than even Bloch. But this appears to be the only widely available album of his orchestral music. Multiple symphonies are unrecorded. This disc is divided into two parts: charming, Jewish-inflected miniatures from early in his career, and darker late pieces from after his years in the gulag.

First up, we get the Dances and Songs of the Ghetto (written before the Nazis added a darker meaning to that word), a sort of reverse Dances of Galanta: softer, calmer, more lyrical, with a quiet ending, but with lively dance interludes and plenty of fun. Toscanini once conducted this at Carnegie Hall. Then there are Two Symphonic Songs, of mourning and joy, with strong religious character, big tunes, and colorful orchestration (I like the ending's use of both stopped and open French horns). Finally, the Five Little Pieces form an 11-minute set of folksy dances and songs, with a touch of klezmer clarinet. In total, the fun, tuneful, traditionally Jewish stuff makes up a joyous 36 minutes of the program. The 38 minutes after it are a different story.

The first of the two late, fatalistic pieces is titled Pastorale. Its main melody is overtly lyrical, like a minor-key version of the third movement from Scheherazade, but the orchestral colors are dark and interesting, with lots of cello, viola, and bass clarinet. Lament might be a more appropriate title, but it is not a religious lament like the one in Two Symphonic Songs.

Finally, there are Two Poems. Their names are just Poem 1 and Poem 2, and they add up to 27 minutes, but despite their length they are the most enigmatic, episodic, "tough" works here. They remind me of Havergal Brian or Arnold Bax, actually, in their weird mix of tunefulness, "easy" orchestration (often severely lacking in bass or counterpoint), and deliberately opaque, obscure structure. There is a martial attitude about parts of Poem 1, from the snare drum at the start to the weird triumphant military march at 10', which sounds a lot like the end of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, right down to the way that the bass drum eventually joins into the one-two-one-two counting. Then everything falls right apart again and the poem ends seemingly mid-phrase.

Poem 2 opens searchingly, with despairing strings and flute reaching around trying to find a chorale-like melody to guide them. Like the first poem, it's ambiguous, enigmatic, and structured around a blaring Soviet climax with piercing trumpets. Eventually, this gets turned around into a seemingly triumphant, "I'm back!" ending. It's hard to ignore the backstory behind the work and wonder if Veprik's gulag stint had damaged not just his spirit but his attention span as well.

I'm not sure that everyone on GMG will like everything on this album. The Two Poems are a very hard sell for me. But I'm pretty sure everyone on GMG will like something from it, whether it's the moody late stuff for the doom 'n' gloom brigade or the populist dances for the more lighthearted folks. Orchestra and sound are good enough that I hope they get to recording the remaining Veprik works: two symphonies, a sinfonietta, and a suite on Kyrgyz themes.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on November 21, 2022, 09:31:19 AM
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Olli Mustonen, it turns out, has composed not just chamber music but three symphonies, a triple violin concerto, and several pieces for piano and orchestra. Here we get two recent chamber works. The String Quartet No. 1 (2016) is in a "darkness-to-light" emotional arc over four movements, from an impassioned beginning with lots of unisons (makes me think of the Weinberg piano trio) to a furious finale that deliberately evokes Mustonen's composer-hero, Bartók. There's a quick, angry second movement that will definitely make you think of the famous movement from Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8.

The third, slowest movement is the emotional heart of the work (8 of its 22 minutes), and although it threatens to get repetitive, with the musicians all stating a specific rhythm repeatedly, there's also a hopeful chorale-like melody with a religious shape to it, like a prayer, which builds to several climaxes. The color of that tune is hard to explain - it's like a mix of Orthodox chant and American blues. Overall, the quartet is an exciting piece with memorable ideas, an easy-to-digest structure, that beautiful tune, some riotous Hungarian fiddling near the end - a winner that stands a good chance of getting applause in a concert hall from any audience. Superb.

Mustonen joins the energetic Engegard Quartet for the Piano Quintet (2014), which is in three parts of equal lengths, follows a similar emotional journey, and employs a similarly old-fashioned language that is not of any particular "school." The second movement passacaglia is based on almost exactly the same passacaglia motif from Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, though the movement proves to be more like a theme-and-variations with lots of polyphonic departures from the original idea. There's even a Glass-like trance climax of repeated figures. In the finale, the players recycle all the previous ideas, kind of squandering about 4 minutes, before launching into a fun, victorious feeling conclusion that proves, like the quartet, that Mustonen is really good at writing fast music that packs in the ideas and the excitement.

A short disc - just 44 minutes - but with a lot of good, memorable material into that timeframe. If some of it is memorable because it resembles things we've heard before, that's okay. Really accomplished, enjoyable music that whets the appetite for more of Mustonen's original work. Performances are top-notch and sound is loud but clear and undistorted.

(Edited to add: I have long known and enjoyed the Mustonen cello sonata recorded with Steven Isserlis on BIS.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on November 21, 2022, 09:53:20 AM
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Whole lot of contrabassoon in this light, colorful 14-minute work. Not sure why Mustonen is composing half-length concertante works - a genre which is even deader than classical's average - but the result is another delight. I did not previously know of cellist Timo Veikko-Valve but he tears it up (in a good way). ACO stands for Australian Chamber Orchestra; this is a live concert broadcast excerpted on Qobuz.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 11, 2022, 05:04:46 AM
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Why sample one symphony by a composer when one can sample a nice, even dozen?  Leopold Koželuch is not new to me.  I've worked my way through one and one-third keyboard cycles and listened to a couple discs of string quartets.  In each instance, Koželuch impressed me as a classical era composer a cut above most I have heard, though not rising to the level of the best by Haydn or Mozart.  And so it goes here.  Really, the most concise way to describe the symphonies is that all twelve are basically on par with Haydn's Sturm und Drang era works, or Mozart's that number in the high 20s or low 30s numerically.  So very high quality indeed.  He seems to have written about thirty symphonies.  I should like to hear more.

Superb playing and sound.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: SonicMan46 on December 11, 2022, 07:18:14 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 11, 2022, 05:04:46 AM(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/76/27/0747313362776_600.jpg)  (https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/ba/y2/seqrelo9my2ba_600.jpg)(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/bc/9r/geha7f35h9rbc_600.jpg)

Why sample one symphony by a composer when one can sample a nice, even dozen?  Leopold Koželuch is not new to me.  I've worked my way through one and one-third keyboard cycles and listened to a couple discs of string quartets.  In each instance, Koželuch impressed me as a classical era composer a cut above most I have heard, though not rising to the level of the best by Haydn or Mozart.  And so it goes here.  Really, the most concise way to describe the symphonies is that all twelve are basically on par with Haydn's Sturm und Drang era works, or Mozart's that number in the high 20s or low 30s numerically.  So very high quality indeed.  He seems to have written about thirty symphonies.  I should like to hear more.

Superb playing and sound.

Thanks Todd for your comments - big Koželuch fan myself - the 3 symphony discs are about to arrive from JPC - also obtained half of the Kemp English set from them for $8 each and listening to the last ones this morning - will await more discounts hopefully on the other six CDs?  Dave :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on December 12, 2022, 10:22:29 AM
cross-post from the listening thread

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Peter Friis Johansson presents three rare/new piano concertos, two by women. First up is a late romantic lost work by Laura Netzel, which PFJ completed with 116 bars based on her sketches and his own idea of creating a cyclical conclusion to make a satisfying resolution (and avoid having to wholly invent the ending). The booklet helpfully tells you the exact second of the finale at which the music passes from Netzel's original - which was fully orchestrated until she suddenly stopped writing - to Johansson's own creation.

PFJ describes Netzel as "a woman who had much to express but, at the same time, was not necessarily in full command of the seasoned composer's complete toolkit so that one perceives that her grandiose musical ideas do not always yield the proper returns." This may sound a little patronizing on paper, but the listening experience suggests its truth. There are lots of striking ideas throughout the piece - particularly the attention-getting opening, which suggests Netzel was trying to outdo Grieg's concerto - but there are also melodies that end seemingly halfway, and development sections that do not really develop. On the whole, I'd say it is a much more rewarding listen than, say, Clara Schumann's concerto, and I will listen again, but the incomplete nature of the piece and the inadequate education which musical men of the 1800s saw fit to give Netzel are reminders that, in a different world, this could have been more.

Sven-David Sandström's Five Pieces are up next. When PFJ called Sandström and asked for a concerto, apparently the very first question the composer asked was "Do you want two tubas or none?", out of the endearing belief that no orchestral musician should have to sit alone. PFJ chose two, and accordingly this is a Big-scored piece, with a sort of cosmic feel. At the end of the first movement, if you feel like you've been blasted out to space on a rocket ship, the starry glitter of the tranquil second movement may confirm that belief. This is a really interesting and enjoyable concerto, with moments of great tenderness and conventional romantic warmth (the final movement) but also fun filmic color, virtuosic piano writing, and the occasional avant-garde sonic technique. I absolutely loved this piece.

The somewhat cosmic imagery in Five Pieces is made more explicit in the final concerto, Andrea Tarrodi's "Stellar Clouds," which has seven movements with titles like "star formation" and "hypernova." (OK, one is titled "solo cadenza.") Tarrodi, by the way, is the daughter of trombonist-composer Christian Lindberg, which helps explain her easy entree into both Scandinavian orchestras and BIS Records.

This is a more musically abstract piece, significantly more "contemporary" than Sandström. Maybe it is a little bit self-conscious about making sure that the sound pictures are all sci-fi and cosmic, with mystical Messiaenic chords taking the place of melodies, but they are all quite enjoyable. (Take it for what it's worth, but BIS CEO Robert von Bahr thinks Debussy would have written music like this if he was around today. Eh, whatever. No need to bring him into it.) The cadenza, which PFJ now frequently plays as a standalone piece at recitals, is a humdinger, and gives way to a short finale recapping all the material that has come before.

This is a delightful 79:43 of new or new-to-our-ears piano concertos. Loads of fun. Heck of an entertaining new release, and now I am going to start seriously exploring Sandström's other orchestral concertos and the album on Channel featuring his choral music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2022, 11:08:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 12, 2022, 10:22:29 AMTarrodi, by the way, is the daughter of trombonist-composer Christian Lindberg, which helps explain her easy entree into both Scandinavian orchestras and BIS Records.


Quote from: Kristjan JärviThere is no nepotism in classical music.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 18, 2022, 10:58:42 AM
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Rather like with the threefer of Koželuch symphonies, why sample only some of Josef Mysliveček's violin concertos when you can sample a big ol' slug of 'em?  Or more precisely, all of them.  This twofer contains all eight of the Czech composer's violin concertos, with soloist Shizuka Ishikawa fiddling away.  Ms Ishikawa won various awards way back when, up to a half century ago, and then she proceeded to make multiple recordings for Supraphon, with very good to excellent results.  I picked up a couple of her recordings of core rep early in the year, so this reissue of recordings made in the 80s seemed like a good idea.  Also like with the Koželuch works, these concerti do not ascend to the top of the repertory heap qualitatively.  The first concerto sounds rather ho-hum, for instance, but things pick up in the second, and more or less maintain a generally high level of quality, even if nothing stands out, and nothing emerges as a timeless masterpiece.  Everything is tuneful, attractive, fairly energetic, well structured, and well proportioned.  It all makes for a pleasant listen, and I mean that in a purely positive way.

Libor Pešek conducts the Dvořák Chamber Orchestra expertly, and the band plays expertly.  Sonics are excellent for the era, and the engineers obviously favored heavy multi-miking, with ample spotlighting, and that works just fine. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 28, 2022, 06:02:17 AM
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A little over a decade ago, I listened my way to Renaissance liturgical music via the great composers of the Spanish Golden Age.  Cristóbal de Morales emerged as my clear favorite.  He's perhaps my favorite pre-LvB composer.  He's not the heavyweight from the era and group of composers in terms of recordings and accolades, though.  That's obviously Tomás Luis de Victoria.  He's pretty darned good, too.  The big box of liturgical music led by Michael Noone came at just the right time, and I devoured the box whole and have dipped into it from time to time since.  There are other notable Victoria recordings, not least being Jordi Savall's recording of Cantica Beatae Virginis, which sounds gorgeous and affecting.  Given all these factors, when I saw that Mr Savall had led performances of Victoria's Passion, well, yeah, I knew I'd buy it.

The work is comprised of music meant to be consumed over an entire week, not in one afternoon, which is of course how I listened the first time around.  It's more than three and a half hours of music.  When consumed in one sitting, Rossini's quip about Wagner very much comes to mind.  When one considers specific sections, or listens in smaller chunks, things improve.  First, this is an everything recording, with Savall using a variety of ancient instruments throughout, so one hears some sumptuousness.  Second, as evidenced by the use of instruments, this is not just gorgeous a cappella polyphony, but rather a grab bag of music, including instrumental sections, chant, and vocal polyphony.  Third, this recording comes from live performances, so there are some imperfections but also some small felicities that seem to crop up more in the moment.  It's hard to pinpoint them, but they are there.  And the female voices very often beguile.  This is not at all austere music, dryly performed.  There's some, well, passion in the performance.  The only negative thing I can report is that the sound is a bit too compressed for something so recent.

I will not listen to this collection frequently, but this is one of those recordings that I like owning, so I can listen anytime, anywhere, without having to worry about internet connectivity.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 01, 2023, 06:14:45 AM
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For no particular reason, I decided I wanted to give a listen to a bunch of modern Requiems, meaning penned in the post-war period.  To start this voyage of musical discovery, I opted for a pretty recent take in the form of António Pinho Vargas' setting from 2012, paired with the 2002 work Judas.  Mr Pinho Vargas is a Portuguese composer of no little renown, per the Naxos bio, and on the basis of this disc, I have no reason to doubt that. 

The disc starts with the beefy, just over half-hour Requiem, and it's a hard-hitting, unabashedly modernist take.  One needn't wait more than the opening notes for the drama to arrive.  All throughout, the composer is not shy about using oodles of percussion, high-tension string writing, and vigorous, at times angry sounding choral writing.  This is not a peaceful, calming work.  This is a work that grabs the listener by the metaphorical lapels.  The work thunders and grates, the singing soars, with the sopranos occasionally  almost shrieking, in a controlled and appealing way, and in one passage this segues right into the dissonant string playing.  The piece sounds unique, sort of blending dark, late DSCH symphonies, a bit of Kabeláč in the use of percussion, and the spirituality of Ešenvalds but in a more intense package, especially in the very wrathful Dies Irae.  The whole piece is not quite so intense: the Lacrimosa sounds more poised, more beautiful, more Ešenvaldsian (in the best possible way), and brings in hints of ancient musical traditions and a soundworld rather reminiscent of some of the Iberian music Savall has recorded.  Come the Agnus Dei, and the composer delivers musical beauty, though with no little astringency attached, that, in a couple fleeting passages, approaches no less than Cristóbal de Morales in terms of transportive beauty, before changing up to a Libera Me of drama and impact.  This here piece is just a whole buncha wow.  Just wow. 

Turns out that Judas very much inhabits a similar soundworld and uses a similar approach, though now one can add the name Frank Martin to the names of composers one can associate this music with.  The piece is very much a dramatic, almost theatrical work.  It sounds slower, more somber, darker, and less impactful, and while not qualitatively equal to the Requiem, it very much works extremely well on its own terms.   I had no expectations coming to this disc, but man, this is one heckuva a way to start a small survey of new works.  If all the other recordings are like this, I will be exceedingly pleased. 

Conducting duties are split between Joana Carneiro for the Requiem and Fernando Eldoro for Judas.  I should like to hear more from both.  Band and singers deliver in these live recordings. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: SonicMan46 on January 01, 2023, 08:57:19 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 18, 2022, 10:58:42 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/WEBP_402378-T1/images/I/71T28CY7e0L._SY425_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QlNJ6uVvL.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51E6ORzNf1L.jpg)

Rather like with the threefer of Koželuch symphonies, why sample only some of Josef Mysliveček's violin concertos when you can sample a big ol' slug of 'em?  Or more precisely, all of them.  This twofer contains all eight of the Czech composer's violin concertos, with soloist Shizuka Ishikawa fiddling away.  Ms Ishikawa won various awards way back when, up to a half century ago, and then she proceeded to make multiple recordings for Supraphon, with very good to excellent results.  I picked up a couple of her recordings of core rep early in the year, so this reissue of recordings made in the 80s seemed like a good idea.  Also like with the Koželuch works, these concerti do not ascend to the top of the repertory heap qualitatively.  The first concerto sounds rather ho-hum, for instance, but things pick up in the second, and more or less maintain a generally high level of quality, even if nothing stands out, and nothing emerges as a timeless masterpiece.  Everything is tuneful, attractive, fairly energetic, well structured, and well proportioned.  It all makes for a pleasant listen, and I mean that in a purely positive way.

Libor Pešek conducts the Dvořák Chamber Orchestra expertly, and the band plays expertly.  Sonics are excellent for the era, and the engineers obviously favored heavy multi-miking, with ample spotlighting, and that works just fine.

I'll second the recommendation of the Mysliveček Violin Concertos - I bought the two CDs separately (inserted above) before the 2-disc set was available; although recorded in the 1980s, the sound is excellent.  Dave :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 08, 2023, 05:19:41 AM
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If you're gonna do modern Requiems, you might as well make sure BAZ gets in the mix nice and early.  Requiem für einen jungen Dichter is Zimmermann at his most Zimmermannian.  The work is gigantic, for two speakers, two soloists, three choirs (because yes), jazz band, organ, accordion, tape, orchestra, and kitchen sink.  It combines the Latin mass and multiple texts.  This recording was released in surround sound, to approximate what a proper avant-garde staging should sound like.  I listen through stereos and stereo headphones only, so I did not get the whole aural experience.

Now, I have listened to my share of hodge-podge avant-garde nonsense, where music sometimes is comprised of noise, some new music, and a pastiche of others' compositions, and often it sucks.  BAZ, though, more than even Berio or Schnittke, has got my number.  Why that is, I just don't know.  The work unfolds as pure chaos, moving beyond aleatoric music to something seemingly nihilistic and pointless, yet very serious and pointed.  As tracked here, the first movement is nearly forty minutes.  What happens in it?  Well, nothing and everything.  It's an experience, not music.  It's like some little snippets from Sgt Pepper's blown up to something massively scaled.  And as it happens, The Beatles make their appearance in the piece.  Imagine a swirl of sound and chaos where bits of Tristan emerge and fade and so does Hitler.  The musical borrowings are extensive, the literary ones highest of highbrow.  It's all terribly pretentious and overbearing and ridiculous and daffy – and all-consumingly bewitching.  Seriously, I have no idea how BAZ does it.

Now, this is most definitely not a piece to listen to frequently.  This is a once every five-to-ten-year kind of work.  But Michael Gielen believed in it enough to record it twice, and Gary Bertini recorded it once.  I will listen again, and I doubt I wait five years.  António Pinho Vargas' Requiem is far more musically satisfying, and is a piece that deserves more attention, but this makes a great and very, very different follow-up.  As mentioned before, this work is an experience, one I am most glad to have had, and one I will have again.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 13, 2023, 05:03:56 AM
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I recently revisited Winston Choi's mixed rep disc on Honens, which includes works by Debussy, Schmitt, Griffes (which is strikingly good), Szymanowski, and Scriabin.  That's quite the mix.  Choi displays a sensitive touch married to extremely fine technique and delivers a knock-out set.  I decided I must follow up with something else pronto, so I settled on a disc of piano music by Thomas Adès entitled Illuminating from Within.  I've long owned Adès' opera Powder Her Face and the assortment of works contained on the Living Toys release.  More recently, I have focused on Adès as performer.  His Beethoven symphony cycle is one of the greats of the 21st Century, and surely the best small band version I've heard.  The accompanying John Barry pieces are fine, too.  His disc of Janacek piano music on Signum is a very clean, austere take on the music, indicating he knows his way around the piano.  So clearly his piano works deserve a listen.

The three Mazurkas from 2009, written for Emmanuel Ax, sound nothing like Chopin or Szymanowski, but in them Adès adds a striking, often jarring rhythmic component that very clearly hints at dance, even if there is no notable melodic component in the first two brief Mazurkas.  The longer, slower, darker third Mazurka does introduce some easier to discern melody and a rich, somber feel.  It's really quite wonderful and would make a great out of nowhere encore.  Thrift, from 2012, billed as a mazurka-cortege follows, and it sounds like a mazurka sketched by Gustave Samazaeuilh and completed by someone with more modernist sensibility.  It's extremely fine.  Darknesse Visible, from 1992, a transcription of Dowland's In Darkness Let Me Dwell, immediately brings to mind Marie-Luise Hinrichs' transcription of Hildegard von Bingen's music in that parts of the transcription very clearly evoke the earlier composer's works, but Adès makes the music agitated, almost angry and despondent.  (That of course means the intent and the music is worlds apart from Hinrich's.)  Still Sorrowing, also from 1992 and also informed by Dowland, follows.  It retains an agitated feel, and it adds a somewhat jazzy feel, and it has flurries of notes propelling the music forward.  The disc closes with the almost twenty minute Concert Paraphrase of Powder Her Face.  Comprised of four movements, it is both dense and light, contains tons of rhythmic drive and complexity, extended flurries of notes that seem to go nowhere until they end up at a logical end point, some dark and rich music, some bright and agitated music, some downright beautiful music that manages to flow and sound blocky at once.  It's a tour de force.  I've not listened to the opera in years, but this makes me think I should.  I know I must listen to more Adès.

Choi ends up an ideal interpreter.  He brings his sensitive touch to music that could end up sounding purely gnarly and edgy.  It retains gnarl and edge, but it also falls easy on the ear.  Quite the feat.  He maintains clarity throughout and delivers both the minutest details and the structure of the works.  I will be listening to more Choi.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 15, 2023, 05:28:59 AM
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Pierre Bartholomée is another new to me composer, and he will definitely not be the last in this survey.  He's Belgian, he's a conductor and composer and teacher, he's won various accolades, and he's still alive and kicking.  This Requiem, from 2006, was inspired by the composer learning the story of a girl who survived the Rwandan Genocide. 

The piece is announced with big bass drum thuds, which appear throughout, and then it adopts a very Stravinskyesque sound, colored up with ample accordion playing.  The scoring is much sparser than the prior two works, with some nifty percussion and lithe, clean choral writing.  The music displays tension throughout, but never becomes intense.  It is smaller, lighter, cleaner, and unyielding.  The singing overall is on a very high level, better than the prior recordings.  The use of a Renaissance specialist ensemble ends up playing a big part of the success of the recording.  This lacks the impact of the prior two recordings, but it works on its own terms.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 18, 2023, 06:00:28 AM
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I've of course known the name Danny Elfman for decades, and heard big blobs of his music, mostly in the form of film scores and the theme to The Simpsons, but also as part of Oingo Boingo and in his more recent solo work.  When I learned that his Violin Concerto Eleven Eleven has received its second recording by dedicatee Sandy Cameron, I figured I might as well listen to the first recording with John Mauceri leading the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.  A Piano Quartet is also included.

The big concerto, clocking in at over forty-four minutes, starts with a fourteen-minute movement with both Grave and Animato designations.  The slow, dramatic open certainly meets the Grave designation, and Cameron delivers a rich tone in long passages where instrumentation is otherwise sparse.  The cadenza is likewise more slow than fast.  But there are some big tuttis, with virtuosic writing and playing, dark low strings, percussion hovering high above, and even some snare drum.  Not surprisingly, one can hear hints of some of Elfman's film scores (how does one hear snare drums and not think of Batman?), but it sounds more like a neo-romantic concerto with nods to film scores.  It's a slightly gnarlier, brighter, updated Korngold in some respects.  The Spietato, acting just like a Scherzo, is much more energetic overall, with virtuosic part writing everywhere, and lots of percussion.  Again, Elfman does not rely on full orchestra for extended periods.  And Ms Cameron, well, she has got chops.  She can and does play as lovely as all get out, but she also delivers some harsh and shrieking high notes, right when she should.  The third movement Fantasma starts slow, rich, beautiful, very string-heavy, and almost like a threnody.  More instruments enter the mix, and the sound picks up energy, and Cameron gets to shine, playing delicately in the upper registers.  The Giacoso-Lacrimae closing movement starts off with lots of pep, lots for Cameron to do, with varying degrees of accompaniment as she romps forward through the movement.  Some very film-scorey passages and gestures pop up, but they all blend in well.  The movement builds to a gallery pleasing climax before switching to a slow coda, ending with the soloist fading out.  I did not come to this work with particularly high expectations, so I am pleasantly surprised by how good is.  I will listen to Ms Cameron's second recording, and perhaps other soloists might take it up.

The Piano Quartet was very much an afterthought for me, but again Elfman surprises.  He manages to evoke a soundworld similar to his orchestral compositions, making it sound bigger than the instrumentation suggests.  (I guess the engineering helps with that.)  The music is all over the place in terms of tempo, dynamics, style and influences.  At times it sounds like turbo-charged minimalism, at others, syrupy neo-romanticism (especially in the cello part), at others a dreamy neo-impressionism.  And that's just the first movement.  The piano leads in the second, titled Kinderspott, filled with childhood tunes all grown up.  As the work moves along, the sheer capriciousness and inventiveness of it, and the multiple influences (I swear I heard some Prokofiev influence in there) makes it a feast for the ears.  This work, too, exceeded expectations.

All artists involved do excellent work and sound quality is tip-top.  I may just have to investigate more art music from Mr Elfman.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 20, 2023, 04:43:39 AM
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Time for more Winston Choi.  This time he plays a big slug of music by Jacques Lenot.  Mr Lenot is an out loud and proud practitioner of serialism, and a self-taught one at that, though the music on this disc hints at some other influences.  Jumping right in:   

The recording starts with four of the Six premières études. The opening Allegro frenetico, all 1'18" of it, certainly lives up to the frenetico designation.  It's a nervous blur of notes that sounds like a human imitating a player piano.  The Mesto (delirando) intersperses fast bursts of music with slow, pause-heavy passages, mostly in a boom-clang style.  The third piece, Vivo, stretto sounds like a missing Ligeti piece.  The last, Fantasque, is about seven minutes of continuous playing with no melody of any kind.  It leaves little impression.

The eleven minute We Approach the Sea, while very similar, does hold more interest.  First, there's a lot of dynamic variability.  Like, a lot.  As in Lenot and Choi will vary dynamic between individual notes, and left and right-hand playing will be played at differing levels.  The pregnant pause is used, and the beefy tremolos actually does evoke waves on the sea.  Not shabby.  Yes, there are lengthy passages of notes hurling at the listener, but the evocation of the sea, and the sense of desolation evident in the latter sections works well indeed.  Following this is truly one of the best musical representations of wind, matching Debussy, in the under two-minute Burrascoso.  Blurs of notes and glissandi and tremolos and runs work wonders.  Here's another out of nowhere encore. 

Next come eleven Préludes, ranging from about two minutes to about nine minutes in length.  Lenot pulls off a pretty neat trick in that here is serial impressionism that works.  Par temps gris truly evokes the title, and I don't write that because I listened to it on a standard January day in the Tualitan Valley.  If There Were the Sound of Water Only immediately evokes images of a rapidly running brook.  Un giugno mesto, sparse and quiet and dissonant, and having a constant sustain as played, the nearly nine-minute piece simultaneously seems to pass in a flash and render time irrelevant.  And somehow, in the last selection, Un chant retrouvé, despite little melodic content and simple, dissonant notes plunking out, the sketches of a non-existent song can be heard.  Quite impressive.

Choi once again displays his affinity for contemporary piano music, and his touch keeps some of the music from just sounding like big, ugly blobs of sound, and his deftness allows some of the music to flow very nicely.  At its best, basically the Preludes, the music offers evidence of modern piano music of no little accomplishment.  Hopefully more artists take up Lenot's cause.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 21, 2023, 07:27:18 AM
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I pretty much never listen to classical guitar recordings, and the only recordings of "classical" electric guitar I have heard have come from Frank Zappa (eg, In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky), so this recording by hot shot Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe is something new.  The only pieces on this mixed rep concept album I've heard, in decidedly different form, are the Bingen, the Messiaen, and the Evans.  To say that they sound different here is an understatement.

First things first, Mr Shibe can play.  Yep, there's not a moment of doubt about that.  He doesn't shred, though one senses he could; rather, he often plays slow, occasionally sounding a bit like Bill Frisell in the process.  Also, he pushes the boundaries of what guitar music can sound like.  In the opening piece, he takes the guitar-as-keyboard approach of Edward, Viscount of Halen and pushes it so far that the music sounds more like something Lord Wright of Hatch End might have written and performed.  It's so freakin' good that I kinda wish Shibe would just go ahead and pull a guitar/electric guitar version of what Marie-Luise Hinrichs did with piano in her monumentally great collection of Bingen transcriptions.  Other delights abound.  The Corea pieces charm in their tuneful simplicity, the Moondog pieces scarcely less so.  The Monk sounds of Parsifal in its opening and closing pages, flanking extended musical hypnotism.  The Evans may stretch out too far, sounding (sadly but appropriately) like it emerges from an opium haze.  The Messiaen works shockingly well, sounding sort of like Messiaen, but shorn of excess, bombast, and jarring sound.  Seriously, Shibe should transcribe more Messiaen as well.  The second Bingen piece reveals the secret effect mass can have on a saucer.  (Let's see if anyone gets that oblique mix of arcane references.)  The few more recent pieces from lesser-known composers all come off very well, seeming to have been penned for the guitarist. 

This is a not a recording to listen to frequently.  Had it been around when I was in college, I would no doubt have spun this in tandem with Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, though it would never have displaced Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar as my most listened to recording.  This does make me think I should listen to Shibe's more traditional recordings, just to see what he does unplugged. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 22, 2023, 05:32:38 AM
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Rebecca Dale, apparently the first female composer signed by Decca, is a young-ish British composer (under 40) who wrote this Materna Requiem in memory of her mother, who passed away in 2010.  This Requiem rates as the gentlest, most melodically beautiful one I've ever heard.  Even Faure sounds rough by comparison.  Indeed, the plush, string heavy writing, some prominent harp, and a saccharine movie soundtrack style ends up working against the composition.  It's not awful, but think of Delius or Rutter (apparently) writing a serious piece for a Ron Howard feel-good flick, and that's the vibe.  Seriously, the Ave Maria could be dropped into any number of schlock flicks, and no one would be the wiser.  A bit of drama comes in the Carmina Burana/action flick sounding Dies Irae.  Since Ms Dale has written extensively for the screen, her style comes as no surprise.  The accompanying When Music Sounds sets various poems to unabashed soundtrack style music.  Overall, this is not my kind of music, but others very clearly like it, and I'm happy enough to have listened once. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on January 22, 2023, 06:57:24 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 22, 2023, 05:32:38 AMRebecca Dale, apparently the first female composer signed by Decca, is a young-ish British composer (under 40) who wrote this Materna Requiem in memory of her mother, who passed away in 2010.  This Requiem rates as the gentlest, most melodically beautiful one I've ever heard.  Even Faure sounds rough by comparison. 

Wow! A must hear for me, thank you for the tip.

(See now why I am greatly reluctant to ignore you for good?  ;D  )


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 24, 2023, 05:03:09 AM
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Here's something new, or rather quite old.  It's definitely entirely un-western.  Lebanese-Canadian singer Lamia Yared, joined by seven instrumentalists playing eastern instruments (oud, tombak, etc), sings songs from different Ottoman courts spread across what are now Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and Iran.  Now, I've heard songs and music from the orient before, but not so many all at once.  The music has a transfixing effect, especially as Yared's somewhat dark voice often seductively  pushes the words at the listener.  (Since I had to stream and had no booklet to refer to, I don't know precisely what she sings, though the gist is clear in some songs.)  Married to her voice is a rhythmic fluidity from the instrumentalists that really sounds fantastic, as in fantasy-like.  The instrumental support undulates and swings and curves around the singer.  It never sounds heavy, thick, sluggish, nor does it sound antsy or too energetic.  It blends perfectly together. 

This recording was produced independently and is distributed by CD Baby, and the sound quality is nice enough, though it is balanced to focus on Yared's voice.  Understandably.  More recently, she made a recording for Analekta.  I think I shall give that a shot.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 29, 2023, 05:18:00 AM
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My X surname classical collection is woefully lacking.  Sure, Xenakis has emotionally scarred me like so many other classical music fans, but other than that, nary a composer with a last name starting with this mysterious letter populates my physical collection or resides on my hard drive.  So here's a chance to sort of rectify that in the form of streaming Guan Xia's Earth Requiem.  Xia and/or the A&R folks at Erato caught Michel Plasson's attention, so an actual, world-renowned conductor waves the stick here.   Now, a cynical sort might consider the market forces at play here, with a prominent Chinese composer having written the work in response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and with the work played by the China National Symphony Orchestra.  That seems to guarantee pretty good sales in a pretty big market.  Maybe the whole project was an exercise in artistic purity, who knows?

Ultimately, it's the music that matters.  This work is not a setting of the Requiem Mass, but rather commemorates the dead and celebrates the living.  Set in four long movements, it sounds rather like a big old choral symphony.  Xia, like Dale, has spent some time writing movie soundtracks and it shows.  Rather than Ron Howard, the name that leaps to mind in the milquetoast Mahler opening called Gazing at the stars is Kevin Costner circa 1990.  The second movement, Heavenly Wind and Earth Fire, has more fire in its belly in the first half and in the coda, and may very well serve as musical background to a Chris Hemsworth vehicle.    Some lovely winds, with flutes prominent, introduce the third movement, Boundless Love, an achingly saccharine movement that could probably serve as love theme to a Rachel McAdams tearjerker/awards bait romance – the female lead contracts some terrible disease, confronts mortality, recognizes the good in her life, and fully embraces the love all around her, that sorta thing.  The work closes with Wings of Angels.  It opens with the Qiang flute, rendering this a Requiem with Chinese Characteristics, before adding organ and then moving to the chorus.  It sounds more ebullient and celebratory and less soundtracky than the preceding movements and may be marginally better. 

So, like the Dale Requiem, this is a one and done recording, and one that, at best, I'm indifferent to.  Nah, I dislike it.  YMMV. 

Sonics, playing, and singing is all perfectly fine.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 01, 2023, 04:45:35 AM
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The second recording from Lamia Yared is more or less a bigger budget sequel to the first.  Entitled Ottoman Splendours, it moves slightly west, mixing Turkish, Greek, and Spehardic songs and instrumental music.  The recorded sound is better, and while it still emphasizes Yared, it is less pronounced.  The instrumentation is more varied and complex, and the music definitely sounds more diverse.  Tres Harmanicas eran, a 17th Century tune from Sarajevo, sounds familiar, though I cannot place where I've heard it before.  Kouklaki Mou, which dates from 1920 Istanbul, sounds like a seamless blend of klezmer music, Turkish music, and points the way to Kurt Weill.  It's basically a show tune.  The recording works well, but it has less of a wow factor than the first disc from this team, mainly because it sounds more familiar.  To an extent, Yared reminds me of Isabel Bayrakdarian, though neither of these discs achieve the same mind-numbing greatness the Armenian has delivered time and again.  Still, I do rather want to hear what else Ms Yared will sing.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 03, 2023, 04:03:34 AM
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Holy smokes!  This is the first time I've listened to Mendelssohn's Elijah, and it knocked my socks off.  I've long known his Lobgesang, which has its moments, but this is something else.  The first couple movements are dramatic and gripping, and then all heaven breaks loose.  The great Paul McCreesh, one of my favorite living conductors, sought to reconstruct the 1846 premiere and assembled massive forces and a massive organ and everything hits with maximal force in Help, Lord!  It nearly out Mahlers Mahler.  Things then settle into a fairly direct oratorio, with solo bits, nice accompaniment, superb transparency, and so forth.  But one always wants the next echt-melodramatic musical wallop to arrive, which it does in Yet doth the Lord see it not and over and over.  The biblical texts all work well in the composition, indicating no little thoughtfulness in the selection process.  As performed, this is a suitable stand-in for an historical-ish opera.  I kind of wish I would have listened to it years ago.

Everyone performs their parts well, the chorus does superb work, and the organ shakes the foundation.  I know there are other recordings out there, so I may very well try another.  And now that I tried McCreesh in 19th Century fare, that Berlioz Requiem he did seems mighty inviting.

A purchase of the year.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 05, 2023, 05:06:42 AM
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Next up, Bruno Maderna, a modernist composer and conductor of no little renown.  I needed something with a bit of edge and heft after two saccharine works.  At first, I was taken aback as the Requiem Aeternam is performed a capella and sounds perfectly tonal.  It sounds very beautiful, very sparse, very tense.  I briefly wondered to myself what if Maderna went for a modernist Rore style?  Well, come the Kyrie, instruments enter the fray, including piano and trumpet, often singly, disparate in time and space, to nice effect.  It's not until the massive Dies Irae that one hears the more unabashedly, imposing modernist style fully appear.  The large orchestra pumps out musical ferocity and the chorus adds vocal heft to that.  Here's the antidote to Dale and Xia.  The soloists also get to start in, some singing with full band, sometimes in tandem with each other, and, most effectively when it occurs, singing while one or a small number of instruments lend haunting support.  As the work proceeds, one hears distilled and modernized influences such as, perhaps, Verdi in the Sanctus.  And Maderna adds a nice touch in the Agnus Dei, where the two female soloists are matched with two pianos plunking out gently dissonant support, along with other forces as needed.  It's strikingly beautiful and effective.  The work closes out with a Libera Me boasting more than a little tension and forward, insistent playing of the band under the chorus.  It blends tradition and modernism quite nicely.

Overall, this is an excellent work, and definitely a qualitative step up from the last two works I sampled, though it does not have the impact of the first two.  All forces perform very nicely, indeed.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 08, 2023, 04:45:38 AM
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Michael Hersch is a name I have only seen up to this point, and that is because his compositions attract the talent of, and result in recordings by, Miranda Cuckson and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.  For my  first foray into his music, I opted to hear what the former did way back in 2010, as reissued in 2022.  The recording is comprised of three works: the half-hour and change Fourteen Pieces for Violin; the twenty-one movement, half-hour and change The Wreckage of Flowers, where Cuckson is joined by her frequent collaborator Blair McMillen; and finally, Five Fragments for Violin, which is over in mere minutes.

Both big works are set to and with poems and prose by two different authors.  There's no singing or speaking, but rather the texts are artistic partners.  These are not programmatic works in the style of Liszt, but rather inspirations.  The big solo violin work is a tough row to hoe for the listener, but it is a rewarding one.  There's not one tune to be heard, but there's much expression.  The loud passages often shriek, exuding anger or suffering, with double stops and dissonances tearing at the listener's ear.  They leave an immediate impression.  But not as much as the quieter music.  Often as astringent as the loud music, but sometimes far more accessible, as played by Cuckson, the quietude forces one to pay close attention, to glean the import of the note, sometimes while contemplating the text, sometimes while hearing only the sound.  At times, pizzicato will punctuate longer, unattractive lines, which will then build up to something intense and focused (the wonderful VIII).  The third Intermezzo (XI) sounds intensely austere but also hints at romantic gestures, while the following movement harks back to Berg and Bartok – how I would love to hear FPZ tackle this.  If that were not enough, the second Nocturne (XIII) starts off with hushed, nearly silent pizzacati, with extended pauses, before switching to tense slashing, and then ending in silence.  This should be transcribed for piano.  The slow, somber, almost tuneful final movement brings this solo violin drama to a most satisfying conclusion.

The Wreckage of Flowers mixes things up with a piano.  McMillen plays with clarity, sharp staccato, and some bright upper registers.  There are some more vibrant pieces that take full advantage of the percussive instrument and the contrast between the instruments (No 10, for instance), but for me, as with the solo violin work, it is the quieter music that again shines.  Nos 3 and 9 sound more haunting and subdued, inviting to the listener to contemplate things no less weighty than eternity itself.  OK, that description is histrionic, but these pieces are more contemplative.  There's something immediately attractive about how Hersch sees no need to overload the music with gobs of notes when far fewer will get the message across.  That's not to say that the music is minimalist – it's not – but nor is it maximalist.  It is, however, almost Webernian in its economy at times.  That written, No 18, meant to tie to a huge flock of crows, is condensed musical maximalism, and it works, too. 

The tiny Five Fragments for Violin generally sound more shrill, intense, and cutting than the first work.  This is even more Webernian in type, and really, I kind of wanted more, to see where it could go.

The recorded sound allows for some resonance to be heard, and it strikes me as absolutely necessary to conveying the musical message.  I have a sneaking suspicion all the works would be blockbusters in person in a small performing venue.  The Fourteen Pieces for Violin fairly screams out for at least some idiosyncratic playing, to emphasize the moment.  Indeed, it's the kind of work where one wants to hear to it multiple times, which changes every time. 


Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on February 08, 2023, 11:31:24 AM
Here's an oldie for ya.

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Written by a mixed-race Brazilian priest, this Requiem is pretty explicitly modeled after examples like Mozart and Cherubini. In some places it seems to anticipate Verdi, too. The Dies irae is a firecracker.

Derivative, probably. But when you model your work after the very best, well, that means your work is pretty great too. I absolutely loved it. And at 35 minutes, it doesn't require a ton of commitment. Will listen again soon.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on February 09, 2023, 09:47:51 AM
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A mixed bag with the theme of French women composers. Betsy Jolas, still alive at age 96, gets top billing for a 12 minute suite of miniatures, but that top billing might be warranted despite the small nature of the piece, because she has genuine personality and a real ear for color. The piece, A Little Summer Suite, might be compared to a series of watercolors: quick, ephemeral sketches of summertime memories, with subtitles like "Strolling about." The language takes some inspiration from French modern masters, Messiaen particularly, and includes lots of soloistic writing for an orchestra that sounds chamber-like but is, I think, probably pretty big.

Before that, the biggest successes on the disc are the two works by Lili Boulanger, D'un matin de printemps and D'un soir triste, that are on their way to becoming global concert repertoire staples. Whether because of affirmative action or merit, you might argue, but I like them a lot and find these performances colorful and persuasive.

Less successful are works by French romantics Melanie Bonis and Augusta Holmes. Holmes' piece, Andromeda, is a symphonic poem loosely in sonata form, and is pleasant and colorful without being memorable. Bonis' suite is an unfortunate attempt to create Debussy-like impressionist portraits of three "legendary women": Cleopatra, Ophelia, and Salome. The first two pieces bear almost no resemblance to their subjects, instead being a sort of generic early Debussian language (think of the Petite Suite, for example). For Salome, her inspiration turns to Rimsky-Korsakov, including Scheherazade and the opera suites.

All in all, unfortunately, not one of these composers exhibits a wholly original voice, but Jolas and Boulanger come closest, providing the best combination of character and craftsmanship. As always with composers like Bonis and Holmes (and Florence Price), my thought is not to blame the composers for any lack of structural or orchestral craft, but to blame the men around them for, presumably, not providing them the same kind of educational and creative opportunities that all composers need to achieve their full capability. In fact, all three of the just-named women were much more successful in chamber music and miniatures, suggesting that the talent was absolutely there, it just was not cultivated by the system of that era. So this disc is a mix of intriguing rarities and heartbreaking missed opportunities.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 12, 2023, 05:16:40 AM
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Moving back to a composer with some soundtrack experience, it's Tigran Mansurian time.  This marks my first exposure to his music.  Now, the movie soundtrack background gave me pause, but the absolutely fantastic Armenian liturgical music legacy gave me hope.  Of course, my exposure to the latter is limited solely to music performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, but her recordings rate among my purchases of the century, so I retained high hopes.  Such hopes were well-founded.  While lacking the in-your-face impact of Pinho Vargas or the chaotic genius of BAZ, this setting blends the standard text with music at once melodic, ethereal, intense, haunting, flowing, modern, ancient, and beautiful, with moments of repose and introspection peppered in.  Mansurian also shows how to crank out a fiery Dies Irae with limited forces, and one that evokes ancient airs while sounding modern.  But it is the Domine Jesu Christe that really drives home the quality of this work.  The music inhabits the same soundworld as the best of Bayrakdarian discs, and the soprano Anja Petersen does excellent work, but the style of music immediately made me wish the Canadian had been given singing duties.  Of course, it's not just the soprano in the movement: everything comes together splendidly.  That holds true for the whole thing.  Being an ECM production, everything is tip top.

As with Pinho Vargas , Mansurian is now a composer I feel impelled to explore more.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on February 13, 2023, 10:40:21 AM
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Stewart Goodyear's "Callaloo" is a piano concerto in five movements, the fourth being a solo cadenza that builds a long transition from the slowish third up to a raucous finale climax. In other words, it's exactly the same as the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto.

OK, maybe not. It's strongly influenced by his Trinidadian roots and calypso, plus jazz and (one imagines) pianistic virtuoso-composers like Prokofiev. There are no slow movements. The closest we get is a fairly lively ballad. The language varies from more sophisticated to overtly populist partying in the finale. It sounds like a blast, with lots of rhythmic motifs, and I hope he gets to tour with it and perform it in front of many big orchestras. It is loads of fun and has more classical structure and overall integrity as a conception than, say, the Kapustin pastiches.

His piano sonata starts with a fast movement that's like Oscar Peterson playing 12-tone. Or something. The second movement is more of a ballad than even the concerto's ballad, a long melody that spins out from start to end. I like Goodyear's humble description of the sonata, which he wrote at age 18: "The Piano Sonata was inspired by my high school prom and the music of my age group. As this was a teenage work, my youthful exuberance also wanted to pull out all the stops and create the most difficult piano work ever composed. This sonata is therefore a combination of piano virtuosity, teenage hubris, and the popular music I heard in 1996." The virtuosity required in the final 60 seconds, especially, is over the top ridiculous.

In other words, it's not so different from Earl Wild's Piano Sonata 2000 and its finale, the "Toccata a la Ricky Martin."

EDIT: Oh, and this performance of Rhapsody in Blue isn't a slouch, either. Terrific disc.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 13, 2023, 10:58:24 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 13, 2023, 10:40:21 AMIn other words, it's not so different from Earl Wild's Piano Sonata 2000 and its finale, the "Toccata a la Ricky Martin."

I have never listened to Wild's sonata.  Armed with the information reported here, I will add it to my list of things to hear.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 15, 2023, 04:19:29 AM
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My interest piqued by claims of Antoine Forqueray's devilry, I decided to listen to some of his music.  Sure, I could have gone with Jordi Savall to start, and I will listen to him in due course, but I wanted something newer, fresher.  Lucile Boulanger's surname caught my eye, so this mixed rep recording earned a listen on the basis of that alone.  I streamed, so I didn't read the notes, but the back cover indicates that Tony's two compositions aside, and one from one of his sons, most of the works are transcriptions for his instrument. 

And fine transcriptions they are, seeming to demand rather significant playing ability.  There's much energy and vibrancy and no little groove to the music.  As to Antoine, the Le Leclair has some hyper-virtuosic elements that seem no less than precursors to Paganini and Liszt.  The substantive entire Fourth Suite is most overtly virtuosic of the works, with ample boogie and rhythmic variegation, with the soloist required to move all over the place, thrusting out vibrant playing, and sometimes lovely and languid playing, seemingly without a merciful rest.  While not diabolical, it does sound fiendishly difficult.  Ms Boulanger's musical collaborators seem to have a slightly easier time, though I would not say easy.  I should also note that the second movement, La Clément, has a recognizable tune, though where I recognize it from I cannot say.  It could be from some other arrangement, or a recording I forgot I listened to, but the tune caught my ear specifically because I do not remember hearing it in a baroque context.

Perhaps the most fun aspect of this recording is that the main soloist is multi-talented.  Not only can she play the viola da gamba at a world class level, she's an accomplished voice actress.  She provided the French voiceover for Dora the Explorer and the French dubbing for Maeby Fünke, among other characters. 

This recording gives me two new paths to explore: the Forqueray family and Ms Boulanger.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 19, 2023, 05:08:25 AM
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Having listened to BAZ's Requiem, which includes soundbites o' Hitler, how provocative or daring could Evgeni Kostitsyn's American Requiem I be?  It is a Requiem written in the wake of 9/11 and includes all manner of texts from various sources, great and less great, including Lincoln, Dubya, Osama bin Laden, the Good Book, the Koran, and in a stylistic mishmash reminiscent of BAZ, it includes Gregorian Chant, Dixieland jazz, rock/pop, and so forth.  Such a style can work fantastically well.  Or not.  This recording starts off with the basses droning on in chant, way too closely recorded – something that gets even worse in some places – and then moves on to full choir and soloists in turn.  The orchestral music, solo instrumental and small ensemble sections, and jazz, pop, and electronic bits all come and go, as do some reciters.  In artistic spirit, it is quite similar to BAZ, but in composition and construction and execution, it is no match.  There's a very amateurish, almost grad student project vibe to the whole thing.  Clearly, this was not produced by a record label with bucks to spend, so that is to be expected.  It's not a completely terrible work, but it is not great, and not even particularly good.  Maybe it needs a rerecording – or a rewrite. 

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 22, 2023, 05:57:23 AM
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A few years back, I discovered Isabel Bayrakdarian while listening to a group of works by Armenian composers.  Rediscovery is a better description since I'd long owned MTT's Mahler 2, in which she performs, and she sang in The Lord of the Rings soundtrack.  But it was with Joyous Light, one of my purchases on the century, where I became permanently and irrevocably enamored with her voice.  I snapped up various other recordings, but nothing in a while.  Revisiting John Axelrod's recording of Górecki's Third, I determined I should try something else, so I picked up two new to me recordings.  I decided to listen to this disc, La Zingarella – Through Romany Songland, first, just 'cuz.  The recording includes setting of gypsy or gypsy-inspired songs from all over the world by eleven different composers, seven I've heard before, and four newbies (kinda).  The old hands are Liszt, Brahms, Dvořák, Bizet, Lehár, Kálmán, and Herbert.  The newbies for me are Sebastián Iradier (kinda), Joaquín Valverde, Henry FB Gilbert, and Maurice Yvain.  While I have heard Liszt, Brahms, and Dvořák songs before, it wouldn't have mattered much since all but Bizet's Habanera are presented here in new chamber music arrangements, with a special focus on violin. Violinist Mark Fewer handles the crucial violin part throughout, and Juan-Miguel Hernandez handles the viola.  The Gryphon Trio joins in, as well. 

With twenty-seven tracks, it doesn't make sense to go into great detail.  Suffice it to report that Liszt's opener sets a high standard which is met right through to the end of the disc.  Brahms' Zigeunerlieder all come off splendidly well, with both the gypsy elements and the Brahmsian sound intact.  Dvořák's Cigánské Melodie offer a qualitative step up from the Liszt and Brahms, with the original tunes, the new arrangements, and the singer's singing all combining to pack a wallop.  Then comes the surprise in the form of Sebastián Iradier.  Three beefy songs all sound as tuneful, as seductive, as compelling as anything, with the ending and very famous El arreglito the right way to cap off his music.  (Bayrakdarian knew how to select the tunes.)  The super-famous Bizet comes next, and Bayrakdarian nails it.  The brief Valverde piece sounds lovely.  Then come two from Gilbert, reverted back to the original Spanish from his English setting, and the songs of South American Chinganeros have real verve and swing.  The title for the album comes from an 1889 book by Laura Alexandrine Smith, and the two song texts derive from that book.  The four closing tracks are all extracted from various operattas, and all sound just nifty, and fully like what one expects stylistically.  The Kálmán manages to mix gypsy music and a Puccinian soundworld quite expertly.  Super nice.  The lucky listeners gets to hear Bayrakdarian sing in English in the famous Herbert closer, and she nails it. 

Sonics are superb.  Bayrakdarian gets much love and attention and sounds larger than life, and that's fine, but she does not suffer from vocal gigantism.  The church the music was recorded in sounds fantastic, with perfect decay and resonance for the music, and the engineers went for a truthful, wide-dynamic range sound.  Oh yeah.  Playing is all top notch, and the accompanying notes are nice enough.  It's also pretty much an all Bayrakdarian affair, as she produced and owns the recording.  I also learned that she has a degree in biomedical engineering and currently is a prof and admin at UCSB.  She's a Renaissance Woman.

A purchase of the year?  Oh yeah, a purchase of the year.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 26, 2023, 04:48:10 AM
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One joy of this Requiem survey is the number of new to me composers I am encountering, like Thierry Huillet.  A pianist composer in the mold of the great Fazil Say, he has recorded a decent amount as a pianist, has won competitions, teaches, and does the things so many other contemporary composers do.   So maybe this dude can deliver another knockout Requiem with a different sound.  You see, this Requiem is scored for two sopranos and strings.  It starts with appealingly wordless vocalizing, before the strings arrive, and they evoke some darkness.  But then the pattern of the work is established.  Beautiful singing soaring over almost constantly lyrical string writing.  Huillet mixes things up and with no little frequency peppers the string writing with nice dissonances, but of the loveliest type.  Indeed, the pared down forces almost cannot help but sound beautiful.  In the continuous Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum, some edgy scruffiness is introduced in the form of what amounts to Schreienstimme, but that just emphasizes and does not terrify.  In the Agnus Dei, Huillet summons sounds quite reminiscent of Bartók's Divertimento.  Overall, this is quite the nice, modernist, French Requiem.  Not a towering masterpiece, but something to revisit with no compunction.  Huillet and the record label also provide the listener with a brief encore in the form of a Prelude for Viola and String Orchestra.  It's a heckuva an encore.  Ample tension, tasty dissonance, and drama pervade.  The very brief piece most definitely leaves the listener wanting more.  That's the way to do it. 

Playing, singing, and sound are all up to contemporary standards.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 01, 2023, 04:12:43 AM
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While revisiting the recordings of Moriz Rosenthal, my ears perked up a bit when he played a miniature by Anatoly Liadov.  I don't know for sure how many pieces by Lyadov I have heard, though I am certain they are all small and buried in big boxes.  But there was enough there, as played by Rosenthal, that I thought I should sample an all-Lyadov recording.  As it happens, they are rare, especially so when it comes to piano.  I did manage to find this recording by Yoko Kikuchi (I don't know if she's related to Yusuke).  The sixteen tracks cover fourteen miniatures (Preludes, Waltzes, and the like) and two beefier sets of variations. 

It is not inaccurate to state that the Preludes sound like proto-Scriabin works, creating a bridge between Chopin and the Mysterium dude.  They sound lovely and languid, and Kikuchi plays with a very sensitive touch, and a closely recorded one at that.  The sometimes encored Une tabatière à musique comes off nicely, and the two waltzes sound pleasant enough, though the "petite" waltz is substantially longer than the regular one.  Variations sur un thème populaire polonaise, Op. 51 follows, and this offers something a bit more.  The foursquare theme allows the composer to liberally expand on the material in several directions, sort of like LvB's Diabellis, though the result here is not a towering masterpiece.  It does generally sound quite beautiful, and occasionally a bit dynamic, but it remains compact and safe, which works well.  The stilted rhythm and brightness of Marionnettes, Op. 29 renders it one of the most delightful pieces included here.  Surely, it should appear on more programs.  A couple more miniatures follow, and then comes the big work, Variations sur un thème de Glinka, Op. 35.  By turns lovely, jaunty, introspective, and gleeful, it sounds basically like Slavic Mendelssohn, with some Schumann tossed in for good measure.  I can't say it's a titanic masterpiece, but it exceeded (admittedly) low expectations.  A couple more miniatures end the recording in fine, lovely style. 

Ms Kikuchi plays excellently throughout, making me think I should listen to more of her recordings.  I shall make it a point to try more Lyadov, as well. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on March 01, 2023, 06:52:45 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 01, 2023, 04:12:43 AMI thought I should sample an all-Lyadov recording.  As it happens, they are rare, especially so when it comes to piano.

...

I shall make it a point to try more Lyadov, as well.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KcH6f53+L._AC_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81omhW8981L._AC_SL1406_.jpg)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 05, 2023, 05:57:27 AM
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Here's a two out of three new composer disc.  Alfred Desenclos and Pierre Villette are both new to me, though Poulenc very much is not.  Both Desenclos and Villette are 20th Century composers who do not appear to have written much in the way of frequently played works in the concert and recital halls of the world, but they seem to have known their business on the basis of this recording.

Desenclos' Messe de Requiem, dating from 1963, sounds entirely unlike what one would think a work from that year would sound like.  It's a thirty-six-minute setting for organ and chorus, thus evoking the type of sound that has been used for Requiems for a few centuries now.  It is influenced by music going all the way back to chant, but it more resembles the gentle, gorgeous – and I mean gorgeous – style one associates with Faure and Durufle.  The extent one enjoys this may depend on how much one enjoys organ music, which is very well done, but the choral writing is at times so sumptuously and achingly and romantically beautiful, with such bewitching harmonies, that one nearly melts into a puddle of spiritual goo.  For me, I see it as a Faure- Ešenvalds mashup, though it does not ascend to the highest heights of either, nor does it sound like either.  This piece sounds both hyper-conservative and radical given its composition year, and it constitutes a spectacular find.  I am completely certain that some people would hear this and think of it as a snoozefest, but there you go.

Three Villette and then and then two Desenclos a capella pieces follow.  All display similar degrees of beauty as the Requiem, though scaled down.  The disc closes out with Poulenc's Litanies à la vierge noire de Rocamadour, which includes organ.  More dissonant and modern than the other composers' works, it, too beguiles.  I have Dutoit's version, so an A/B, while not needed, could be fun.

Singers and organists do superb work.  This recording is so fine that I suspect I shall buy it.  It's just over an hour of transportive beauty, a respite from the violence and propaganda and unyielding noise of the world. 

Magnifique.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 08, 2023, 09:30:48 AM
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So, like, I ain't a fan of harps.  Never have been.  I don't hate harps, I just don't really care for them, and I have never sought out a recording including harp.  I mention this because this recording relies heavily on the harp.  The harp remains the only constant accompaniment for all songs, with a flute and duduk alternately adding more color and contrast for Ms Bayrakdarian in this collection of twenty-nine Armenian songs for children.  It turns out that for this recording and this music, the harp is the thing.  It's needed and only it would suffice to help augment the soprano's singing.

And that singing is some of the most mesmerizing, beautiful, touching, and moving I've ever heard.  This is the small-scale, intimate companion to Joyous Light.  Bayrakdarian may very well offer this recording as a learning aid to her voice students, so perfectly realized is the execution.  Every syllable, every note, every inflection is both obviously thought out and delivered with deep emotional involvement and spontaneity.  That is to say, the singing is perfect.  That's all deafeningly obvious even before reading the liner notes.  Some of these songs have been sung in her family for generations, stretching back to her ancestors' history in the old country.  Her mother sang some of these songs to her as an infant, just as she did for her children, to whom she dedicates this recording.  The selections include songs that survived with her family, who lived through the Armenian Genocide, thus magnifying their significance.  The songs themselves come from the well-known Gomidas Vartabed (aka, Komitas), and his less well-known students Parsegh Ganatchian and Mihran Toumajan, and some traditional folk songs are included as well.  Every single song captivates, and for me the Ganatchian songs probably stand out as the most meltingly beautiful and affecting. 

This recording was very much a passion project for Ms Bayrakdarian, who made sure to include Armenian language lyrics.  A map of the Ottoman Empire at the start of the 20th Century is included, along with reference to the cities represented in the selected songs.  WaPo writer David Ignatius and his sister Sarah penned the intro.  Bayrakdarian also included family photos with her children, godchildren, and one of her as an infant with her namesake great-grandmother.  The seriousness and devotion here is beyond question.   

This is one of the greatest vocal recital recordings I've ever heard.  It equals Joyous Light

A purchase of the century. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 12, 2023, 06:23:21 AM
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I won't lie, this recording of Vyacheslav Artyomov's Requiem caught my eye because of the nifty cover image.  Marketing works.  I perused the Wikipedia article for the composer, and the things that stuck out are his background in physics and the fact that he was blacklisted.  That latter fact may help explain why his Requiem, penned in the 80s, is dedicated To the Martyrs of Long-suffering Russia.  Maybe not.  Whatever the case, this modern work seemed to demand attention.

An organ blast followed quickly by choral outpouring starts things off in an intense, dark, at times eerie, and almost constantly dissonant fashion.  These traits never completely abate, nor do what sound to me like Eastern Orthodox musical traditions, but I could be wrong on that one.  What seems even more evident is the influence of Gubaidulina and Ligeti on his style.  Indeed, some of the passages sound so much like Ligeti, that it triggered a (false) sense of musical déjà vu.  I mean this as the highest possible compliment.  The blending of soloists, chorus, orchestra, and organ is so seamless, so smooth, with such unerringly well executed transitions, that the massive work just flows along, one potent idea to the next.  Some of the compositional devices might sound trite on their own and in a different context, but not here.  And then there are some unique things.  The disorienting undulating sound of the Offertorium followed by the purposely wobbly (and maybe electronically distorted) singing in the Sanctus bring something new to the genre, at least in my listening experience.  The two-part Libera Me has a massive, rumbling organ underpinning the chorus in the first half, and a great orchestral lament to open the second half that really hits the spot.  The work concludes with an In Paradisum that starts with a Messiaenesque blob of birdcall accentuated by obtrusively closely recorded percussion before swelling into a grandiose, almost indistinct wall of sound with chorus, before returning to a lighter, bird call infused cloud of ethereal goodness.  Yeah, just yeah.

No less than Dimitri Kitaenko conducts the work, and he does a rather fine job, as do the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the soloists, and the two choirs.  Excellent sound rounds out a fine recording.  I will have to explore more Artyomov, and based on this and the Kastalsky Requiem, I may have to explore more liturgical music in the Russian and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: foxandpeng on March 12, 2023, 01:46:03 PM
Quote from: Todd on March 12, 2023, 06:23:21 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71rdo3ysGIL._SY425_.jpg)

I won't lie, this recording of Vyacheslav Artyomov's Requiem caught my eye because of the nifty cover image.  Marketing works.  I perused the Wikipedia article for the composer, and the things that stuck out are his background in physics and the fact that he was blacklisted.  That latter fact may help explain why his Requiem, penned in the 80s, is dedicated To the Martyrs of Long-suffering Russia.  Maybe not.  Whatever the case, this modern work seemed to demand attention.

An organ blast followed quickly by choral outpouring starts things off in an intense, dark, at times eerie, and almost constantly dissonant fashion.  These traits never completely abate, nor do what sound to me like Eastern Orthodox musical traditions, but I could be wrong on that one.  What seems even more evident is the influence of Gubaidulina and Ligeti on his style.  Indeed, some of the passages sound so much like Ligeti, that it triggered a (false) sense of musical déjà vu.  I mean this as the highest possible compliment.  The blending of soloists, chorus, orchestra, and organ is so seamless, so smooth, with such unerringly well executed transitions, that the massive work just flows along, one potent idea to the next.  Some of the compositional devices might sound trite on their own and in a different context, but not here.  And then there are some unique things.  The disorienting undulating sound of the Offertorium followed by the purposely wobbly (and maybe electronically distorted) singing in the Sanctus bring something new to the genre, at least in my listening experience.  The two-part Libera Me has a massive, rumbling organ underpinning the chorus in the first half, and a great orchestral lament to open the second half that really hits the spot.  The work concludes with an In Paradisum that starts with a Messiaenesque blob of birdcall accentuated by obtrusively closely recorded percussion before swelling into a grandiose, almost indistinct wall of sound with chorus, before returning to a lighter, bird call infused cloud of ethereal goodness.  Yeah, just yeah.

No less than Dimitri Kitaenko conducts the work, and he does a rather fine job, as do the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the soloists, and the two choirs.  Excellent sound rounds out a fine recording.  I will have to explore more Artyomov, and based on this and the Kastalsky Requiem, I may have to explore more liturgical music in the Russian and Eastern Orthodox traditions.


Thank you for this.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 13, 2023, 12:16:12 PM
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Yuja Wang playing bespoke music.  Both the great Michael Tilson Thomas and his protégé Teddy Abrams wrote a piece for Wang to play and record for DG to fulfill contractual obligations.  One work travels better than the other.  I'll start there.  MTT's You Come Here Often? is a light, bright, breezy, jazzy good time of an encore.  Filled with ample notes and virtuosic passages, it allows Wang to strut her formidable stuff.  I suspect she'll use it as an encore for quite some time.  She should.

Wang's pal Teddy Abrams, director of the Louisville Orchestra which he conducts here, penned the eleven-movement, nearly forty-minute Piano Concerto to showcase his writing and her playing.  The piece opens with a big and beefy and very big band sounding intro before moving on to the first of four cadenzas.  The piece mostly sounds like an abstracted pastiche.  Some musical quotations can be heard, but mostly it's jazz, show tunes, movie soundtracks, rock and pop music, and generic classical forms and periods that move in and out of earshot.  Abrams has an ear for orchestration, but the music doesn't really work for me.  Except for those cadenzas.  The big one is the second one, which is the fifth movement, and which serves as the literal center of the piece.  It's a showstopper, with Wang blazing away in grand and grandiose fashion, with old-fashioned romantic playing that smacks a bit of Rachmaninoff in a few places.  As Wang dispatches everything with seeming ease, one hears just why she can and does deliver such kick-ass Prokofiev.  She can make gnarly and dissonant sound dead simple and attractive, and she can dispatch notes as fast and nimbly as anyone, ever.  The subsequent cadenzas also work exceptionally well, too.  Which makes sense. 

Playing and sound and such are all fine, but it's hard to see paying for a barely over forty-minute recording just to pick up a worthwhile encore.  Streaming will suffice.

Now, hopefully, Ms Wang returns to more satisfying fare for her next recording.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bachtoven on March 13, 2023, 04:01:58 PM
 I was hugely disappointed and liked it even less than you did! How she can go from Magnus Lindberg's 3rd Piano Concerto (also written for her and I attended the world premiere) to this trite piece is beyond me. I hope she was well compensated.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 13, 2023, 04:10:10 PM
Quote from: Bachtoven on March 13, 2023, 04:01:58 PMHow she can go from Magnus Lindberg's 3rd Piano Concerto (also written for her and I attended the world premiere) to this trite piece is beyond me.

My understanding is that it was a vanity piece written by a friend. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Bachtoven on March 13, 2023, 04:30:59 PM
Quote from: Todd on March 13, 2023, 04:10:10 PMMy understanding is that it was a vanity piece written by a friend.
I gathered that, too. Doesn't make it any better! It's crappy enough to be a huge hit.  :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 13, 2023, 04:46:29 PM
Quote from: Bachtoven on March 13, 2023, 04:30:59 PMI gathered that, too. Doesn't make it any better! It's crappy enough to be a huge hit.  :)

I guess I don't see the problem.  The Abrams piece is a mediocrity, like a fair number of new compositions.  It will likely put butts in seats and sell some recordings, perhaps attract a few new fans, and then disappear into the ether.  I'd prefer to hear nothing but new masterpieces, but that won't happen.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 19, 2023, 05:35:36 AM
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Nancy Galbraith is entirely new to me, something I feel just a tad embarrassed about.  An American composer, and the Chair of Composition at Carnegie Mellon, she has been cranking out hits since the days when Elton John and John Denver ruled the airwaves.  Somewhat like Haskell Small, she is a regional artist, which on evidence of this recording is something of a shame.  But then, there are multiple recordings of her works, so that is a plus.   

Jumping in, Galbraith's Requiem expertly blends the bold and the beautiful.  Nary a rough edge is to be heard most of the time.  Certainly, the Requiem Aeternam sounds softly beautiful start to finish, with the percussion adding color and not bite.  The Dies Irae offers a contrast.  Rhythmically snappy, with what sounds like hints of Revueltas thrown in (!), Galbraith employs emphatic, insistent, repetitive chant in the opening, with the intensity appropriate to the context, but then she has the music fade away to something more beautiful.  The Tuba Mirum comes off as theatrical and almost movie soundtracky, but in a less derivative way than prior entries in this survey.  Were it to show up in a film, a Darren Aronofsky film would not be out of the question.  The work sort of bubbles along, never sounding harsh, and sometimes, as in the Ingemisco, the combo of strings, voices, and discreetly deployed winds really tickles the ear.  And the Lacrimosa really soothes in its gentler than Faure beauty.  I will admit to some misgivings with the Offertorium, with its Coplandesque use of percussion, but that seems a tradeoff worth making.  Galbraith ends with a Libera Me that sounds tender, gentle, and ethereally beautiful.  This Requiem is not hard-hitting and intense and captivating like some of the others in this survey, and it does not rise to the level of Faure or Durufle when it comes to overall gentler takes, and it does not need to, but it displays disparate influences and styles and sounds fresh and modern, but also accessible.  Nice.

The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and Academy Chamber Orchestra do the do well enough, and conductor Robert Page leads his commission for his final performance as music director of choir nicely.  Recorded sound is efficient rather than resplendent.  I should like it if bigger names and labels and engineers took up the cause of the work.  I will also throw in one piece of criticism: Ms Galbraith's webpage needs some serious work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 20, 2023, 11:53:10 AM
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I don't know how Chandos dreamed up the concept of Icelandic incidental music as an album, but I am glad they did, because this disc is a lot of fun. The two composers bookend each other: first we get a short concert opener by Jorunn Vidar (a woman), then two incidental music scores by Pall Isolfsson, then a big 28-minute ballet by Vidar. (My keyboard can't do that funky d.)

It's all lovely. It brings to mind some miniatures by Tveitt but especially the youthful, cheery, neoclassical music of Dag Wiren. Everything is pleasantly tuneful, clearly scored, and unpretentious. The second Isolfsson piece is for strings only, while the first includes a movement that quotes various bigger European countries' national anthems. (This is not as witty as it would be in the hands of, say, Poulenc.) Vidar's big ballet, Olafur Liljuros, is the pick of the bunch. None of this is as boldly original or ingenious as Jon Leifs (the Vidar piece "Fire" doesn't sound like the bombastic infernos Leifs would have conjured) but it is all very folksy and pleasant.

The orchestra sounds mostly good, and the sound is fine; there's a wee bit of scruffiness in a big climax in Olafur, but totally forgiveable given the obscurity of the music. A very nice surprise.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 22, 2023, 05:14:58 AM
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Revisiting the Quatour Diotima's Second Viennese School recordings prompted me to hear them in lesser known fare.  For no particular reason, Conrado del Campo got selected.   Campo is one of those super-obscure composers who wrote a goodly amount, taught, and then vanished, at least from a distant recording consumer's standpoint.  Among his output is either thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen string quartets, depending on internet source.  This recording purports to be the beginning of a complete cycle.

The recording opens with the Fifth, titled Caprichos Románticos, and the title most assuredly fits.  The work, from 1908, possesses a sort of fin de siècle groove I associate with Zemlinksy or early Schoenberg.  All six movements are slow, all gorgeous, with nary an ugly note to be heard.  The music is not tuneful in the Dvořákian manner, but everything here falls easily, seductively, languidly on the ears.  One can hear a variety of influences from the late romantic era, but Campo does sound unique in his ability to deliver so much beautiful slowness up until the more animated ending of the nearly thirteen minute final movement.  The only other quartets I am readily familiar with that pull off this feat are Haydn's Seven Last Words and DSCH 15, and those works are very different, indeed.  The two minute Third, titled Cuarteto castellano and also from 1908, also sounds mostly slow, but it is more unabashedly romantic, with long phrases, rich harmonics, dramatic dynamic swells.  The first movement nearly tips into over-the-top syrupy excess, and it hits the spot while doing so.  Forget academic rigor and ideological composition, this is straight for the heart stuff.  Yeah.  The second movement backs off a bit, but not much.  One could never describe this work as being classical or Apollonian in demeanor.  I had no expectations going in, and this recording really delivers the goods.   

The Diotima acquit themselves beautifully, some audible effort notwithstanding.  The fact that these are live performances may contribute to that.  Hopefully, all the quartets get recorded, and hopefully the Diotima get to do the honors.  An unexpected delight.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: ritter on March 22, 2023, 07:16:24 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 22, 2023, 05:14:58 AM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ctT7EYZ9L._SY425_.jpg)

Revisiting the Quatour Diotima's Second Viennese School recordings prompted me to hear them in lesser known fare.  For no particular reason, Conrado del Campo got selected.  Campo is one of those super-obscure composers who wrote a goodly amount, taught, and then vanished, at least from a distant recording consumer's standpoint.  Among his output is either thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen string quartets, depending on internet source.  This recording purports to be the beginning of a complete cycle.

The recording opens with the Fifth, titled Caprichos Románticos, and the title most assuredly fits.  The work, from 1908, possesses a sort of fin de siècle groove I associate with Zemlinksy or early Schoenberg.  All six movements are slow, all gorgeous, with nary an ugly note to be heard.  The music is not tuneful in the Dvořákian manner, but everything here falls easily, seductively, languidly on the ears.  One can hear a variety of influences from the late romantic era, but Campo does sound unique in his ability to deliver so much beautiful slowness up until the more animated ending of the nearly thirteen minute final movement.  The only other quartets I am readily familiar with that pull off this feat are Haydn's Seven Last Words and DSCH 15, and those works are very different, indeed.  The two minute Third, titled Cuarteto castellano and also from 1908, also sounds mostly slow, but it is more unabashedly romantic, with long phrases, rich harmonics, dramatic dynamic swells.  The first movement nearly tips into over-the-top syrupy excess, and it hits the spot while doing so.  Forget academic rigor and ideological composition, this is straight for the heart stuff.  Yeah.  The second movement backs off a bit, but not much.  One could never describe this work as being classical or Apollonian in demeanor.  I had no expectations going in, and this recording really delivers the goods.   

The Diotima acquit themselves beautifully, some audible effort notwithstanding.  The fact that these are live performances may contribute to that.  Hopefully, all the quartets get recorded, and hopefully the Diotima get to do the honors.  An unexpected delight.

Very interesting, Todd.

I must admit I am completely unfamiliar with del Campo's work (much to my shame, he having been a relevant --but now almost forgotten-- figure in 20yh century Spanish music).

A friend of mine mentioned this recording some time ago, and piqued my interest (as you, he highlighted the audible influences in the [b]Fifth SQ[/b] --he also interestingly mentioned "tristanesque sounds"-- that blend into a personal idiom).

And the Diotima SQ is practically a guarantee of a top-notch performance.

I should watch out for any future concerts at the Juan March Foundation of Campo's quarters (admission is free, but getting hold of tickets isn't that easy), and the CD you posted is a must-buy for me

Regards,
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 26, 2023, 05:04:51 AM
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As Wallace Shawn might say, it was inconceivable that I would not listen to Schnittke in this survey.  Indeed, I myself am surprised it took me this long to get to his Requiem. 

The recording starts off with the a capella Concerto for Choir.  This is late Schnittke, from 1990, and it is a straight up conservative work, strictly tonal and melodic, with at times dense vocal harmonies.  The ancient texts are treated very seriously indeed.  Only in a few, fleeting passages can one maybe hear Schnittke's music personality.  I don't know the Russian choral tradition, so if someone were to have claimed that this was penned two or three centuries ago, or maybe even more, I would not have disbelieved such a claim.  It's compactness and attractiveness work quite well. 

The main work sounds more like Schnittke, though not as wild and crazy as his symphonies.  Part of that is because it does sound deadly serious.  The work includes an organ that is present most of the time, occasionally dominating the proceedings with heavy bass notes, and sometimes doubling the low voices nicely.  Angular piano playing makes multiple appearances, as do blatting brass and various bells and other percussion instruments, including a drum kit.  The composer evokes a more modernist soundworld at times, and some almost eerie, more ancient sounding music, and while expressive, it is kept under wraps most of the time.  Overall, this is tamer than I thought it would be going in, but it does work as written. 

All performers do good work, and sound is pretty good, though not at all SOTA.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 29, 2023, 04:32:15 AM
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This here twofer's a gimmick.  German violinist Niklas Liepe, along with his keyboardist brother Nils, teamed up with composer Andreas Tarkmann to record rearranged versions of the opening and closing arias and thirteen variations of Bach's timeless Goldberg Variations.  Interspersed throughout the set are eleven new, small works by eleven composers, with Tarkmann including one of his own.  You know, this is not a bad gimmick.  It's also one Liepe did in his earlier recording for Sony Germany of Paganini's music.  Sony Germany is nearly as adventurous as some French micro-labels and Japanese home market labels.  That's a good thing.

The lengthy collection (95 minute+) starts with a gorgeous as all get out, slow, not at all HIP inspired Aria where both Liepes strut their stuff.  Then the first variation basically sounds like a missing movement from a Brandenburg Concerto.  Indeed, every time rearranged Bach shows up, it very much inhabits a similar sound world, occasionally tipping over into a scaled-up string trio feel, as designed.  The arrangement of the twenty-fifth variation does stand out as more potent than most, and it acts as a perfect bridge between the new pieces that flank it.  As Bach arrangements go, every track sounds quite good.  But that wasn't the main draw for me.  The new stuff was.  And so, here goes:

Rolf Rudin's Dialog With Bach, a Goldberg Reflection sounds like a blend of 19th Century romanticism and Karl Amadeus Hartmann, with some very beautiful high register playing for violin.  Sidney Corbet's Goldberg Hallucination Remix is a stylistically familiar work, where avant garde, nearly shapeless string music gets interrupted by identifiable but distorted quotations from the main work in question.  It's a quasi-pastiche, and it works quite well.  It reminds me of a compact, more abstract, and obviously Bach-inspired work akin to Luciano Berio's Rendering.  Tarkman's Goldberg's Last Summer introduces piano into the mix, sounding very Roremesque when the piano gets played, and it retains some of that feel, as well as acquiring a dramatic movie soundtrack quality as the music sounds unabashedly tuneful and beautiful.  Dominick Dieterle's Sleepless After JS Bach starts with eerie high strings and pizzicato, first from the soloist, and then the low strings, as the energy picks up, before winding down to a slow, quiet conclusion.  Wolf Kerscheck's Goldberg Reflections Aria sounds like a transcription fit for Barry Lyndon to start before turning into something that Mark O'Connor might write, and then morphs into a jazzy soundtrack style sound before returning to the opening material in a mini-cyclic piece.

Moritz Eggert's Four Variations from Goldberg Spielt, with the 2000 work revised in 2019 for this project, starts off achingly beautiful and old-fashioned, but then morphs into unabashedly modern music before shifting to something more akin to post-war writing.  Hartmann again pops up as a useful analog.  Daniel Sundy gets four tracks to cover some New Goldberg Variations, and all have a jazzy, swing influence and sound.  Tobias Rokahr's Sleepless (Goldberg Goes Crazy) lives up to its title.  Frenetic, tense, fast, edgy, tetchy, it blends in the most fleeting moments of beauty and the main theme with in-your-face chaos – and that's just the first minute.  It then slows, gets all eerie, with horror movie mishmash in the mix, and the music turns basically silent, before popping back to life, with unnervingly peppy harpsichord playing leading the way.  It's quite possibly the best of the new pieces here.  Friedrich Heinrich Kern's Reflections on a Dream combines strings with the Verrophone, which makes its first appearance in my collection or listening experience.  Basically, it's just an updated glass harmonica, and the novelty wears off about three notes in.  Fortunately, Kern does something with the instrument compositionally.  (He also does something with it musically since he plays it.)  While not the best work here, it does create a sort of, well, dreamy soundworld which works nicely enough.  Stephen Koncz's GoldBergHain, based on Kraut und Rüben, comes off as a playful, light, folk music inspired dance piece with Bach woven in just so.  It delights far more than it should.  Finally, Konstantia Gourzi gets three tracks for her Lullabies for Three Flowers to end the recording.  I last heard Ms Gourzi played by the great William Youn and the equally great Nils Mönkemeyer.  These three pieces have no attachment to Bach, so the fact that they are lullabies serves as the connection.  More or less gentle, some flittering pizzicato aside, these brief, beautiful, pieces sound folk inspired  and sound more pleasing than the disc of her music I listened to previously.  It makes a fine, slightly incongruous end.

Overall, the collection works as intended, and Corbet, Eggert, and Rokahr emerge as names I should probably investigate some more.  Sound and playing are beyond reproach, which I expect from this source.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 02, 2023, 04:32:19 AM
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Big name composer.  Big name (and great) conductor.  That's what I needed.  So Krzysztof Penderecki's massive Polish Requiem conducted by Antoni Wit demanded to be heard.  With a Lacrimosa dedicated to Lech Wałęsa, some heavy-duty politics merge into the serious material.

And serious it is.  Right from the get-go, with ominous strings and hushed chorus in the Introitus, which expands in short order, one senses a proper dark and potent Requiem will unfold over the next hour and half.  Penderecki doesn't really hold back, marshalling the massive forces to dramatic effect, and get to the Tuba mirum, and the soloist sings in a manner almost as dramatic as something out of Mussorgsky, while the strings and brass layer on thick 'n' heavy music.  The work moves forward with several slower, less dramatic sections making one very aware of the length and scale of the work, but then along comes the Ingemisco tanquam reus, with machine gun timps and other percussion, and violent musical undulations, joined by the soloists teaming up in hyper-expressive mode, and one barely notices the time go by.  The piece follows a similar dramatic pattern until the haunting and ethereal Lux aeterna, which has an extended, quiet opening in the strings and with the choir, only gradually building up.  It's arguably the most compelling minute-and-a-half of the piece.  The work then follows more or less the same type of path, made more impressive by the compositional timeline, and then ends up with a dramatic Libera animas. 

Rather expectedly, Pendercki's work sort of typifies what I expected to hear from a post-war Requiem: serious, big, (maybe a little too) long, striking, astringent, and at times beautiful.  It does not emerge as top five Requiem, but I will listen again.

Wit, band, and all singers do excellent work.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2023, 06:47:02 AM
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Over the years, Leonardo Balada has been a reliable source of new music that I dig.  As such, I have amassed fifteen recordings of his output, making him the best represented living composer in my collection.  There are certain traits which appear in most of his best work of the last few decades, with the mix of older inspirations and modern techniques the main draws.  He does it time and again, and it was time I tried a couple more recordings, starting with this one.

The disc opens with Caprichos No. 1 for Guitar and String Orchestra, an Homage to Federico García Lorca, from 2003.  Originally scored for guitar and string quartet on commission from the Austin Classical Guitar Society, this scaled up version adds additional compositional techniques, detailed by the composer himself in the liner notes.  Broadly, the music varies quite a bit, from austere, quiet, and transparent, with tunes predominating, to gnarly avant garde music with dissonant and atonal clumps o' music tossed the listener's way.  I'm not familiar with Lorca's original arrangements, but these seven miniatures belie their folk roots in a post-Bartokian, which is to say, Baladaian way, creating an extensive suite for guitar and string orchestra.  It fits right into his oeuvre. 

The Caprichos No. 5 for Cello and String Orchestra: Homage to Isaac Albéniz, from 2008, basically riffs on four pieces from Iberia (Triana, Corpus Christi en Sevilla, Evocación, El Albaicín) as well as Seville from Suite Española No. 1.  One needn't strain to hear the famous melodies played by the cellist or the band, but they are transformed, with most of the writing a delightful modernist concoction that takes small musical inspirations in new directions.  How much one likes this music may depend greatly on how one likes music built on others' works.  Given the highly original output, it works very well.  It is worth noting that the cellist and band are the dedicatees of the work.

A couple smaller works follow, starting with A Little Night Music in Harlem for String Orchestra, from 2006.  It blends Eine kleine Nachtmusik, jazz, and a plethora of Balada's normal compositional techniques.  If that sounds like pastiche, it is, but this is high end pastiche, pastiche as high art, along the lines of BAZ or Berio.  The Reflejos, for Strings and Flute is a two-movement work, with the opening movement slower and more somber, and the latter more vibrant and colorful.  It's not really a flute concerto so much as an orchestral score with flute obbligato, and it blends everything together nicely.  Once one is accustomed to Balada's style, this is more or less a light and easy piece. 

Playing, conducting, and sonics are all spiffy.  Another fine addition to my Balada collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2023, 05:39:43 AM
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Saving the most radical for last, Helga Pogatschar's Mars: Requiem ends things with a buzzsaw.  Ms Pogatschar was around thirty when she wrote this and she purposely set out to write a piece commemorating the dead of WWII, and to do so in a manner that stood against the male music tradition.  All well and good, though I'm not convinced that setting ancient liturgical texts is the best way to achieve that end.  That written, such intense iconoclasm can lead to striking, original, vital, visceral works.  (I'd write "shocking", but art does not shock me.)  So, what does a bad girl have to say about the Requiem?  Well . . .

The work opens with Mars, an obvious addition to the standard text, and it stands in for the Dies Irae.  Filled to the brim with synthesizers and electronic drums, along with caterwauling as opposed to singing, and all manner of crushing intensity that would make Trent Reznor perk up, it's as non-classical a start to a Requiem as exists.  The Introitus follows, and an electronically augmented bass bellows out the text, surrounded by female singers, and then the electronic bass thunders, and the (presumably) electronic music meant to evoke Byzantine chant arrives, as does a tenor.  It swirls and grinds forward.  The Kyrie opens with recorded German text, and then movies into more of the grinding, industrial rock meets tradition vibe.  Pogatschar blends styles and voices, sometimes pairing the two high parts expertly, and she even incorporates straight-up Renaissance a capella polyphony briefly, before reintroducing thudding electronic bass.  The piece then constantly weaves all these widely disparate sounds and styles, arriving at a Sanctus that includes extended droning passages that sound like hyper-aggressive minimalism.  The effect is quite something, and truly unique.  The Agnus Dei falls just short of the effect, as the soprano soars above everything else, with the other soloists adding color, while electronic music hums in the background and synthesized instruments approximate some type of pseudo-folk music.  The concluding Qohelet blends modernized takes on ancient music with the soloist very obviously recorded in an isolated booth and then mixed in.  The minimalist support compels.

This work is entirely unlike all the others, standing apart and away from any tradition.  It blasts past conservative avant garde writing into something new in my experience, showing what can be done with the Requiem, and opening infinite paths forward.  It blends so many influences, some separated by millennia, and keeps moving forward with almost unyielding intensity, and does so with very little concern for sounding beautiful, that it ends up a modern music drama with liturgical texts.  In some ways it's like a post-post-modern Hildegard von Bingen, taking full advantage of everything to convey a message.  There's a sense of exploration, purpose, anger, sorrow, and the composer seems to give zero fucks about how it might be received.  It is bold.  It is original.  It is striking.  It is absorbing.  Now, that written, there may very well be dozens or hundreds of similar works I've never heard because I've never sought to explore this artistic nook of the contemporary world.  I kinda want to look a bit more.  And Ms Pogatschar deserves some more listening.  To be clear, I suspect many people may hate this often outright ugly work.  That's fine.  It works for me.  Fantastically well. 

I could not find this recording to stream on any paid service I have access to, so I went the YouTube route.  Sound is therefore a bit compromised, though I get the sense it doesn't matter.  I also made it a point to listen in my 2.1 home theater the first time around, with the .1 adding to the sonic, even physical experience.  The second time around I went with earbuds, and this work seems quite well suited to that delivery mechanism.  It lacks weight, but it sounds claustrophobic, and the isolation allows the music to burrow into one's ears, mind, and soul. 

I must give thanks to Kees van der Vloed at the Requiem Survery website (http://www.requiemsurvey.org/), which is devoted to listing all sorts of requiems, recorded and not.  The site lists over 5000 different pieces.  More listening remains.



Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 16, 2023, 04:17:12 AM
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Before picking up the Pražák Quartet big box, I had never even seen the name Jindřich Feld.  A Czech composer born just about a century ago, he was born to a violin professor father and a violinist mother, studied music for decades and composed and taught.  Given his parentage, it's not entirely surprising that he wrote six string quartets.  And given when and where he was born, it's not entirely surprising that two names pop into mind when listening to the Fourth and Sixth String Quartets here: DSCH and Bartok.  It's not that Feld rips them off, it's just that both of those composers' styles influence Feld.  There's nothing wrong with that.  For instance, Krzysztof Meyer's writing is obviously heavily influenced by DSCH, yet Meyer writes his own music, which rises to the level of his influence.  Feld does something quite similar.  I'm not quite ready to write that he rises to quite the same level, but as one listens to the Fourth Quartet, hears the hints of night music, the harsh but irresistible dissonance, the at times rockin' rhythm and the at times strikingly beautiful melodies, one can't help but enjoy what's on offer.  The Sixth, which has some deep, rich cello playing that threatens to overwhelm the listener (yes!) and some audience noise (meh) has a drama and energy and flair that is hard to resist.  Combing pizzicato with vibrato, sour singing lines, great contrasts in tempo, and some rhythmic snap, and, well, there's more than a little to like.  The Clarinet Quintet offers more string writing along the lines of what came before, and for the clarinet it sort of melds the Bartok of Contrasts with a Schoenbergian vision of Brahms, so it's all very, very good.  Since this work is still fairly new, it may yet become a repertoire staple.

Feld kind of got lucky in that the Pražák took up his case.  One is assured of world class playing.  Sound is close and immediate.  Maybe a little too much.  Overall, a superb recording of some very fine music. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: DavidW on April 16, 2023, 05:10:57 AM
Boy Todd I feel like you're getting close to exhausting the Prazak box and I've just started.  I didn't even know about these Feld discs!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2023, 11:48:28 AM
Isn't there also a Feld piece with saxophone on their live album? (I might be completely wrong.)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 23, 2023, 05:29:09 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 16, 2023, 11:48:28 AMIsn't there also a Feld piece with saxophone on their live album? (I might be completely wrong.)

Yes, a Saxophone Quintet.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on April 23, 2023, 05:31:37 AM
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It's been a good long while since I last listened to something by Tan Dun, and I figured it was about time that I try some of his solo piano music. 

The recording opens with Eight Memories in Watercolor, in its 2002 revision.  The short piece, clocking in at just over fifteen minutes, is made up of eight miniatures.  The opening notes of Missing Moon immediately evoke two names: Claude Debussy and Federico Mompou.  Not only is there nothing wrong with that, there's a lot right with it.  Since this is the revised version, I don't know what changes were made to the 1978 score, but simplicity and creative harmonic writing pervade the work, and Dun adds his own voice and what sound like abstracted Chinese musical elements.  The apogee of the set is Floating Clouds, which takes all the traits to their highest level of refinement.  (There's commentary from Dun available online about how much he admired a performance of this piece by Lang Lang.)  While Raat plays very nicely, the piano sounds a bit bright and brittle, so I must dream of a Bohzhanov or Volodos or Kosuge performance.  And I suppose Lang Lang.

While the opening work sounds quite nice and certainly has pieces that can and should provide encores for contemporary pianists, C-A-G-E (In Memory of John Cage) offers more.  At just shy of thirteen minutes, this work evokes John Cage's work for prepared piano, with plucking and strumming and preparation aplenty, generating at times entirely unpianistic sounds verging on true gamelan music.  It sounds unambiguously Chinese in places, and unabashedly modernist in others.  It has real musical meat on the bone.  Film Music Sonata, from 2016, reworks the score for the film The Banquet.  I've not seen the film, so I don't know the music, but this work combines more formal rigor and what seems like it could be modernist programmatic music into a suite-sonata hybrid.  The short Traces, which contains as much silence and sustain as musical notes, sounds like a Mompou-Ligeti hybrid, which means it's most excellent. 

The last two works date all the way back to 2020.  The first, The Fire, written for Raat, starts off slow and hazy, with the pianist plinking out notes while keeping the sustain busy.  It very quickly morphs into harsh, staccato heavy modernism to rival nearly any composition.  Hazy beauty returns near the middle, but sounds musically distorted, to excellent effect.  The music then veers to powerful, note-laden writing before morphing again into zippy note spinning, with a delightful bass ostinato for a brief period.  It's quite a fine piece.  The brief Blue Orchid closes things out, and it's a variation of Beethoven's Diabellis.  Slow and somber, it's hard to readily identify any link to the main work, but that's OK, it works as a nice closer.

I didn't really have any expectations going in, so I am happy to report that C-A-G-E (In Memory of John Cage) and Traces emerge as modern piano works worthy of more attention and recordings, and The Fire as well.  Playing is fine and sound is fine, too. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on April 25, 2023, 07:40:43 AM
The past month has seen high-profile premiere recordings for not one but two 90-minute monster orchestral pieces based on literary epics/myths and composed by guys named Tom.

Thomas Adès wrote a musical version of Dante - Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso - recorded by Dudamel in LA. And then there's this:

(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/2b/vb/qjf0tv88bvb2b_600.jpg)

I puzzled over this when it was in the "future releases" bin, but all was explained when the NY Times ran an extensive feature about it. Thomas Bangalter is one of the guys from Daft Punk.

His "Mythologies" is 88 minutes in 23 movements, depicting things like the Amazons, the Gorgons, Zeus, the Garden of Eden (which is 14th, because this is more a collection than a chronology), and (for a finale) "The War."

The work starts with soft tremolo strings, leading you to wonder if it will be more like a Ravel ballet (which is what I expected from the cover art, classical setting, and Bangalter's French heritage) or a Bruckner symphony. The answer is neither, of course. The initial impression is that Bangalter is hemmed in by his rhythms, with everything placed neatly right where it should be in the bars, as if composed by robots. This is supported by the sparse orchestration, clearly the work of a first-timer, which lets you see through to the rhythmic support structure he uses to get by. There is lots of doubling of parts by various instruments, especially in the bass—which unfortunately is a good thing because Erato's recording is very bass shy. I thought I heard a really nice bit of counterpoint in the basses at one point, but had to double-check that they were audible, and it wasn't just my brain filling in what my brain wanted to hear.

However, when Bangalter lets his melodic and coloristic skills kick in, the results significantly improve. "II. Le Catch," for example, starts off sounding like a Philip Glass bit for bassoon and strings, before he creates a melody that really takes wing and finally liberates the music from its measured beginning. Something similar happens in the very next scene, when the strings seem to take off in flight from the rest of the orchestra. I also dug the choice to make "XIII. Le minotaure" all about contrabassoons, double basses, and bass trombone (at least until what can only be described as a trio section, with a loud, overmiked violin solo).

And if techno is ever going to be snuck into the orchestral setting, it should be in guises like "Les Amazones," one of the coolest pieces here, probably because it is the most like Glass/Adams(/Dukas) and includes slipping rhythms that subtly change and create a feeling of thrilling unsteadiness. (It is possible that the players are just not keeping it together fully.) Bangalter also finally fulfills his potential here by overlaying different motifs on top of each other and engaging all the orchestral sections, though he still clearly sees them as parts of one big color-producing apparatus rather than a collection of individual colors.

"IX. Zeus" is perhaps the most surprising work in the collection, because we already have a portrait of Zeus from Gustav Holst, in the Planets suite, and it's regal and pompous and triumphant. This new piece must reflect Zeus's seductive side, because it's just the same four-note motif played by solo flute with a few accompanying string instruments. Over and over. For four minutes.

Besides that repetition, there are more ways that the music wears out its welcome over the course of 88 minutes. Bangalter's orchestral ear hardly ever changes, in the sense that he always sees the orchestra as one instrument rather than dozens, with his ear focused on the combined sound rather than individual or cumulative effects. His rhythmic chugga-chugga returns frequently, and the album is recorded like a pop album, with very limited dynamic range (see: that very loud violin solo). There aren't a lot of crescendos or climaxes or quiet secretive bits; just more stuff happening. With 30 minutes to go, I seriously considered bailing and returning to the rest later. Surely this is not meant to hear in one sitting? But it was premiered as such, in concert as one big piece, under the eminent conductor Marc Minkowski.

I think for people who say they enjoy listening to movie soundtracks, this might go over well. Bangalter may well find himself being asked to score action/fantasy films in the future, and if this is the way he gets practice for the next Game of Thrones spinoff, good for him. However, I doubt I'll return to it. I also wonder what Daft Punk fans will think of this. Maybe they'll all love it and come join GMG and we can tell them about stuff like Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Adams' Harmonielehre and Shaw's Partita and Andrew Norman's Play. More likely they will go through, find 3-4 tracks they enjoy, and stick them on Spotify playlists rather than listen to the whole 88-minute compendium through. That seems about right.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on May 06, 2023, 04:34:58 AM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/710RGltdpVL._SX425_.jpg)

Leonardo Balada's orchestral works often include some of his best writing, and so it was with some excitement that I finally plumped for this recording of the Sixth Symphony (2005), the Steel Symphony 1972), and the Concerto for Three Cellos (2006)!  The recording opens with the Sixth Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrows, dedicated to the victims of the Spanish Civil War.  In this, it shares a theme with one of Balada's greatest works, Guernica.  The opening section of the single movement work is all intensity, vitality and anger.  Tuttis pulsate, rhythm drives the musical mass forward.  Not until about a third of the way in does anything that sounds sorrowful arrive, and it is beautiful and affecting, but it quickly gives way to another intense bout of musical outpouring, before returning to slow music.  The transitions are quick and masterful.  Some vibrant military marching morphs into a near orchestral galop, and then into a fearsome string onslaught, again via swift, masterful transitions.  Jesús López-Cobos extracts fine playing from the Jesús López-Cobos.  It's a heckuva way to open a recording.

The Concerto for Three Cellos, which counts Michael Sanderling as one of the cellists, is titled A German Concerto, and celebrates Germany's reconstruction after the two world wars.  Unabashedly avant garde, one needn't wait but for a few seconds before hearing what three cellos playing in unison up high sounds like, and then in tandem at different registers, and so on.  It's something new.  The surrounding orchestral music has some punchy, sometimes aggressive music swirling about, some thundering bass drum thwacks, piano interjections, squawking brass.  A German tune permeates the work, and some folk-like music, colorful percussion, and other nice touches pop up, as does a three cello solo.  Some outright romantic flourishes appear as well, with an almost Korngoldian touch, and the piece has a celebratory field.  It's another unique work from the composer.  Eivind Jensen leads the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in a fine performance.

The recording closes with the Steel Symphony, an homage to Steel Workers in an early 70s avant garde style.  The piece opens with an extended passage that sounds like the orchestra tuning itself, and only slowly morphs into a variant of a boom-clang avant garde work.  Ample brass blatting, eerie string figurations, bizarre percussion outbursts, repeated sections, and so forth created a chaotic yet purposeful soundworld.  It's not awful, but it's nowhere near as good as the first two works, either of which I would dig seeing in person.  (But come on, how many times will three cellists perform together?)  Jesús López-Cobos gets solid playing from the Barcelona band.

Yet another winner overall from Balada. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on June 20, 2023, 08:10:54 AM
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/za/ss/kj9d4dh63ssza_600.jpg)

What a name! Melcher Melchers is the Boaty McBoatface of late romantic composers. A Swede (1882-1961), Melchers actually had the first name Henrik, but he knew a good gimmick when he saw one.

La Kermesse is full of good colorful gimmicks. It's a big, bright, splashy tone poem in the style of youthful Strauss or, especially, Karlowicz' "Episode at a Masquerade," with lots of percussion, an interesting oboe-bassoon duet melody, and catchy ideas (it opens with cello/bass darting figures that sound like they could be menacing, but prove to be the beginning to a party instead). The first three minutes hum along in joyous, exuberant major key, full of trumpet fanfares and wind solos. Then we get a development section that initially shares the initial good cheer, before the music starts to "fall apart" around 6'. Here things get more chromatic, with more dissonance and seemingly "wrong notes," as well as slightly foreboding counterpoint. It's not that things are going wrong in a cruel or harsh way. It's more like when you cross the line from happy drunk to stumbling mess drunk. After a slow interlude, we get to a fugue begun by a Sorcerer's Apprentice-like line from the bass clarinet. But this isn't Don Juan or Karlowicz' Masquerade: the music puts itself together again and charges to an exuberant finish.

The Élégie is, naturally, the opposite, a 10-minute study in softness, calm, and muted sorrow.

Melchers' apparently lone symphony (Qobuz didn't upload the booklet) shares some features with Cesar Franck's: it's in D minor, it's in three movements, and the movement timings are roughly 16/10/10. That's it for shared features, though. There's no motto theme here, no formal experimentation with re-introductions or hybrid slow movement-scherzi. Instead, it's a fairly generic piece with glib/basic tunes and generic moods. There is a cor anglais solo in the slow movement, but nothing really stands out. The piece definitely feels younger and less mature than the first two, like it could have been written in the 1870s. (It certainly seems to have been written before Nielsen's First.) In terms of sophistication and "modernity," I'd rank it about on a level with Dvorak's Fifth, just with more percussion and a Scandinavian melodic bent. The finale is another exuberant joyous piece like La Kermesse, but with less memorable color and harmonic interest.

Maybe I'm being harsh, but there is a clear progression on the disc from most enjoyable work to most derivative work. It's all very pleasant, start to finish. The difference is just that some parts are less memorable. This won't be a favorite, but fans of mid-to-late romantic music, especially of the happy kind, should definitely seek out Melcher Melchers. And they should talk about him with friends so they can say "Melcher Melchers" out loud.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on September 01, 2023, 08:30:12 AM
(https://i.discogs.com/1mQ3OyDudz63FB3O9-rb1hMVXMiBGLNPlDVxyT68gB8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:592/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0ODU1/ODk1LTE1ODI5MDgz/OTgtMjE0NC5qcGVn.jpeg)

Now here is one of the rarest - and strangest - discs of all time! Marvin Hamlisch, Broadway legend of A Chorus Line and Barbra Streisand fame, took his first-ever orchestral commission to write a piece summarizing a post-WWII political book endorsing one law and government for the world as a way to ensure world peace. The CD, self-produced and self-released in a limited edition by the Dallas Symphony, includes the 26-minute "Anatomy of Peace" plus a 10-minute spoken afterword by Abba Eban, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. The DSO lent me their archival copy for a history project I'm working on (and @brewski has seen bits of), and it was still in the shrink wrap 30+ years later. They gave me their blessing to open the shrink wrap. Now I'm not sure if anyone will listen to this CD after me, but it is without doubt an...ahem...unique experience.

OK. It's frikkin weird.

There won't be room in my published project to discuss this sucker in detail, so why not tell you about it here? ;D I don't want to pass any political judgment on the project, which summarizes Anatomy of Peace, the book by Emery Reves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Peace). The book started with a letter to the American people, co-signed by Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, three senators (including J.W. Fulbright), and a Supreme Court justice, urging readers to open their minds to the pro-global federalism message inside. Reves believed that a stronger UN would eventually eliminate nationalism, and that without nationalism, there would be no cause for wars. As a Hungarian who'd been chased out of Germany (the CD's booklet note claims rather dubiously that he was at the "top" of Hitler's enemy list), Reves had personal reason to hope for this.

Hamlisch takes the book's contents and compresses it all into a 17-line poem, which he has sung in full by a solo child and then again by a children's chorus. It's...uh...

Some fear the world
They hear the dissonance
And say it will always be

I see the world
As one community
That must be joined by one law

One law for me
One law for all of us
That will unite us someday

And I believe
It's not impossible
If we agree to one law

Nation pride will cease
The world will live in peace

And I believe
It's not impossible
For we are able to change

Make your own jokes, I'm moving on to the music now.  ;D Hamlisch (assisted by orchestrator Richard Danielpour) decides to structure the piece as a giant musical metaphor. All the instruments of the orchestra are different nations in cacophonous disagreement. The flute (big surprise) proposes the "one law for all of us" Big Tune, and then, a la Beethoven's Ninth or Sibelius' Third, it slowly gets argued with and then adopted by all the other instruments until the chorus jumps in and then there is a Grand Finale statement by everybody.

There is no getting around the simple fact that you had better really, really like the Big Tune, because it gets repeated a LOT. It shows up after 90 seconds, since Hamlisch is not a big guy for cacophonous disagreement. For the next 24 and a half minutes, every instrument has to play it in solo, in sections, and together, pretty much. The solo kid has to sing it. Then all the kids have to sing it. It was starting to drive me insane. And, of course, by the end it sounded like an affirmational Broadway showtune. Purely as music, without accounting for politics or words, this piece is maximum cringe. It's like Motivational Bolero.

Afterwards, Abba Eban's commentary is kind of a delight. He's a polished speaker with the now-extinct "transatlantic" accent, and he cracks lots of jokes. (My favorite: "Jesus said to love your neighbor and love your enemy, which is logical, because they're usually the same.") He does, however, express the Big Yikes 1991 sentiment that, with the Cold War over, there is no need for any wars anymore, and all wars are obsolete. Alas.

The performance - which appears to be the only performance ever - is spectacularly well-drilled and shows the DSO's standard and how electric Eduardo Mata was as a conductor.

All in all, I'm absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to hear this exactly once. I wonder if or when anyone will hear it again.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: brewski on September 02, 2023, 01:50:54 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 01, 2023, 08:30:12 AMAll in all, I'm absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to hear this exactly once. I wonder if or when anyone will hear it again.

"One! Singular sensation..."

;D

What an odd project. (And bigtime chuckle at "Motivational Bolero.")

I mean, great that Hamlisch gave it a go, great that the DSO and Mata did, too. (I did like the Mata years.) Thanks for all the detail on this piece and the recording, since as you say, whether anyone will hear it again sounds like a big question mark. But that's OK, Hamlisch did enough memorable work that he could be allowed a misfire or two.

But how lucky you are (or maybe "lucky") to be granted listening privileges, and assess the results.

-Bruce
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on September 12, 2023, 07:05:10 AM
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/ca/9d/wfffcetiy9dca_600.jpg)

Here is a first! Higdon's own booklet note for "Duo Duel" (a double percussion concerto) says the piece contains 41,973 notes. I've never heard a work with knowledge of the note count before. So, will this make me think of Amadeus?  ;D

"Duo Duel" is 23:55, or 1,435 seconds, so that makes for 29.25 notes per second average throughout. This kind of analysis is honestly silly, but Higdon's point is that there is a whole lot of very fast virtuosic percussion solo work throughout, escalating to a Nielsen-style timpani battle near the end.

The first 6-7 minutes do not really engage me - they are rather slow and feature percussion instruments that, to me, are less interesting. Then the players switch to marimbas and things get a little more fun. I do wish there was more left-right channel separation between the duelists, but this is probably because percussion instruments take up so much space onstage.

And ultimately, even in the fast bits, there is a sense of underwhelm. I like the timpani duel best, and it is longer and more involved than Nielsen's. But it lacks one thing Nielsen has: surprise. We've been listening to percussion for 20 minutes, and our ears are trained for percussive sounds. When the timpani duel starts, we think, "ah, it's timpani time." If you remember the first time you heard Nielsen's duel, I bet you had considerably more emotion. Still, it is fun to hear different sticks and objects applied to the drumheads, and Higdon does a pretty decent job giving the orchestra work to do filling in between drum lines. This is a piece with lots of excitement and some attractions, but probably not any kind of staying power. Oddly, I liked Higdon's solo percussion concerto (written for Colin Currie) more.

Concerto for Orchestra is a 36-minute biggie that contains loads of kinetic energy. The first movement is a little bit generic but enjoyable, but the second - a strings-only scherzo that starts all pizzicato - is much more entertaining. The third, slow movement offers solos to every principal. Then we have another scherzo showcasing the percussion (along with harps) and a big whiz-bang finale. It's not exactly emotionally deep, not even in the slow movement with all its solos, and I didn't much like the percussion/harp movement. But the rest is plenty of fun. I can certainly imagine this being a concert-hall hit.

This CD is a bit like a chocolate brownie with a scoop of ice cream on top. It's indulgent and rich and feels unhealthy, and I'm not likely to remember much about it a year from now. But while you're devouring it, it's fun in the moment.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 22, 2023, 09:48:45 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 01, 2023, 08:30:12 AM(https://i.discogs.com/1mQ3OyDudz63FB3O9-rb1hMVXMiBGLNPlDVxyT68gB8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:592/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0ODU1/ODk1LTE1ODI5MDgz/OTgtMjE0NC5qcGVn.jpeg)


All in all, I'm absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to hear this exactly once. I wonder if or when anyone will hear it again.
What an interesting-sounding project for him to take on!

And cool that you got access to the recording!

PD

Edited:  Had posted incorrect links.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 22, 2023, 09:49:42 AM
Quote from: brewski on September 02, 2023, 01:50:54 PM"One! Singular sensation..."

;D


-Bruce
Booo! lol

PD
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on September 22, 2023, 01:01:40 PM
Hmm, is that the right news link?
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: JBS on September 22, 2023, 03:47:19 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 22, 2023, 01:01:40 PMHmm, is that the right news link?

Here's a link from Hamlisch's website
https://marvinhamlisch.com/a-concert-for-peace-marvin-hamlischs-anatomy-of-peace-to-be-performed-by-the-new-jersey-youth-symphony/

Of course when they were planning it, none of them had any idea what would happen that exact day: a perverse irony.

The Youtube with highlights is here
https://youtu.be/sSjNWt9SfkI

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 23, 2023, 04:04:51 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 22, 2023, 01:01:40 PMHmm, is that the right news link?
Whoopsie!  Nope!  I'm currently using a Windows keyboard with my Mac and sometimes I goof when I'm cutting and pasting.   :-[

PD
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: premont on September 23, 2023, 06:29:57 AM
Quote from: JBS on September 22, 2023, 03:47:19 PMHere's a link from Hamlisch's website
https://marvinhamlisch.com/a-concert-for-peace-marvin-hamlischs-anatomy-of-peace-to-be-performed-by-the-new-jersey-youth-symphony/

Of course when they were planning it, none of them had any idea what would happen that exact day: a perverse irony.


??

According to the website the concert took place February 26.2022.

The Russian attack on Ukraine was two days earlier.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 23, 2023, 07:36:07 AM
Quote from: premont on September 23, 2023, 06:29:57 AM??

According to the website the concert took place February 26.2022.

The Russian attack on Ukraine was two days earlier.
So much for world peace and being one nation.

PD
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: JBS on September 23, 2023, 06:44:29 PM
Quote from: premont on September 23, 2023, 06:29:57 AM??

According to the website the concert took place February 26.2022.

The Russian attack on Ukraine was two days earlier.

Wait...what...[goes to look]...
Well, obviously I got confused in the two minutes it took me to double check the date of the invasion...
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on September 23, 2023, 06:57:34 PM
Quote from: JBS on September 23, 2023, 06:44:29 PMWait...what...[goes to look]...
Well, obviously I got confused in the two minutes it took me to double check the date of the invasion...
It's o.k.  We all get confused...too much "stuff" going on in the news to try and keep track of properly.  Not easy to keep up...I try too...and often fail...despite "best efforts".  :(

PD
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on November 17, 2023, 07:25:37 AM
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/30/64/4260034866430_600.jpg)

1. @JBS posts asking if anybody has any thoughts about Gabriel Feltz's Mahler cycle.
2. I search ClassicsToday for Gabriel Feltz reviews and find this instead.
3. Hurwitz loves it but it's unclear if it's because it's actually great, or if it's because that dude always loves an hour-long post-Mahlerian orchestral spectacular.
4. Time to investigate!

The 56-minute symphony begins with a modest slow introduction that is plainspoken and religious in character, echoing the title. The main first movement is in minor key, somewhat heroic/questing, and tinged ever so slightly with Hollywood in the rather simple melodies and showy orchestration (e.g. organ and harp duet introducing a second subject). The music alternates climaxes and quieter sections featuring the organ; it is much more of an organ-forward piece than, say, the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. The relationship is more like the piano in the Brahms piano concertos: a symphony with extensive, sometimes showy solo part throughout.

The first movement ends quietly, which leads into a proper allegro scherzo. The slow movement - just 9 minutes of the 56 - is the most explicitly based on the Gregorian motto theme, and doesn't stray very far from it.

Highlights abound. There's a really spooky, effective passage in the first movement around 9:30. Trumpets and trombones are frequently highlighted. The whole scherzo is lots of fun. However, the finale is something of a letdown - fast but insubstantial, and seems to end at random.

This seems like a piece I would have loved and listened to dozens of times if I'd found it in college. The melodies are simple enough to stick in the memory, the drama is tangible, and the size is grandiose. It's a young person's music - and indeed Eben was only 24 when he wrote it. But I'm not sure that it will have staying power for me now.

The performance is good but because of the challenge of recording organ and orchestra, the mic setup is very distant and low-level, a bit lacking in bass. This kind of contributes to the lack of "oomph" in the finale, especially.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: JBS on November 17, 2023, 11:44:39 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 17, 2023, 07:25:37 AM(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/30/64/4260034866430_600.jpg)

1. @JBS posts asking if anybody has any thoughts about Gabriel Feltz's Mahler cycle.
2. I search ClassicsToday for Gabriel Feltz reviews and find this instead.
3. Hurwitz loves it but it's unclear if it's because it's actually great, or if it's because that dude always loves an hour-long post-Mahlerian orchestral spectacular.
4. Time to investigate!

The 56-minute symphony begins with a modest slow introduction that is plainspoken and religious in character, echoing the title. The main first movement is in minor key, somewhat heroic/questing, and tinged ever so slightly with Hollywood in the rather simple melodies and showy orchestration (e.g. organ and harp duet introducing a second subject). The music alternates climaxes and quieter sections featuring the organ; it is much more of an organ-forward piece than, say, the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. The relationship is more like the piano in the Brahms piano concertos: a symphony with extensive, sometimes showy solo part throughout.

The first movement ends quietly, which leads into a proper allegro scherzo. The slow movement - just 9 minutes of the 56 - is the most explicitly based on the Gregorian motto theme, and doesn't stray very far from it.

Highlights abound. There's a really spooky, effective passage in the first movement around 9:30. Trumpets and trombones are frequently highlighted. The whole scherzo is lots of fun. However, the finale is something of a letdown - fast but insubstantial, and seems to end at random.

This seems like a piece I would have loved and listened to dozens of times if I'd found it in college. The melodies are simple enough to stick in the memory, the drama is tangible, and the size is grandiose. It's a young person's music - and indeed Eben was only 24 when he wrote it. But I'm not sure that it will have staying power for me now.

The performance is good but because of the challenge of recording organ and orchestra, the mic setup is very distant and low-level, a bit lacking in bass. This kind of contributes to the lack of "oomph" in the finale, especially.

So something to hear at least once, but possibly not more than that.

Meanwhile, I found the full Mahler cycle is uploaded on YT, so I can listen to it there if I can stand my phone's tinny sound...
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 11, 2023, 03:06:41 PM
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/52/51/0761195115152_600.jpg)

I bought this recording as part of a big ol' splurge on downloads.  Typically, once files get copied to the external drive used in my main rig, each new purchased recording gets a short spin, to hear if everything is OK.  (Some purchased files have had issues, which is why I do that.)  When I got to this recording of Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, that did not happen.  So entranced was I by the austere gorgeousness (yeah, I meant to use that combination of words), so beguiling are the harmonies, so perfectly blended and balanced the voices, and so spectacularly recorded the performance, with literally perfect decay sound and timing, that I ended up sitting through the whole thing.  As the work progresses, the harmonies effectively ensnare the listener, preventing even the ability to move at all.  The work dates from 1910, but this is as perfect an example of timeless liturgical music as I know.  OK, OK, this could not have been penned five hundred years earlier, but I suspect it will be performed five hundred years hence.  Rachmaninoff has long been all about piano music for me, but this one work has shifted the focus a bit.  A staggeringly great recording. 



(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81On3aBYX1L._SY425_.jpg)

When I bought the Rach setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, I bought a couple others, including this recording of Tchaikovsky's setting of the same liturgy, using the same forces, and on the same label as the Rach work.  Straight away, one hears similar refinement and beauty and spaciousness, but the music is quite different.  Tchaikovsky's is simpler, more direct, with an unaffected beauty and sparseness.  And those cathedral decays!  Oh my.  Some of the music sounds like mixed chorus early Renaissance or even medieval music, with chant influence, distilled through a romantic era sensibility.  In addition to a big ol' chunk of the liturgy, the disc contains Nine Sacred Choruses which all sound like rarified, exceedingly beautiful, well, church choruses.  They lack the impact of the main work, but they sound just fine.  Superb singing and sound.



(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/77/00/0888002730077_600.jpg)

I saved Pavel Chesnokov's setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for last.  Coming in at about an hour-and-a-half, it's the longest of the three settings.  At least as presented in this recording, it is the most conservative, most expressively limited, and darkest hued work, with ample singing by the baritone soloist.  To be sure, the choral passages sound quite lovely, even serene.  The seriousness is never in doubt.  The music fairly shouts, or rather harmoniously sings, devotion.  This is real deal, serious religious music, seriously presented and performed.  It is enjoyable, but it less immediately beautiful than the Tchaikovsky, and less harmonically hypnotic than the Rach, and it certainly does not display the all-consuming power of the latter.  So, a nice addition to my collection, and a recording I will revisit, but it is not the best of this lot.

Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 01:11:11 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 11, 2023, 03:06:41 PM(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/52/51/0761195115152_600.jpg)

I bought this recording as part of a big ol' splurge on downloads.  Typically, once files get copied to the external drive used in my main rig, each new purchased recording gets a short spin, to hear if everything is OK.  (Some purchased files have had issues, which is why I do that.)  When I got to this recording of Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, that did not happen.  So entranced was I by the austere gorgeousness (yeah, I meant to use that combination of words), so beguiling are the harmonies, so perfectly blended and balanced the voices, and so spectacularly recorded the performance, with literally perfect decay sound and timing, that I ended up sitting through the whole thing.  As the work progresses, the harmonies effectively ensnare the listener, preventing even the ability to move at all.  The work dates from 1910, but this is as perfect an example of timeless liturgical music as I know.  OK, OK, this could not have been penned five hundred years earlier, but I suspect it will be performed five hundred years hence.  Rachmaninoff has long been all about piano music for me, but this one work has shifted the focus a bit.  A staggeringly great recording. 



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When I bought the Rach setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, I bought a couple others, including this recording of Tchaikovsky's setting of the same liturgy, using the same forces, and on the same label as the Rach work.  Straight away, one hears similar refinement and beauty and spaciousness, but the music is quite different.  Tchaikovsky's is simpler, more direct, with an unaffected beauty and sparseness.  And those cathedral decays!  Oh my.  Some of the music sounds like mixed chorus early Renaissance or even medieval music, with chant influence, distilled through a romantic era sensibility.  In addition to a big ol' chunk of the liturgy, the disc contains Nine Sacred Choruses which all sound like rarified, exceedingly beautiful, well, church choruses.  They lack the impact of the main work, but they sound just fine.  Superb singing and sound.



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I saved Pavel Chesnokov's setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for last.  Coming in at about an hour-and-a-half, it's the longest of the three settings.  At least as presented in this recording, it is the most conservative, most expressively limited, and darkest hued work, with ample singing by the baritone soloist.  To be sure, the choral passages sound quite lovely, even serene.  The seriousness is never in doubt.  The music fairly shouts, or rather harmoniously sings, devotion.  This is real deal, serious religious music, seriously presented and performed.  It is enjoyable, but it less immediately beautiful than the Tchaikovsky, and less harmonically hypnotic than the Rach, and it certainly does not display the all-consuming power of the latter.  So, a nice addition to my collection, and a recording I will revisit, but it is not the best of this lot.



If they had this effect on you when listening through impersonal loudspeakers, imagine how much more overwhelming the impact would have been had you experienced them live in a cathedral, surrounded by icons and burning incense, watching the movements, gestures and garments of the priests.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2023, 03:55:31 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 01:11:11 AMIf they had this effect on you when listening through impersonal loudspeakers, imagine how much more overwhelming the impact would have been had you experienced them live in a cathedral, surrounded by icons and burning incense, watching the movements, gestures and garments of the priests.

Only the Rach had a notable impact, and I suspect that hearing it live, almost certainly with a less well-trained chorus, would have less impact.  The things you cite as adding to the experience would, at best, add nothing to the experience.  I've attended religious choral performances in person, so the experience is not unknown.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 04:13:07 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 12, 2023, 03:55:31 AMI suspect that hearing it live, almost certainly with a less well-trained chorus, would have less impact.

I'm sure that the choirs of the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow or the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg are as well-trained in this type of music as any other and able to deliver flawless renditions.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2023, 04:45:25 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 04:13:07 AMI'm sure that the choirs of the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow or the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg are as well-trained in this type of music as any other and able to deliver flawless renditions.

Maybe.  I will never find out.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 04:48:32 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 12, 2023, 04:45:25 AMMaybe.  I will never find out.

Neither will I, probably --- but then again, never say never.  :D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on December 12, 2023, 04:55:07 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 04:48:32 AMNeither will I, probably --- but then again, never say never.  :D

I can say never.  I have no reason to travel to Russia for business, and were I to travel to Russia for vacation, it would be to locales farther to the east - Lake Baikal, parts of the Siberian Traps, Kamchatka, those sorts of things.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Florestan on December 12, 2023, 05:16:39 AM
Quote from: Todd on December 12, 2023, 04:55:07 AMI can say never.  I have no reason to travel to Russia for business, and were I to travel to Russia for vacation, it would be to locales farther to the east - Lake Baikal, parts of the Siberian Traps, Kamchatka, those sorts of things.

I see. Well, may you be able to see whatever interests you.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on January 28, 2024, 02:37:16 PM
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Ridiculous.  That's a word that popped into mind multiple times while listening to the latest from William Youn, or as I prefer to think of him, Korean Piano Jesus.  Hot off belatedly devouring his third Schubert sonata installment and passionately hating myself for waiting so long to buy it, I snapped up and listened to this collection of French music for piano and orchestra, with some solo piano fare tossed in.  Most of the music is new to me, but some is old hat.

The set opens with something new to me, Reynaldo Hahn's Piano Concerto in E Major.  Now, I know me some Hahn, but only songs.  Without fail, they sound meltingly beautiful, and whenever I spin them, they beguile for the duration of the recording.  This here concerto is cut from the same cloth.  It opens with the soloist spinning out beautiful music, and then the band enters, winds dominating, in music that sounds so purely charming and beautiful it is ridiculous.  The movement slowly unfolds and dances around until the second movement Danse, which sounds so elegant and refined that it is ridiculous.  Finally, in the closing movement, starting with a reverie, the gentle, soft, hazy strings overwhelm the listener with impossible levels of beauty, and so does the solo playing.  It is ridiculous.  As the movement winds on, with some boisterous marches, wide dynamics swings, and a fleeting, almost vaudevillian feel, it imparts nearly limitless music enjoyment.  It is ridiculous.  While the recording is definitely modern, it most certainly does not offer clinical clarity of each instrument; everything sounds beautifully blended.  There are not too many recordings of this piece, though Shani Diluka recorded it recently, so perhaps that recording needs to find its way to my ears.

Faure's well-known Ballade, Op 19 follows.  As with pretty much everything he wrote, the music sounds either beautiful or stupid beautiful. Youn plays with nutso refinement and tonal gradation, with impossibly gentle dynamic changes.  Listen to his gentle runs.  They are so subtle it is ridiculous.  The orchestral accompaniment, with a cello peeking out here, the winds there, bewitches while KPJ spins out limitless beauty.  It's just so ridiculous.  (Seriously, if any pianist alive and recording should record every note of Faure's piano music, it's KPJ.  I mean, sure, Jean-Rodolphe Kars is alive, but the Father will not be making any more recordings.) 

KPJ then treats the ridiculously lucky listener to his own arrangement of Hahn's À Chloris.  In the brief three minutes, it's like hearing Bach filtered through a hyperromantic sensibility, stripped of the usual pesky voice muddying things, with the result being pure musical beauty.  But it sounds rough, ugly, and gauche compared to KPJ's transcription of L'heure exquise.  So sublime, so flawless, so hypnotic, the listener is forced to surrender to the sheer ridiculousness of it all. 

Low strings bellow beauteously to open Nadia Boulanger's Fantaisie variée pour piano et Orchestre.  The music sounds like a literally perfect stereotype of Fin de siècle music.  Thick and often orchestrally opaque, with piano writing that nearly mimics organ writing in places, the music floods the listener.  Slight hints of Straussian goodness can be heard, some Gounod, too.  Instruments jump in and out, flitting by.  While French, there's an almost Russian excess sentiment, a Rachy gooiness that's so ridiculously mesmerizing that one wallows in the music as it moves from one (probably too) thickly textured variation to the next.  And are those hints of Ravelian waltzes one detects?  Probably.  It is easy to hear why this is not core rep, but at least as delivered here, one certainly thinks it deserves a bit more love than it has received to date.

Faure's Fantaisie for piano & orchestra, Op 111 follows, and it would be ridiculous to think it's not every bit as good as the Ballade.  KPJ produces a stream of beauty.  And then, to cap everything off, is his arrangement of Après un rêve for solo piano.  This piece, which also works well for Cello and Piano, is played in beautiful fashion, but also with more drive and tension than expected, though on evidence of this (and all prior recordings), KPJ can't produce an ugly sound no matter how loud he plays.  How ridiculous.

So, here's nearly ninety minutes of musical gorgeousness and excess too good to be true.  Yet it's true.  No, the non-core pieces are not quite elevated to core rep levels, though the rendition of the Hahn as played here comes pretty gosh darned close.  The whole thing just washes over the listener, generating giddiness and unlimited satisfaction.  Is this a purchase of the year?  It would be ridiculous if it were not. 
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 18, 2024, 02:31:38 PM
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For no particular reason, I decided I wanted to listen to a big ol' slug of new religious music from different eras, though with a heavy concentration on the Renaissance.  ('Tis my favored era for such music.)  Unlike the last time I had a similar hankerin', listening will not be limited to Requiems.  Once again, I decided to rely on Naxos for a goodly chunk of the music since recordings can still be had for a pittance when sales happen.  Also. I have found that Jeremy Summerly and his normal crew tend to be quite reliable sources of lovely recordings, so they will appear.

Writing of Mr Summerly, a hot off the press, 2024 release of music by written by Philip Stopford between 2016 and 2022 kicks things off.  The shortest possible review: Steven Spielberg would reject the music as too trite and treacly.   The music actually annoys as the recording unfolds.  The melodies blend show tunes and feel-good Hollywood schlock into a saccharine mess.  Too, the star soprano does not generate a particularly appealing sound.  The cymbals make the listener wonder just what the heck is going on.  (This is sacred music, after all.  Right?)  For the most part, the Missa Deus Nobiscum and all the smaller works sort of all sound like a treacly, annoying musical blob.  It's not until the closer, God is Our Hope and Strength, where the music tips over into outright awfulness, with horns, organs, and electric piano generating noise that nearly causes the annoyance to morph into mild anger.  Thankfully, it lasts only six little eternities, er, minutes. 

The plusses here are limited to the up to snuff modern recording quality, fine instrumental playing, nice organ playing, and generally fine choral singing. 

A big ol' whiff.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Cato on February 18, 2024, 02:50:15 PM
Quote from: Todd on February 18, 2024, 02:31:38 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/71TgKy6FQFL._SY425_.jpg)


For no particular reason, I decided I wanted to listen to a big ol' slug of new religious music from different eras, though with a heavy concentration on the Renaissance.  ('Tis my favored era for such music.)  Unlike the last time I had a similar hankerin', listening will not be limited to Requiems.  Once again, I decided to rely on Naxos for a goodly chunk of the music since recordings can still be had for a pittance when sales happen.  Also. I have found that Jeremy Summerly and his normal crew tend to be quite reliable sources of lovely recordings, so they will appear.

Writing of Mr Summerly, a hot off the press, 2024 release of music written by Philip Stopford between 2016 and 2022 kicks things off.  The shortest possible review: Steven Spielberg would reject the music as too trite and treacly.   The music actually annoys as the recording unfolds.  The melodies blend show tunes and feel-good Hollywood schlock into a saccharine mess.  Too, the star soprano does not generate a particularly appealing sound.  The cymbals make the listener wonder just what the heck is going on.  (This is sacred music, after all.  Right?) 


For the most part, the Missa Deus Nobiscum and all the smaller works sort of all sound like a treacly, annoying musical blob.  It's not until the closer, God is Our Hope and Strength, where the music tips over into outright awfulness, with horns, organs, and electric piano generating noise that nearly causes the annoyance to morph into mild anger.  Thankfully, it lasts only six little eternities, er, minutes. 

The plusses here are limited to the up to snuff modern recording quality, fine instrumental playing, nice organ playing, and generally fine choral singing. 

A big ol' whiff.



Your review makes me wonder about the arbitri musicae at NAXOS! 


And our great Karl Henning and his assorted religious works stay unrecorded and unpromoted!


Another example of how the amount of kulcheral garbage generated by the talentless drowns out those whose works deserve an audience!
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on February 25, 2024, 06:04:10 AM
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My first recording devoted solely to the music of Jacob Obrecht comes next.  (I have heard some Obrecht, but in collections only.)  A couple Salve Reginas, a Venit ad Petrum, and the forty-five minute Missa Caput make up the disc.  It is very lovely and at times affecting.  It lacks the mind-bending polyphonic goodness of someone like Morales or the arresting austerity of someone like Rore, but the directness works well.  And the women's voices, often overpowering the lower voices, works extra well for me.  A very fine recording.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 03, 2024, 01:36:41 PM
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Carlo Gesualdo is my favorite murderous fiend of a composer, and I am very familiar with his Madrigals, having amassed three sets.  I also picked up the mammoth Responsoria a decade ago, as recorded by the Glossa folks, so I am familiar with what he does when the subject is religious.  Here is his five voice sacred music, and basically it is just shy of seventy minutes worth of beautiful, austere, deadly serious music.  It lacks the daring of his later madrigals, but it's devotion is obvious.  Nice singing, decent recording, and a most pleasant listening experience.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Jo498 on March 03, 2024, 11:54:33 PM
You probably know this one already, but if not, check out "Gesualdo: Death for 5 voices", a movie by Werner Herzog.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: DaveF on March 04, 2024, 01:48:36 AM
Quote from: Todd on February 18, 2024, 02:31:38 PM(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T3/images/I/71TgKy6FQFL._SY425_.jpg)

Sang a piece of his at Christmas - terrible rubbish.  How reputable performers get mixed up with it is beyond me. (Fortunately, advancing years have already erased everything about it, including title, from my memory.)

Anyway, to thread duty.  I was aware that I didn't know a single note of music by Weinberg despite the persuasive advocacy of @vandermolen and others, so sat down late on Friday to remedy this ignorance.  Started with the First Symphony - then discovered that the score is available, perfectly legally, on issuu - https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/peer3895_weinberg_symphonie_nr._1_op._10_p_a4 (https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/peer3895_weinberg_symphonie_nr._1_op._10_p_a4) - so had to listen through again.  Ditto with nos. 2 & 3.  Finally crawled off to bed at 2am or so - with work the next morning - feeling like Keats's watcher of the skies.  Mature reflection may begin to introduce questions of why someone 14 years younger than DSCH should still be writing in his idiom, but for the moment it's all new and exciting.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: vandermolen on March 04, 2024, 02:20:01 AM
Quote from: DaveF on March 04, 2024, 01:48:36 AMSang a piece of his at Christmas - terrible rubbish.  How reputable performers get mixed up with it is beyond me. (Fortunately, advancing years have already erased everything about it, including title, from my memory.)

Anyway, to thread duty.  I was aware that I didn't know a single note of music by Weinberg despite the persuasive advocacy of @vandermolen and others, so sat down late on Friday to remedy this ignorance.  Started with the First Symphony - then discovered that the score is available, perfectly legally, on issuu - https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/peer3895_weinberg_symphonie_nr._1_op._10_p_a4 (https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/peer3895_weinberg_symphonie_nr._1_op._10_p_a4) - so had to listen through again.  Ditto with nos. 2 & 3.  Finally crawled off to bed at 2am or so - with work the next morning - feeling like Keats's watcher of the skies.  Mature reflection may begin to introduce questions of why someone 14 years younger than DSCH should still be writing in his idiom, but for the moment it's all new and exciting.
Interesting! Weinberg's 5th Symphony is his masterpiece IMO (Kondrashin is best). I've even seen Symphony 3 live at the Proms. I like the Piano Quintet, symphonies 1,3,5,6 and 21 although I don't know them all. Also the Cello Concerto.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: ultralinear on March 04, 2024, 03:02:58 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on March 04, 2024, 02:20:01 AMInteresting! Weinberg's 5th Symphony is his masterpiece IMO (Kondrashin is best). I've even seen Symphony 3 live at the Proms. I like the Piano Quintet, symphonies 1,3,5,6 and 21 although I don't know them all. Also the Cello Concerto.

The Cello Concerto is being performed at London's Southbank next month (https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/classical-music/icons-rediscovered-rachmaninovs-bells?eventId=957409).  About time it entered the repertoire, it's an amazingly strong piece. :)
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Brian on March 04, 2024, 07:24:01 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 04, 2024, 03:02:58 AMThe Cello Concerto is being performed at London's Southbank next month (https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/classical-music/icons-rediscovered-rachmaninovs-bells?eventId=957409).  About time it entered the repertoire, it's an amazingly strong piece. :)
It's also a piece that, with all its emotional tunes, is perfectly calculated to win over major concert-hall audiences. That is an amazing program! The Weinberg Cello Concerto and The Bells are both on my must-see list. Also it'll really test the audience's love for quiet endings.  ;D
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: DaveF on March 04, 2024, 12:44:14 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on March 04, 2024, 02:20:01 AMInteresting! Weinberg's 5th Symphony is his masterpiece IMO (Kondrashin is best). I've even seen Symphony 3 live at the Proms. I like the Piano Quintet, symphonies 1,3,5,6 and 21 although I don't know them all. Also the Cello Concerto.

I'm getting there! - long way to go to 21, although I see that Mirga G-T and the CBSO have recorded it, so may skip ahead.  It was no.2 especially that left me lost for words - like a forgotten Shostakovich SQ, but with buckets of added charm (a commodity in fairly short supply in DSCH's works, to my ears).
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: vandermolen on March 05, 2024, 01:11:51 AM
Quote from: ultralinear on March 04, 2024, 03:02:58 AMThe Cello Concerto is being performed at London's Southbank next month (https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/classical-music/icons-rediscovered-rachmaninovs-bells?eventId=957409).  About time it entered the repertoire, it's an amazingly strong piece. :)
I hope to go to this concert - thanks for the alert.
My wife might be interested in the fact that the performance of Rachmaninov's 'The Bells' is being signed as she is a BSL Interpreter.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 10, 2024, 07:38:16 AM
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Jumping forward to the classical era, Dmitry Bortniansky makes a first appearance in my collection.  This recording starts off with a setting of an anonymous Cherubic Hymn, which sounds aged and serene and lovely, and then things jump into a more identifiably classical era soundworld.  Though not entirely.  Rather like Tchaikovsky's later setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, big slugs of the music sound something closer to timeless.  Bug slugs do not, however.  Not being a musicologist, I don't know how familiar Bortniansky may have been with Haydn, or vice versa, but in some of the writing, there's a vaguely similar style and approach.  It does sounds less austere than Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff, but the buoyancy, the verve, the energy, and the clear seriousness of purpose works well.  The short concerto style writing also keeps things moving along.  The singing is all modern US conservatory good, so it is very good, and the recorded sound from the San Franciso venue is quite excellent.  A very nice addition to my collection.
Title: Re: "New" Music Log
Post by: Todd on March 17, 2024, 09:31:05 AM
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Back to the Renaissance, and off to jolly old England, with works by Christopher Tye and William Mundy.  The 16th Century music is very serious, lovely, and somewhat austere, at least when compared to, say, Spanish composers.  While one can enjoy lovely polyphonic writing, much of the music is much influenced by chant, Mundy even more than Tye.  The comparative simplicity of much of the writing combined with the small scale sound is most rewarding, though.  Overall, another hit from Jeremy Summerly and crew.