GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => Topic started by: DavidW on July 14, 2009, 08:39:17 AM

Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 14, 2009, 08:39:17 AM
There seem to be two different approaches to the listening thread.  One is to do thread duty and let people know what you are currently listening to.  The other is to discuss what you're listening to.  Due to the high traffic on the thread latter is buried or ends up with replies separated by pages and pages.  I thought we might try something different.  If you want to post your thoughts and discuss them with others over current listening, reading or whatever is on your mind, post it here and it won't vanish.  You can then more easily talk about things with other posters.  I'll kick it off.

This morning I was listening to (from the Bernstein Mahler Columbia reissue) the interviews of performers that personally knew Mahler.  There is one thing that struck me in particular as interesting, and that is how particular he was about artistic choices depending on his mood.  He would even change employment of instruments from day to day as a result of that!  Being sensitive to mood he would conduct works differently, and didn't just have one style.  He might take Beethoven's 5th or a Schumann symphony with an angry, stormy passion but play a Schubert symphony or Beethoven's 6th with exuberant joy.  They even went so far as to contrast his approach to Beethoven's 6th with Toscanini, who "was clearly just waiting for the Storm". :D  That is one thing that I think is an issue with many conductors today (or perhaps always, how do I know?) is that they take too uniform of an approach to music.  Take Pinnock, his approach to Bach, Vivaldi etc seems the same whether it be a fast movement, a slow movement, German music, Italian music etc



----------------
Now playing: Hob. III:48 String Quartet Op. 50 No. 5  mvt. 2   
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on July 14, 2009, 11:00:51 AM
DavidW, I salute you, Sir. This is exactly the sort of place to put these thoughts as they arise from our listening; not set in stone, but of more than passing interest. Furthermore, I enjoyed reading your post and I don't believe I've ever significantly considered the extent to which composers may have conducted their work differently. I find myself wondering how Elgar was in this respect, and can't answer it myself by listening because I don't own any alternative recorded performances. Just the one, of each. And I can't recall, in all my reading, whether anyone has recorded their impressions of differing approaches he might have adopted. I may have to read all my Elgar books again.  :o

On a completely different tack, may I use this excellent new thread to record my own musings this lunchtime? This, copied over from the listening thread where it will, as you say, soon disappear without trace. Here goes:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410X1ZJN1FL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

I listened to this while eating lunch. This is the bargain I bought from Hyperion, which caused Lethe to issue timely warnings about the dangers of collecting light English music that no one else wants. When I was about 17 I'd have loved this - like finding an hour's worth of extra music from the Wasps suite that I didn't know about. I'd have dreamed dreams of cricket on the village green, white cumuli scudding over the downs, the watercolour landscape vision of England.

And sure it's still pleasant enough, but these days a little of it goes a long way, and I couldn't really give it my attention for long without drifting off somewhere - though to do it justice, it did keep pulling me back from time to time when a new piece started, and a new tune popped up. So why, I ask myself, would I want to listen to a Vaughan Williams derivative, instead of Vaughan Williams himself? Well, the dark side (which admittedly must be faced) doesn't have to be faced all the time. Sometimes I want Trumpton and Camberwick Green just to cut myself a bit of slack. But there's a bigger question here, to do with the changes that take place in us as we grow older, and the unrealistic tug that pulls backwards towards the less cynical times of our youth. And it's not just Gibbs with his watered-down Vaughan-Williamsism that's in question for me right now, but the whole of sprawling expressionistic formless 'romanticism' that seems a bit tiresome, and I find myself wondering, soaked in Handel as I am these days: 'If it can't be said in a 5 minute da capo aria (or 10 minutes if you must), is it really worth saying at all?'

I know this is a terrible thing to say, and yes I am the chap who used to listen to The Ring complete on four successive nights and still thought it too short, but that was a long time ago. I can't decide whether I know better now, whether I know worse now, or whether I just know differently. Or whether I'll wake up tomorrow and find it was all a dream.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on July 14, 2009, 01:06:46 PM
I will join in when I get back home, I am being timed out here in Sunny Carlisle, North of England.

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on July 14, 2009, 01:22:24 PM
(http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/jpegs/034571172866.png)

Have you heard this?

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67286&f=handel%20coronation%20george (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67286&f=handel%20coronation%20george)

Just found it on the Hyperion website, and I'm listening to the large number of samples (about 20 minutes' worth) - King's recreation of the Coronation of George II. Blimey! Bells, drums, shouts, trumpets, fanfares, thrilling choral singing - this is Handel at full pelt, taking no prisoners. I'm not much of a monarchist really, but this takes the biscuit, and my goodness, to have been there, with all this going on, must have been utterly awesome. I mean, just listening to the samples is hugely entertaining, and I'm very tempted to buy one of these just so I can march around the living room with an imaginary drum. Or maybe a real drum, neighbours permitting.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 14, 2009, 03:02:10 PM
It's an interesting disc, based on the clips (if Paulb sees this I'm doomed >:D ) it veers from bombastic to sublime, and the different composers work well with each other, there is unity to the music even though there are multiple composers.  I was a bit embarrassed though when they started King George! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on July 14, 2009, 11:55:37 PM
Quote from: DavidW on July 14, 2009, 03:02:10 PM
there is unity to the music even though there are multiple composers.

I thought so too. The seemingly coherent ebb and flow of the thing is remarkable, really.

I know what you mean about the 'King George' stuff, but one of the advantages of hindsight is to be able to see all this in its cultural context; we can watch and enjoy without subscribing - like enjoying ancient Egyptian art without believing in the divinity of the Pharaoh.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 15, 2009, 07:17:13 AM
I've been saturating myself with Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony over the last week or so, having checked out the score from the library.  One thing I've found about my recording, the old Ormandy/Philadelphia one, is that as good as it is it's not perfect.  I had guessed that this 1963 record was a little murky-sounding, but there were lots of things in the score that I hadn't even heard!  And Ormandy, surprisingly, gets some of the tempo relationships wrong, although without the score you'd never have guessed.

But what has always angered me about that recording (I have it on a vinyl reprint from the '70s) are the program notes.  Credited to one David Johnson, they reveal an astounding lack of sympathy for not just this symphony but all radical contemporary music.  Most egregious is this statement about the first movement: "Thematic transformation, or the constructing of new themes out of old ones, is also avoided."  Multiple hearings had convinced me that Mr. Johnson didn't know what he was talking about, and the score makes it crystal clear that he was dead wrong.  All the musical material in that movement starts from either the sardonic opening theme or the nostalgic second theme.

Another strong impression from the score is how easy it was to read.  Shostakovich liked pure orchestral colors, not blends, so you don't have a lot of the divided strings or three-lines-on-a-part passages like you find in Mahler and R. Strauss; it's pretty much one, or two at the most, lines of music per staff, and everything lines up really nicely on the printed page.  That makes it far easier to read than, say, the Mahler symphonies or the Strauss tone poems, both of which I love but are not the easiest thing in the world for a score-reader to read through. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 07:19:48 AM
Delighted that you have made this enriched acquaintance with the Opus 43, jo!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 15, 2009, 08:00:16 AM
Jo, that was my first recording of the 4th and it does not disappoint.  I find that it actually had better sound than most of those essential classics as well.  Not spectacular but good enough.  Alot of forumites (well at least back then) were highly dissatisfied with Ormandy's interpretations of pretty much anything.  I don't know why, I think he is a fantastic conductor.  His Sibelius for example just opened up the music for me!

One thing I've heard attributed to the 4th is that it's the closest to being Mahlerian.  I never really understood that.  In sheer length maybe?  It's not exactly hysterical like a Mahler symphony would be.  Is it in the harmony?  Or maybe a just a melody? ???

Anyway is that David Johnson are David Johnson?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 08:16:52 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on July 15, 2009, 07:17:13 AM
I've been saturating myself with Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony over the last week or so, having checked out the score from the library.  One thing I've found about my recording, the old Ormandy/Philadelphia one, is that as good as it is it's not perfect.  I had guessed that this 1963 record was a little murky-sounding, but there were lots of things in the score that I hadn't even heard!

Emphasis mine; q. for t.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2009, 09:24:02 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 15, 2009, 08:00:16 AM
Jo, that was my first recording of the 4th and it does not disappoint.  I find that it actually had better sound than most of those essential classics as well.  Not spectacular but good enough.  Alot of forumites (well at least back then) were highly dissatisfied with Ormandy's interpretations of pretty much anything.  I don't know why, I think he is a fantastic conductor.  His Sibelius for example just opened up the music for me!
Is that the Japanese RCA Sibelius stuff that ArkivMusic is reissuing, or another recording?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 15, 2009, 09:37:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 15, 2009, 09:24:02 AM
Is that the Japanese RCA Sibelius stuff that ArkivMusic is reissuing, or another recording?

Oh no nothing exotic, just essential classics.  That was back when every cd I bought by literally walking down to Tower Records. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:46:03 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on July 15, 2009, 07:17:13 AM
I've been saturating myself with Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony over the last week or so, having checked out the score from the library.  One thing I've found about my recording, the old Ormandy/Philadelphia one, is that as good as it is it's not perfect.  I had guessed that this 1963 record was a little murky-sounding, but there were lots of things in the score that I hadn't even heard!  And Ormandy, surprisingly, gets some of the tempo relationships wrong, although without the score you'd never have guessed.

The Fourth is probably my favorite Shostakovich symphony at the moment, especially after hearing two blazing live performances of it in the last few years: first with Andrey Boreyko making his debut with the New York Philharmonic, and then with Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  And interestingly, in the Boreyko evening, which was part of a series called "Inside the Music," it emerged that Shostakovich himself thought the Fourth might be finer than any of the symphonies that came afterward.  (I'm not necessarily agreeing, just reporting.  ;D)  

Last year Haitink and the CSO then released a recording taped from their concerts in Chicago, which I thought was one of the best recordings of 2008.  Both the performance and the sound quality (on CSO-Resound) are stunning.  I have yet to hear the Ormandy/Philadelphia one, but if you are looking for another version, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 09:52:13 AM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:46:03 AM
first with Andrey Boreyko making his debut with the New York Philharmonic, and .  And interestingly, in the Boreyko evening, which was part of a series called "Inside the Music," it emerged that Shostakovich himself thought the Fourth might be finer than any of the symphonies that came afterward.  (I'm not necessarily agreeing, just reporting.  ;D)  

Bruce, as we have discussed before, Boreyko is returning for a guest conductor performance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, for Shostakovich's 10th in the 2009/10 season.  I can't wait!  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:54:04 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 09:52:13 AM
Bruce, as we have discussed before, Boreyko is returning for a guest conductor performance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, for Shostakovich's 10th in the 2009/10 season.  I can't wait!  :)

That's right!  Yowza, you are in for a treat...

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 09:54:44 AM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:46:03 AM
Last year Haitink and the CSO then released a recording taped from their concerts in Chicago, which I thought was one of the best recordings of 2008.  Both the performance and the sound quality (on CSO-Resound) are stunning.  I have yet to hear the Ormandy/Philadelphia one, but if you are looking for another version, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

That disc is certainly on the wish list, Bruce;  I am only waiting for some slight increase in the revenue stream  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 09:55:17 AM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:54:04 AM
That's right!  Yowza, you are in for a treat...

Worth a trip up to the 'peg, eh, Bruce?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 09:56:01 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 15, 2009, 09:55:17 AM
Worth a trip up to the 'peg, eh, Bruce?

Bring a parka!  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 09:57:26 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 15, 2009, 09:54:44 AM
That disc is certainly on the wish list, Bruce;  I am only waiting for some slight increase in the revenue stream  8)

(I'll keep my eyes open for a used one at Academy.  ;))

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 15, 2009, 09:55:17 AM
Worth a trip up to the 'peg, eh, Bruce?

It definitely would be!   8)  "Will Travel For No. 10"  ;D

(And I love cold weather, so not a problem...)

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 09:57:51 AM
 ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2009, 10:46:06 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 09:52:13 AM
Bruce, as we have discussed before, Boreyko is returning for a guest conductor performance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, for Shostakovich's 10th in the 2009/10 season.  I can't wait!  :)
JEALOUS! How much are plane tickets to Winnipeg these days?  :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 10:56:58 AM
AND...just looked at the rest of the program--excellent!

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Andrey Boreyko, conductor
Gwen Hoebig, violin

Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

And actually the entire season is pretty impressive.  Mickelthwaite is offering some unusual programming, including a 7-night contemporary music festival in February, in addition to better-known fare like Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Haydn's The Creation.

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 11:00:34 AM
Great program! Road-trip!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2009, 11:01:52 AM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 10:56:58 AM
AND...just looked at the rest of the program--excellent!

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Andrey Boreyko, conductor
Gwen Hoebig, violin

Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Wow ... what day was this again?  ;D ;D

EDIT: Rice professor alert! Looks like Cho-Liang Lin is opening the WSO season with the Sibelius concerto in a really terrific program!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 11:03:58 AM
The concerts are Feb. 19 and 20.  We should have a "GMG Meet-Up!"  (And/or, storm Ray's house.  ;D)

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2009, 11:05:59 AM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 11:03:58 AM
The concerts are Feb. 19 and 20.  We should have a "GMG Meet-Up!"  (And/or, storm Ray's house.  ;D)

--Bruce
Maybe I'll pilfer his Ormandy/Shostakovich CDs while we're there.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 11:06:46 AM
While we're plying him with Stoli!  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2009, 11:09:21 AM
Wow, Ray, the WSO season looks terrific. I'd happily go to just about every concert! And there's even a great kids' program narrated by Lemony Snicket, called "Who Killed the Composer?" in which every orchestra member is a suspect ... adorable!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 15, 2009, 11:16:45 AM
Had to be the second bassoonist!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 15, 2009, 11:40:24 AM
Quote from: DavidW on July 15, 2009, 08:00:16 AM
...One thing I've heard attributed to the 4th is that it's the closest to being Mahlerian.  I never really understood that.  In sheer length maybe?  It's not exactly hysterical like a Mahler symphony would be.  Is it in the harmony?  Or maybe a just a melody? ???
It's more in the overall construction and his methods of theme development.  The orchestra is actually very Mahlerian in size and proportion, and the first movement follows a Mahlerian version of sonta-allegro form.  Other Mahler-like touches include the third movement's opening funeral march and the bird calls from high clarinet and solo violin in the first movement.  Its ending is very like the ending of Das Lied von der Erde, even down to the celesta arpeggios.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 02:09:27 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 15, 2009, 11:05:59 AM
Maybe I'll pilfer his Ormandy/Shostakovich CDs while we're there.  ;D

B, you'll have to wait until I pilfer the copy from the Library first.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 15, 2009, 02:14:34 PM
Quote from: bhodges on July 15, 2009, 10:56:58 AM
And actually the entire season is pretty impressive.  Mickelthwaite is offering some unusual programming, including a 7-night contemporary music festival in February, in addition to better-known fare like Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Haydn's The Creation.

--Bruce

The WSO's New Music Festival is popular, especially by some of the younger audience, which is a great thing!  Some of the music isn't necessarily "brand new" per se, but music that hasn't been performed in Winnipeg before (ie. Messaien's Turangilia Symphony last year).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 15, 2009, 04:43:42 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on July 15, 2009, 11:40:24 AM
It's more in the overall construction and his methods of theme development.  The orchestra is actually very Mahlerian in size and proportion, and the first movement follows a Mahlerian version of sonta-allegro form.  Other Mahler-like touches include the third movement's opening funeral march and the bird calls from high clarinet and solo violin in the first movement.  Its ending is very like the ending of Das Lied von der Erde, even down to the celesta arpeggios.

Thanks for the insight, with that in mind I'll give the symphony a fresh listen! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 17, 2009, 07:29:47 AM
Well I'm not really into the Wuorinen (that I recently purchased).  SQ #2 is not bad, in fact I like the first movement, that goofy tune amused me and following it's transformation and splitting across the movement is pretty neat.  But that's still not a gut emotional reaction to the music.

I didn't know if it was an anti-contemporary music, not in the mood, my time of the month, I have a headache sort of reaction ;D so I popped in Carter string quartets, but that music was so powerful, tense, driven so I don't know.  But I feel like there is no tension in Wuorinen's music, nor is it really rhythmically driven.

How does one get into and enjoy the new music anyway?  I still can't help but think that it's my failing.  My listening gear needs to be recalibrated as Karl would say.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 17, 2009, 12:43:07 PM
I'm going to pull a Paulb and say that Wuorinen's music is growing on me, I'll take back what I said before.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 17, 2009, 01:08:34 PM
Quote from: DavidW on July 17, 2009, 07:29:47 AM
How does one get into and enjoy the new music anyway?  I still can't help but think that it's my failing.  My listening gear needs to be recalibrated as Karl would say.

Noticed your three posts on Wuorinen and Carter, and I'd offer one small friendly correction: replacing the word "failing" with something like "unfamiliarity with the language."  If you are exploring, to me that is hardly failing, it's just...exploring!

When I was baffled by Carter--and I've been a contemporary music fan for some 40 years--I decided to take just one piece and listen to it over and over.  To make the exercise easy, I chose a short one, Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux (1984) for flute and clarinet, just 4 minutes long.  I'd heard it live once, maybe twice, but just didn't get it.  So I listened to it once, twice, four times, ten times...and somehow, finally, it just "clicked."

There must be something in the brain that begins to make sense out of complex systems after awhile, if a listener a) is exposed to them in a healthy dose, and b) keeps an open mind to allow reactions to occur in whatever way they happen, without passing judgement.  (PS, I am reading a book chosen specifically because it may shed some light on this process, called Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation by David Huron.) 

Just your second reaction to the Wuorinen is, to me, a sign that something happened in your head that helped you make some sense out of the piece, even if you have no idea what that is at the moment.

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 17, 2009, 05:16:03 PM
Strangely, I have never actually heard any of Wuorinen's music.  I think I'm going to have to remedy that lack ASAP! ;D

My next score-study project: Mahler 6. :D I've read through the first movement and Scherzo.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 17, 2009, 05:31:01 PM
That's good advise Bruce, I'm doing just that now (well earlier today and soon later this evening).  I've narrowed my focus to just SQ #2.  It's opening up more for me.  I guess I just got too cocky about feeling like I would warm up to a piece with one careful listen, this is not Clementi here! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on July 17, 2009, 05:43:01 PM
Quote from: DavidW on July 17, 2009, 05:31:01 PM
I guess I just got too cocky about feeling like I would warm up to a piece with one careful listen, this is not Clementi here! :D

Sometimes that happens--a piece strikes you immediately on first hearing, and it's good to be open to that possibility--but sometimes it takes more time.  I have yet to warm up to Milton Babbitt, although I'm cracking the code to a few of his pieces.  A composer friend helped me by drawing a diagram on a napkin: a square filled with dozens of squiggly lines.  He said, "You don't need to start at any specific point, just enter the square and the (musical) lines wherever you want."  Somehow that really helped.  It released me from having to experience Babbitt the same way he or anyone else did.  (Which of course, is really true for experiencing the work of any composer.)

--Bruce
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 23, 2009, 09:24:30 PM
BEETHOVEN | Symphony No 7

Performed by whom, you might ask? Good question. First I did back-to-back movement-by-movement auditions of John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hogwood, first playing Gardiner's take on each movement and then Hogwood's. Kind of an interesting experience having everything repeated. Gardiner's performance is with a bigger band in much more "present" sound, but I found that, when I cranked the volume up for Hogwood, it did indeed reveal a more individual, colorfully period-instrument sound. The problem was that I also felt in Hogwood as if there was a rather rustic, rough-and-ready touch: the orchestral details that get highlighted often seem to be accidental, as if the horn player just spontaneously decided to pipe up or the oboes just felt like getting their spunk on for a minute. Gardiner's orchestra is a polished, professional group, no doubt about it. But I think my previous inclination toward Gardiner was not really a product of his life-force really so much as the fact that the recording doesn't require a volume jolt.

Now, however, I've put on a third recording of the Seventh. It is one I have championed here before, but since have gone several months without listening to it. The big question: was it anything as good as I remembered?

The answer is, unequivocally, yes. Thomas Dausgaard's recording with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra is a "HIP Hybrid" - olden stylings on modern instruments. And it is stunning. The funny thing about this recording is that after I listened to it once, back in March, it instantly adopted a mythical status in my brain. Since then I have returned each time with some skepticism, as if it can't be so, or I must have just been in a particular mood. Why the doubt? Not sure. This listen has been just as riveting as the prior ones: music-making that totally bankrupts my ability to throw adjectives at it. It is big, bold, driven, powerful, propulsive, intimate, chamber-like, immediate, it's in my room here with me; it's charming, stern, eternal, mortal, alive, fantastical, earthy, and, if I can use the word again, mythical. That's a soup of contradictions. But this performance is no soup of contradictions.

When I first posted about it here, I used a phrase that may have hinted at what I'm trying and failing spectacularly to say. Here it is: listening to this Dausgaard recording of the Beethoven Seventh, I really feel not merely as if I am listening to this music for the first time - but as if it is being played for the first time.

The timpani is pounding out the big drum rolls in the third movement trio right now. And now the bass' last line before the scherzo explodes back onto the scene - strictly in tempo. This music is alive. Wow.

DISCLAIMER: This was written after midnight, so it may contain fancies and flights of purple prose.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on July 24, 2009, 12:31:06 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2009, 09:24:30 PM
listening to this Dausgaard recording of the Beethoven Seventh, I really feel not merely as if I am listening to this music for the first time - but as if it is being played for the first time.

That's a perfect description of how I felt when I listened to Immerseel's 5th a couple of days ago.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 24, 2009, 05:43:13 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2009, 09:24:30 PM
BEETHOVEN | Symphony No 7 [....]

Outstanding contribution, Brian!

The Seventh was an instant favorite . . . and then, from time to time I would hear a recording broadcast on the radio, and I'd think, How can they suck all the juice out of this great piece, like that?

Incidentally, I am a little nonplussed at all the love the Fifth is not getting these days . . . but it's another piece I have an ineradicable sentimental attachment to;  first I knew of it was not the ta-ta-ta-TAA 'Fate' bit, but—curiously—the last movement, which we played in transcription in my junior high band (heavily edited, it must have been, of course).  So the Opus 67 has always been joy and energy, to me.

The other (much later) sentimental tie to the Fifth is:

At Wooster, each year we had an end-of-year drop-the-needle test (somewhere, I may possibly still have the run-down of the required listening for each year . . . essentially, a list of "what pieces from the literature would it be a complete embarrassment to send a music graduate out into the world, without his familiarization?").  Needless to say, we music majors in general (and we hot music jocks in particular) couldn't be bothered to do any more than 'remedial' listening to the list (you see Mendelssohn's 'Italian', and you check it right off, e.g.)

For the test, you were played a minute (I think) of each, and you were asked to identify (1) piece, (2) composer, (3) genre, and (4) period.  And if recollection serves, if you correctly identified genre and period for all ten, and perhaps piece and/or composer for at least half, you passed (reasonably easy threshold, which was another reason not to invest more time than strictly necessary in the listening lab).  Nonetheless, as easy as a 'pass' would be to earn, there was a geeky contingent among us who would scorn any of the others who missed a piece ident (all in fun).

The list for Freshman year was especially cake-ish, so my buddy (fellow composition student) Wayne and I probably did next to zero listening;  and true to expectations, as we sat down to the test, piece by piece went by which were an effortless breeze to identify.

Except one.  It was slow and quiet, nothing stood out as a telltale identifier.  Wayne and I glanced at one another, we were each puzzled.  Then there was a crescendo, and the teacher pulled off the needle just before the big chord at the downbeat—and both Wayne's pencil and mine sprang to the page in at-last-knowledgeable relief.  For that chord that we just missed hearing, we both knew for the fortissimo C major chord at the start of the fourth movement of the Beethoven Fifth.

And we both really enjoyed the teacher's coy tricksiness in playing such an obscure passage from such an obviously well-known work.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 24, 2009, 08:08:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2009, 09:24:30 PM
The answer is, unequivocally, yes. Thomas Dausgaard's recording with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra

The entire cycle sounds (reads rather, I haven't heard any of it) great. Most of the discs are rated 10/10 at the Hurwitzer's place. But this slight slight has me worried (because I love the horn):

The horns, so important in this music, are not so forward as they are in recordings by Wand, Bernstein, and Barenboim (and this tells at the end of the first movement), but you do hear them play entire tunes (including the first movement's main theme) when they get them, not just "highlights", as with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan or Abbado.

So, Brian, are the horns really that backward in the mix (I'm a huge fan of Barenboim's recording)? Something I should worry about?

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 24, 2009, 08:48:52 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 24, 2009, 05:43:13 AM
Incidentally, I am a little nonplussed at all the love the Fifth is not getting these days . . .

Overexposure? Familiarity breeds contempt? I know when I want to hear a Beethoven symphony I'm more likely to play 2, 4 or 8 rather than 5, 6, 7, 9. I can still enjoy them but seldom feel the need to listen: maybe I've heard them once too often? Especially the Fifth, which is drilled into all our heads from infancy  ;D  The Eroica never grows old, though...perhaps because that was the one symphony I struggled with for so long.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 24, 2009, 08:51:49 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 24, 2009, 08:48:52 AM
Overexposure? Familiarity breeds contempt?

Bet you're right there, Sarge.  Happily, the Opus 67 is fiery enough, that it's one piece WCRB (the soundtrack to dentists' waiting rooms in Boston) never overplays  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on July 24, 2009, 08:54:33 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 24, 2009, 08:51:49 AM
Happily, the Opus 67 is fiery enough, that it's one piece WCRB (the soundtrack to dentists' waiting rooms in Boston) never overplays  8)

;D :D ;D

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 24, 2009, 12:42:59 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 24, 2009, 08:08:21 AM
The entire cycle sounds (reads rather, I haven't heard any of it) great. Most of the discs are rated 10/10 at the Hurwitzer's place. But this slight slight has me worried (because I love the horn):

The horns, so important in this music, are not so forward as they are in recordings by Wand, Bernstein, and Barenboim (and this tells at the end of the first movement), but you do hear them play entire tunes (including the first movement's main theme) when they get them, not just "highlights", as with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan or Abbado.

So, Brian, are the horns really that backward in the mix (I'm a huge fan of Barenboim's recording)? Something I should worry about?

Sarge
Ah, good, an excuse to listen again.  ;D

The horns sound like they're in the back, to be sure, but they're also dead center in the 'sound picture'. This is a chamber orchestra, and really their part, like everyone else's, is crystal clear - one feels like, with this size ensemble and this recording, one can hear everything. Just putting on Barenboim for comparison - the big capping horn call at the very end of the movement is definitely more of a standout on Barenboim's, but that's really about it.

For what it's worth, Barenboim is a favorite of mine too. Absolutely love his cycle - would have to take both Barenboim and a HIPster to my desert island, though.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 27, 2009, 04:00:44 AM
Well I made my way through the box set of Handel's orchestral works performed by Pinnock and the English Concert in record time, about a week.  Every morning I ended up starting it with one of the cds in the set.  It was an inexpensive way to hear some great works again.  The set is mostly concerned with Handel's Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and the Op 6 Concertos.  Some might disagree, but I feel that they are great works even if are not at the same level of sheer artistry exemplified in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, and they don't have the light, rhythmic drive of Vivaldi's numerous concertos.  It was wonderful to reacquaint myself with these exceptional works of Handel.

But, the thing is that the performances disappoint.  Whenever a beautiful melody presents itself the phrasing is just screwed up.  It's played through emphasizing the wrong elements, and then it just falls apart.  It's as if Pinnock is attempting to force Handel to have that same sprightliness that Vivaldi has, but he goes about it all wrong.  Now Handel can sound lively yet still retain that beautiful, austere sound.  I've heard it in Manze.  I've heard it in other recordings as well.  I just don't think that the Pinnock set has the magic. 

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on July 28, 2009, 12:31:48 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2009, 09:24:30 PMGardiner's performance is with a bigger band in much more "present" sound, but I found that, when I cranked the volume up for Hogwood, it did indeed reveal a more individual, colorfully period-instrument sound.

      This is interesting, because I've been reading a textbook recently, and one of the aspects of classical era composers it touches on is the size of the orchestra, and especially how they enjoyed it when they had a larger orchestra than usual. Mozart, for example, once wrote home about how thrilled he was when there were twenty first violins, and double wind parts at a particular performance of his. While composers certainly expected their music to be played by smaller ensembles, I question whether or not they wrote specifically with a chamber sound in mind, and whether that affects balance and subtle color issues as much as people think, given anecdotes like the one above Yet most conductors today go for a reduced orchestration in Mozart and Beethoven, even when they have the forces available to put on a big performance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on July 28, 2009, 12:38:13 AM
      Listened to Brahms Clarinet Quintet by the Borodin Quartet and Mozgovenko last night. I never used to play favorites, but after two years of knowing this work, I gotta say that if I could only listen to one work of music for the rest of my life on continuous loop, this would be it, especially the 2nd and 4th movements. I wonder if this work (especially the ending) is a result of Brahms' relationship with Clara Schumann?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on July 28, 2009, 02:35:17 AM
The Brahms Quintet is a ravishingly beautiful work.  (Of course, as a clarinetist, I'm a little biased. ;))  What do you think of this particular rendition?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 28, 2009, 04:20:31 AM
Quote from: Dana on July 28, 2009, 12:38:13 AM
     Listened to Brahms Clarinet Quintet by the Borodin Quartet and Mozgovenko last night. I never used to play favorites, but after two years of knowing this work, I gotta say that if I could only listen to one work of music for the rest of my life on continuous loop, this would be it, especially the 2nd and 4th movements.

Great.....thanks a lot Dana.  Now I have to listen to the Clarinet Quintet today.  ;D  I brought it along with me at work when I read your post this morning.  :)

Performance:  Amadeus Qt w/ Karl Leister, clarinet

BTW - the four late clarinet works by Brahms are all beautiful, wonderful works (Trio and two sonatas).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on July 28, 2009, 05:22:21 AM
Chambernut, that recording of the Clarinet Quintet I listened to just two days ago! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on July 28, 2009, 07:48:49 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on July 28, 2009, 04:20:31 AMBTW - the four late clarinet works by Brahms are all beautiful, wonderful works (Trio and two sonatas).

I know, thank God for Muhlfeld, right? ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on July 28, 2009, 09:08:07 AM
Quote from: Dana on July 28, 2009, 07:48:49 AM
I know, thank God for Muhlfeld, right? ;D

No doubt!  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 03, 2009, 08:08:13 AM
Does anyone feel that there is some sort of "connection" between Mozart's C minor string quintet (No. 2) and Beethoven's piano concerto in the same key (No. 3)? The last movements especially. I was playing the quintet (Movt. III) in my head this afternoon -- yes, it's started to work again, though not as prodigiously as it used to -- and subconsciously the music transitioned into Beethoven's.

I have read that B. modelled his concerto after Mozart's No. 24, but I have never come across anything about the quintet in this regard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on August 03, 2009, 09:04:45 PM
      There's certainly a lot of similarity between the two works in terms of the way they treat the key - with an incredible amount of gravity that one rarely finds anywhere else in their music. Also, in the thematic treatment in the first movements - both opening simply enough with a presentation of the minor triad: simple, and to the point. I can't comment on the specifics though, since it's been years since I was acquainted with the quintet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on August 04, 2009, 03:37:22 AM
Quote from: opus106 on August 03, 2009, 08:08:13 AM
Does anyone feel that there is some sort of "connection" between Mozart's C minor string quintet (No. 2) and Beethoven's piano concerto in the same key (No. 3)? The last movements especially. I was playing the quintet (Movt. III) in my head this afternoon -- yes, it's started to work again, though not as prodigiously as it used to -- and subconsciously the music transitioned into Beethoven's.

I have read that B. modelled his concerto after Mozart's No. 24, but I have never come across anything about the quintet in this regard.

Did you also know that the string quintet is actually a reworking of the Serenade for Winds in C minor, K.388?  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 04, 2009, 04:56:28 AM
Quote from: Dana on August 03, 2009, 09:04:45 PM
      There's certainly a lot of similarity between the two works in terms of the way they treat the key - with an incredible amount of gravity that one rarely finds anywhere else in their music. Also, in the thematic treatment in the first movements - both opening simply enough with a presentation of the minor triad: simple, and to the point. I can't comment on the specifics though, since it's been years since I was acquainted with the quintet.

Thanks for the input, Dana. :)

Quote from: ChamberNut on August 04, 2009, 03:37:22 AM
Did you also know that the string quintet is actually a reworking of the Serenade for Winds in C minor, K.388?  :)

Yes, sir. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 22, 2009, 04:55:42 PM
This week I've listened to Bach's Cantatas bwv 140 and 147 several times and it's great music by Bach... but... the performance is a too drab, kind of romantic style phrasing and very poor microphone placement, the arias (which has some of the best musical parts) sound muted while the choruses are WAY TOO LOUD.  I am happy to have the music to listen to, but overall dissatisfied with the recording.

I decided to cross post on here since I posted actual thoughts and not just a picture. Roll Eyes

It is perhaps useful to note that the recording I'm talking about is NOT from the newer issue, it's a reissue of an older.  What do you look for in a performance of Bach cantatas?


Edit: I'm talking about Gardiner/Monteverdi.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on August 24, 2009, 07:47:41 AM
      Been browsing through the early Shostakovich string quartets lately, via the original Borodin Quartet. You know, as much as people admire the late quartets for their unique expressive language, I find the early quartets just as impressive. Where the late quartets are almost symphonies for string quartet, the early quartets, while more conventional, are very tightly constructed, and well voiced (with the exception of the 3rd quartet).
      On another note, I've really begun to appreciate these Borodin recordings more than the Fitzwilliam Quartet recordings, which was my first set. Somehow, it sounds more Russian to me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on August 24, 2009, 09:21:45 AM
Quote from: Dana on August 24, 2009, 07:47:41 AM
      Been browsing through the early Shostakovich string quartets lately, via the original Borodin Quartet. You know, as much as people admire the late quartets for their unique expressive language, I find the early quartets just as impressive. Where the late quartets are almost symphonies for string quartet, the early quartets, while more conventional, are very tightly constructed, and well voiced (with the exception of the 3rd quartet).
      On another note, I've really begun to appreciate these Borodin recordings more than the Fitzwilliam Quartet recordings, which was my first set. Somehow, it sounds more Russian to me.

Dana, I agree on what you are saying regarding the early quartets.  SQ# 4 has just recently blown me away, now one of my faves.

Although I only have the Eder/Naxos set, by far the set I've enjoyed listening to the most is the Fitzwilliam set, more so than either the Emersons or Borodins.  I do also really love the Eder set I have.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Bulldog on August 24, 2009, 09:32:02 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 22, 2009, 04:55:42 PM

It is perhaps useful to note that the recording I'm talking about is NOT from the newer issue, it's a reissue of an older.  What do you look for in a performance of Bach cantatas?

More than anything else, I look for a celebration of God, not supplication.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 24, 2009, 12:09:03 PM
Has it always been standard practice to price solo instrumental and orchestral releases the same? It seems to have always been the case for CDs at least. I can sort of see how orchestras often being nationally subsidised to some extent can allow some of the recording costs negated, but it can't be the whole story (among non-"superstar" musicians). Are pianophiles effectively underwriting the 'greedy' people who only listen to symphonies? ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 24, 2009, 04:10:05 PM
Well I'm sure most of the performer's pay just goes to the conductor anyway. ;D  Those large symphony orchestras perform ALOT though, so hopefully the musicians aren't starving. :-\

I hope Jo, one of our resident musicians, will pipe up and tell us what's going on. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 24, 2009, 08:17:30 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 24, 2009, 04:10:05 PM
Well I'm sure most of the performer's pay just goes to the conductor anyway. ;D  Those large symphony orchestras perform ALOT though, so hopefully the musicians aren't starving. :-\

I hope Jo, one of our resident musicians, will pipe up and tell us what's going on. :)
I couldn't say; I have next-to-no experience with studio recording, at least not for classical music.  But I would guess that, first, orchestral recordings sell a lot more than soloist recordings, and second, the record companies get most of the money anyway. ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 24, 2009, 08:21:09 PM
More score study: Sibelius Symphonies #4 and #7, and Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead. 8)  The Sibelius scores are pretty easy to read, but it's eye-opening to see exactly what rhythms he wrote.  Those places where it seems the melodic rhythm just sort of flows naturally without strict time--they're actually written very precisely but with lots of offbeat entrances, syncopations and other rhythmic peculiarities; some sections of these symphonies actually remind me of Varèse in their avoidance of a strong downbeat. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 27, 2009, 11:39:52 AM
A new found admiration for Mahler's 6th.

When I caught the performance somewhere in the middle of the first movement, on T.V., it was about a quarter-of-an-hour past eleven P.M.* I did not want stay up too late watching it for that might have some not-so-good repercussions in the morning, but it was infectious. I somehow made it to the andante, and what glorious music it was! (I've always had a special spot for that movement. Oh, and it was Scherzo-Andante, BTW.) Now I had to watch the hammer blows 0:), so I stayed up and watched and listened until the last note faded away. (Actually, some fellow began shouting "Bravo" even before that could happen. ::))

Usually when I listen to this symphony or some other equally long work, I'm working at the computer sitting in the same chair. But this time, I was able to concentrate completely on the symphony in the comfort of the living room. It yielded a lot of good things. And close to midnight, which is likely not the hour for Mahler when you have neighbours around, I switched to headphones. It was just me and the music. Incredible! And surprisingly, I never felt the exhaustion associated with a Mahler symphony.



*Orchestre de Paris; Christoph Eschenbach. This was the same concert I saw a year or two ago, prior to my listening of Mahler's symphonies. Then, I followed, or at least tried to do so, from the middle of the andante and was wondering what a Dr. Evil-look-alike was conducting. And why was this madman at the back of the stage wielding a hammer?! It would be a few months before I would discover the 'Resurrection.'
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 28, 2009, 01:17:53 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on August 24, 2009, 08:21:09 PM
More score study: Sibelius Symphonies #4 and #7, and Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead. 8)  The Sibelius scores are pretty easy to read, but it's eye-opening to see exactly what rhythms he wrote.  Those places where it seems the melodic rhythm just sort of flows naturally without strict time--they're actually written very precisely but with lots of offbeat entrances, syncopations and other rhythmic peculiarities; some sections of these symphonies actually remind me of Varèse in their avoidance of a strong downbeat. :D
I've actually recently finished a superb book by David Hurwitz (of all people) about the way that Sibelius wrote for orchestra. Hurwitz was actually a marvelous and very perceptive guide; he pointed out Sibelius' fondness for bizarre phrase lengths and tunes comprised of irregular numbers of bars, used as means to keep the music rhythmically interesting and always unexpected. He also talked about the way that phrases overlap or "interlock" in Sibelius' music, such that you can't tell where one begins and the other ends. His example here was the first entrance of the trombone in the Seventh Symphony, in which the soloist's first note is sustained for so long behind the string section before taking the forefront that, although they're very obviously playing two different ideas, the whole thing seems of a piece. Really fascinating...  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on August 28, 2009, 02:13:38 PM
      More Shostakovich Quartet listening, the 12th with the Fitzwilliam Quartet. My quartet put a recital on with another University of Michigan quartet last December, and this was our half of the recital. This late Shostakovich repertoire is beastly in a way no other repertoire I've encountered is. With his late quartets to find a perfect unity of form. Observe - 12 is a two movement work in which the first is basically a prologue to the second movement, 13 is in a single movement, and 15, six movements all played continuously, almost like a baroque sonata. These attempts to unify the string quartet in a Wagnerian sense makes them absolute behemoths to play, and they require a lot of endurance to get through, both as a performer, and as a listener.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 28, 2009, 02:22:48 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 28, 2009, 01:17:53 PM
I've actually recently finished a superb book by David Hurwitz (of all people) about the way that Sibelius wrote for orchestra. Hurwitz was actually a marvelous and very perceptive guide; he pointed out Sibelius' fondness for bizarre phrase lengths and tunes comprised of irregular numbers of bars, used as means to keep the music rhythmically interesting and always unexpected. He also talked about the way that phrases overlap or "interlock" in Sibelius' music, such that you can't tell where one begins and the other ends. His example here was the first entrance of the trombone in the Seventh Symphony, in which the soloist's first note is sustained for so long behind the string section before taking the forefront that, although they're very obviously playing two different ideas, the whole thing seems of a piece. Really fascinating...  :)
Yes.  And having finished the "checking out from the library," I am also very impressed by how sensitively Sibelius writes dynamic markings.  On any number of occasions he uses ppp or sometimes even pppp, but rarely do you see ff for the brass, and many times, as in Mahler, different instruments are playing completely different dynamics.  In both symphonies, Sibelius indicates fff exactly once! :o All a conductor has to do is to tell the orchestra to play exactly what's written, and you have a very, very dynamic and perfectly voiced performance. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on September 03, 2009, 01:25:40 PM
More scores:

Poulenc: Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings
Varèse: Ionisation.

If anybody still thinks Poulenc is a lightweight, I'd recommend this concerto; serious, well-crafted, and with an overall feeling of sorrow that prefigures Dialogues des Carmelites. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 17, 2009, 08:42:32 PM
      I've been listening to the romantic nationals lately, and am struck by just how frank and enjoyable it is. Aside from the anticipation of the Sibelius smorgasbord which will occur as soon as my Maazel cycle arrives (tomorrow? Please?), I've been listening to Grieg orchestral music through the ears of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and Dvorak chamber music. I'm playing the op.77 Bass Quintet with a chamber group in Rochester, which has been a very pleasant surprise. Dvorak really deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Brahms more often, especially when it comes to chamber music. It's really nice to listen to music that doesn't care whether or not it matters, it just wants to be good.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on September 19, 2009, 03:28:23 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 17, 2009, 08:42:32 PM
Dvorak really deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Brahms more often

QFT
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: WI Dan on September 19, 2009, 11:26:12 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 17, 2009, 08:42:32 PM
     I've been listening to the romantic nationals lately, and am struck by just how frank and enjoyable it is. Aside from the anticipation of the Sibelius smorgasbord which will occur as soon as my Maazel cycle arrives (tomorrow? Please?), I've been listening to Grieg orchestral music through the ears of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and Dvorak chamber music. I'm playing the op.77 Bass Quintet with a chamber group in Rochester, which has been a very pleasant surprise. Dvorak really deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Brahms more often, especially when it comes to chamber music. It's really nice to listen to music that doesn't care whether or not it matters, it just wants to be good.

Well said.

Na zdravi! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8QhaBQ7Dbg) :D

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on September 19, 2009, 06:34:00 PM
There is nothing quite like Bruckner's Adagios.  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 19, 2009, 06:50:52 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 19, 2009, 06:34:00 PM
There is nothing quite like Bruckner's Adagios.  0:)

And there is also nothing like Bruckner's Te Deum, it is truly one of a kind. 0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 20, 2009, 04:47:16 PM
So I listened to Bach's Cantatas bwv 198 and 110.  The first is a pretty terrific work, but those lutes were just so overwhelming in the recording that I listened to that I felt really pushed out of my comfort zone. :-\  Anyway and then the second one started and I was like WOW! :o  I know this!  It's an orchestral suite!  What the heck is it doing here? ;D  And I looked it up afterwards to see that it was #4.  And Leusink played it so slow that it sounded regal like a Handel suite.  And for once I wasn't offput by the singing, the whole thing worked and I will grudgingly accept a slow tempo in this case. :)

You know I like the sound of the lute, by how they did it in that recording, where it was so forward miked that it overwhelmed everything else was really off putting.  Don't ya just hate that?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 20, 2009, 09:09:00 PM
      PS I'm hearing a LOT of Beethoven Op.132 in the opening movement of the Dvorak bass quintet. There are sudden pangs of dissonance, it sticks really hard, and there is formal de-composition (yes, I made up that term) going back into the recapitulation. It's like Dvorak was channeling his inner Beethoven.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 21, 2009, 03:04:43 AM
I think you've motivated me to give that bass quintet a fresh listen Dana. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on September 21, 2009, 04:42:04 AM
Bass Quintet??  Was this a string quartet with a double-bass as the fifth instrument?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 21, 2009, 05:32:50 AM
      Yup! It's really young Dvorak too. The op.77 was reassigned to the work after it was edited (it originally had an additional slow movement between the sonata movement and the scherzo) - it's actually op.18. The inclusion of the bass means for a thicker, bigger sound, and it's usually used to double the cello as a melody instrument, or the viola as a blending instrument, or to add Brahmsian rhythmic support. While none of this is really ground breaking, it does make the ensemble a bit more versatile, and allows Dvorak to get creative with textures.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 21, 2009, 06:33:12 AM
Okay I guess in my cd sets Op. 77 is probably what I'll find then but Op. 18 is the actual composition?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 21, 2009, 06:59:10 AM
      It's always referred as op.77, so far as I know. I found out what I wrote above by reading the preface to a mini-score.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on September 27, 2009, 11:35:29 AM
'Offbeat' asked for some comments on this recent purchase:

(http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/jpegs/034571171852.png)

I thought I'd put them here, if no one objects, rather than in the 'Today's purchases' thread, where it'll soon be swept away by the tidal flood of posts announcing recent newcomers.

As I suspected it would be, for me the highlight of this disc is the string concerto. Its character is quite quite typical of what you'd expect of an English pastoral strings piece. It doesn't rise to the heights of Elgar's Intro and Allegro, nor RVW's Tallis Fantasia - it mostly lacks their dark, savage side - but its roots are in the same place, or thereabouts. I was also reminded quite often of Parry (eg second symphony), in the somehow masculine jauntiness of the Scherzo, and the sweet melodic-ness of the slow movement. This is not to say it's some kind of pastiche of Parry, Elgar or RVW - it isn't; but those are its reference points. Or at least, those are my reference points, while listening to this.

I found it very easy to like. Might be a little too rosy in its outlook for some (though it doesn't entirely avoid looking into the dark), and if you wanted something to remind you of a day's walk through Wiltshire along the Ridgeway, this might well be it. At £5.60 in Hyperion's sale, I'm very pleased to have it. At its usual full price .... well, I think I'd not have rushed into buying it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 27, 2009, 03:07:47 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on September 27, 2009, 11:35:29 AMIt doesn't rise to the heights of Elgar's Intro and Allegro, nor RVW's Tallis Fantasia - it mostly lacks their dark, savage side - but its roots are in the same place, or thereabouts.

I'm not sure I buy that word... I think I know what you mean but...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on September 28, 2009, 06:49:42 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 27, 2009, 03:07:47 PM
I'm not sure I buy that word... I think I know what you mean but...

Possible alternatives might be 'rawness', or 'bleakness', though they don't quite hit the feeling I was trying for. One might describe a sudden rush of cold wind and sleeting rain as 'savage' in the sense I mean.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on September 28, 2009, 08:25:35 AM
Aye, 'tis no ungawa sort of savage.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 28, 2009, 09:34:03 AM
      Ugh, I'm in trouble. My Sibelius Maazel set came in late last week, and all I want to do is listen to the 7th symphony (my favorite), but I'm also committed to listening to the symphonies in chronological order, and I can't even get off of the first symphony yet. What a gorgeous 2nd movement, and compelling finale! This recording has me convinced that this is one of the most overlooked symphonies of the century, and I can't wait to dig into the rest... Once I'm done with the first.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 28, 2009, 09:42:13 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 21, 2009, 05:32:50 AM
      Yup! It's really young Dvorak too. The op.77 was reassigned to the work after it was edited (it originally had an additional slow movement between the sonata movement and the scherzo) - it's actually op.18. The inclusion of the bass means for a thicker, bigger sound, and it's usually used to double the cello as a melody instrument, or the viola as a blending instrument, or to add Brahmsian rhythmic support. While none of this is really ground breaking, it does make the ensemble a bit more versatile, and allows Dvorak to get creative with textures.
The Op. 77 is one of my favorite Dvorak pieces. There's a tune about a minute into the scherzo that knocks me out every time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on September 28, 2009, 10:20:29 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 28, 2009, 08:25:35 AM
Aye, 'tis no ungawa sort of savage.

Exactly. There's absolutely no hint of swinging from tree to tree in my use of the word.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 28, 2009, 10:43:54 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on September 28, 2009, 06:49:42 AMPossible alternatives might be 'rawness', or 'bleakness', though they don't quite hit the feeling I was trying for. One might describe a sudden rush of cold wind and sleeting rain as 'savage' in the sense I mean.

      Rawness comes close. It's a kind of heart-on-sleeve emotion, but I'm not really sure what the emotion is, come to think of it. Perhaps awe or fealty.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on September 28, 2009, 11:15:14 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 28, 2009, 10:43:54 AM
      Rawness comes close. It's a kind of heart-on-sleeve emotion, but I'm not really sure what the emotion is, come to think of it. Perhaps awe or fealty.

Perhaps it's one of those things that Wittgenstein said needed to be shown, not said. We're shown it through the music, and we both know what we're discussing, but there's no accurate way of saying it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: offbeat on September 28, 2009, 12:11:18 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on September 27, 2009, 11:35:29 AM
'Offbeat' asked for some comments on this recent purchase:

(http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/jpegs/034571171852.png)

I thought I'd put them here, if no one objects, rather than in the 'Today's purchases' thread, where it'll soon be swept away by the tidal flood of posts announcing recent newcomers.

As I suspected it would be, for me the highlight of this disc is the string concerto. Its character is quite quite typical of what you'd expect of an English pastoral strings piece. It doesn't rise to the heights of Elgar's Intro and Allegro, nor RVW's Tallis Fantasia - it mostly lacks their dark, savage side - but its roots are in the same place, or thereabouts. I was also reminded quite often of Parry (eg second symphony), in the somehow masculine jauntiness of the Scherzo, and the sweet melodic-ness of the slow movement. This is not to say it's some kind of pastiche of Parry, Elgar or RVW - it isn't; but those are its reference points. Or at least, those are my reference points, while listening to this.

I found it very easy to like. Might be a little too rosy in its outlook for some (though it doesn't entirely avoid looking into the dark), and if you wanted something to remind you of a day's walk through Wiltshire along the Ridgeway, this might well be it. At £5.60 in Hyperion's sale, I'm very pleased to have it. At its usual full price .... well, I think I'd not have rushed into buying it.
tks for that Elgarian - impression i had from ImmortalHour was music that was very romantic and very englishmaybe a combination of elgar and delius - will look forward to hearing this  :)


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on September 28, 2009, 12:19:28 PM
Quote from: DavidW on September 21, 2009, 03:04:43 AM
I think you've motivated me to give that bass quintet a fresh listen Dana. :)

Smallmouth
Largemouth
Striped
Spotted
Demented sea bass
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 28, 2009, 01:44:12 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 28, 2009, 12:19:28 PM
Demented sea bass

Sounds like one of these!

(http://diztopia.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/11152004.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on September 29, 2009, 09:35:13 PM
Sibelius 1st Symphony. Again. For the 8th time in less than a week. Is it time for an intervention yet? I hope not.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 30, 2009, 03:16:36 AM
Quote from: Dana on September 29, 2009, 09:35:13 PM
Sibelius 1st Symphony. Again. For the 8th time in less than a week. Is it time for an intervention yet? I hope not.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that does that! :)  Obsessed repeated listenings that is... I did the same thing with Shostakovich's SQs a couple of years back.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on September 30, 2009, 03:43:11 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 30, 2009, 03:16:36 AM
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that does that! :)  Obsessed repeated listenings that is... I did the same thing with Shostakovich's SQs a couple of years back.

I also have that obsessive repeated listenings behavior.  Time to start a support group.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 02, 2009, 03:02:17 PM
Quote from: Dana on September 29, 2009, 09:35:13 PM
Sibelius 1st Symphony. Again. For the 8th time in less than a week. Is it time for an intervention yet? I hope not.
There are worse works to be obsessed with. :D

More scores: Just finished with Janacek's Sinfonietta and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. :D Now on Varèse's Arcana.  That one's massive! :o ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on October 03, 2009, 06:32:21 PM
What's the difference between lento and largo?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on October 03, 2009, 06:59:39 PM
Quote from: Lethe on October 03, 2009, 06:32:21 PM
What's the difference between lento and largo?

One is a Celibidache Allegro movement, and the other is a Celibidache Allegro con brio movement.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 03, 2009, 07:19:14 PM
I think lento tends to have more of a pulse to it, while largo tends to be more songful. I say that without doing the slightest iota of work.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on October 04, 2009, 01:14:48 AM
Gian Francesco Malipiero's violin concero of 1932. I've found myself playing this repeatedly lately. An extremely beautiful concerto with only one recording that I'm aware of, this:

(http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/SU39042.jpg)

And very successful it is as well! A recording from 1972.

It starts with a lively Allegro con Spirito, full of southern European lyricism and warmth, punctuated by lively rhytms. The second movement is one of my favorites ever, quite the equal of Bruch's g minor, cantabile and melancholic with some heartrendering modulations midways, a quiet, lyrical song like a provencal "Lark Ascending" with the Mediterranean in the hazy distance.

The final Allegro is again lively, almost baroque (no surprising thing for a man involved in Monteverdi and Vivaldi editorial research) with folkloristic dancing and a resolute cadenza before the Mediterranean lyricism reappears and an energetic episode closes the concert at 21 minutes.

I've owned this recording since the 70-ies on LP, where it was very appropriately coupled with Milhaud's equally Mediterranean and beautiful 2nd violin concerto. On CD , which I recently reaquired, it is coupled with Casella, a logical choice perhaps, but I find Malipiero concerto more akin to Milhaud than Casella in style and general outlook, and the recoupling robs us of a very fine account af the Milhaud, which doesn't seem to be available on Supraphon currently. They ought to do a Gertler edition, he did Hartmann, Hindemith and tons of Bartok, and probably other stuff as well, and he did it very well!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on October 06, 2009, 06:40:01 AM
Figuring out my favorite Shostakovich quartets proves to be harder and harder, not easier.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on October 06, 2009, 08:02:22 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 06, 2009, 06:40:01 AM
Figuring out my favorite Shostakovich quartets proves to be harder and harder, not easier.

Don't bother figuring that out. Just enjoy listening to them. 0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on October 06, 2009, 08:04:18 AM
Quote from: opus106 on October 06, 2009, 08:02:22 AM
Don't bother figuring that out. Just enjoy listening to them. 0:)

Force of habit.  I can't help it!  This is how my brain works.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on October 06, 2009, 08:09:05 AM
OCDNut. :P ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 06, 2009, 08:11:29 AM
I had that same OCDNut treatment of WTC I(1), now when I listened to WTC I(2) I just let it wash over me and I find it sublime and moving.  Try less and you'll enjoy more. :)

:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 06, 2009, 11:12:28 AM
Each one, with some overlap, appeals to a different facet of your brain.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 06, 2009, 11:39:54 AM
Quote from: Dana on October 06, 2009, 11:12:28 AM
Each one, with some overlap, appeals to a different facet of your brain.

Yup that makes sense. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 06, 2009, 09:13:33 PM
      After finally getting unstuck from the 1st symphony, and listening once or twice to the 2nd, I've gotten stuck again on Sibelius' 3rd Symphony (Maazel again). It's slightly forced - I'm having to work at it - but there's still a lot of good stuff (especially the second movement!). It's just really understated.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 06, 2009, 09:21:47 PM
Quote from: Dana on October 06, 2009, 09:13:33 PM
      After finally getting unstuck from the 1st symphony, and listening once or twice to the 2nd, I've gotten stuck again on Sibelius' 3rd Symphony (Maazel again). It's slightly forced - I'm having to work at it - but there's still a lot of good stuff (especially the second movement!). It's just really understated.

Those symphonies are difficult for me, I'm not completely drawn in until #4-7. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 05:09:39 AM
Hey this thread has been stickied! :)

I've been listening to some of Haydn's songs and I really like them.  A few years ago listening to songs in classical music would be like pulling teeth! :D  What happened? I wondered what's the difference?  I find them to be lovely, moving music now.  And I realized the difference is that I was used to singing in pop/rock context, which was very different.  And even when I put on vocal music, it would be huge chorus, and then they become another wall of sound like the violins which is not the same thing.

The thing that changed was I wanted to hear lots of Bach, and his vocal works can't be avoided.  And so I decided to listen anyway to the strangeness and it grew on me.  And now I can here it as beautiful singing.


I think it's time that I revisit Schubert now. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 07, 2009, 05:16:21 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 05:09:39 AM
Hey this thread has been stickied! :)

I bet it's going to get to 2000 pages long and unmanageable now, and then we'll have to start a Classical Conversation Thread...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 05:19:37 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 07, 2009, 05:16:21 AM
I bet it's going to get to 2000 pages long and unmanageable now, and then we'll have to start a Classical Conversation Thread...  ;D

Yeah and on that thread the rules will have to be at least one page long posts with references and a proper bibliography or it goes in the chat thread instead. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:24:02 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 06, 2009, 09:21:47 PM
Those symphonies are difficult for me, I'm not completely drawn in until #4-7.

Interesting comment, and fascinating choice of word. I love the first three, and then fade away (apart from a subdued enthusiasm for no. 5) because I find 4, 6 and 7 just too 'difficult'. I wonder what drives our notions of 'difficult'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 07:33:11 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:24:02 AM
Interesting comment, and fascinating choice of word. I love the first three, and then fade away (apart from a subdued enthusiasm for no. 5) because I find 4, 6 and 7 just too 'difficult'. I wonder what drives our notions of 'difficult'.

If it's not compelling so I'm not drawn into the music and have to work at focusing on it, then I consider it to be difficult. :)  So by that definition Carter is highly engaging (to me) and Dittersdorf is crazy difficult! :D  I find emotional resonance with the later ones, especially with 4 and 6 which are my favorites. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:39:56 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 07:33:11 AM
If it's not compelling so I'm not drawn into the music and have to work at focusing on it, then I consider it to be difficult.

I think I'd say that too; but also I'd add something along the lines of not being able to discern the patterns clearly, so I'm continually losing my way and wondering where I am, where I'm going, and why. (Sounds a bit like my experience of life in general!)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 07:46:35 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:39:56 AM
I think I'd say that too; but also I'd add something along the lines of not being able to discern the patterns clearly, so I'm continually losing my way and wondering where I am, where I'm going, and why. (Sounds a bit like my experience of life in general!)

Well my opinion based on listening is that as you progress into the 20th century the more you try to follow that complex music, the more it slips through your fingers.  Instead of focusing on the horizontal, I focus on the vertical, just what's happening right then in terms of harmony and rhythm.  Much more satisfying than following the melody.  That's also how I listen to Bach. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:56:02 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 07:46:35 AM
Well my opinion based on listening is that as you progress into the 20th century ...

I think that probably explains the difference - musically speaking, I don't progress very far into the 20th century! (Rather alarmingly: as time goes on, I seem to be progressing backwards at ever-greater speed!)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 08:13:52 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 07:56:02 AM
I think that probably explains the difference - musically speaking, I don't progress very far into the 20th century! (Rather alarmingly: as time goes on, I seem to be progressing backwards at ever-greater speed!)

Haha you're turning into Gurn! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChamberNut on October 07, 2009, 10:00:08 AM
Anyone else notice similarities between Schubert's String Quartet # 15 in G (Scherzo mvt.) and Brahms Piano Trio Scherzo mvt (can't remember if it's Piano Trio 1 or 2, but I think it's # 2)?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 07, 2009, 10:15:15 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 08:13:52 AM
Haha you're turning into Gurn! ;D

. . . and, like Gurn, he's going to dip his toes in the 21st century  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 11:46:54 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 07, 2009, 10:15:15 AM
. . . and, like Gurn, he's going to dip his toes in the 21st century  8)

Hopefully not with atonal honking! >:D ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 07, 2009, 11:49:30 AM
Oh, especially the atonal honking!

(And . . . MN Dave has been mysteriously quiet viz. the a. h. . . .)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 11:50:08 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 11:46:54 AM
Hopefully not with atonal honking!

With heedless watermelons and things like that.

(1 listening so far, but I always need three for anything new.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 07, 2009, 11:54:04 AM
Ho capito!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 07, 2009, 11:54:51 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 07, 2009, 11:49:30 AM
Oh, especially the atonal honking!

(And . . . MN Dave has been mysteriously quiet viz. the a. h. . . .)

I know and I'm sorry. I've been a busy little beaver lately, but never fear: I will use the disc to clean out the cobwebs before I start the next writing project.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 12:07:45 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 07, 2009, 11:54:04 AM
Ho capito!

[Little does he know ....]

Yesterday, after having been up all night with raging toothache, I gave that lecture I mentioned - with raging toothache. Afterwards I drove at 500 mph to my dentist with raging toothache, and he said 'That's got to come out!' And he took it out. And despite enduring this terrible day of fear and pain, I still made time in the evening to listen to your CD.

You see how I suffer for your art? Greater love hath no listener.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 13, 2009, 12:58:27 PM
Quote from: Lethe on October 03, 2009, 06:32:21 PM
What's the difference between lento and largo?
Lento means literally "slow," while largo means "broad."  Largo is usually considered to be a little slower.  Some musical commentators insist that largo is "the slowest tempo marking," but that's not strictly true.  It was the slowest indication on Maelzel's original metronome, but the slowest marking is actually grave (no translation necessary ;D).
Quote from: DavidW on October 07, 2009, 11:46:54 AM
Hopefully not with atonal honking! >:D ;)
beep beep beep!!! >:D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 14, 2009, 05:52:27 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on October 07, 2009, 12:07:45 PM
[Little does he know ....]

Yesterday, after having been up all night with raging toothache, I gave that lecture I mentioned - with raging toothache. Afterwards I drove at 500 mph to my dentist with raging toothache, and he said 'That's got to come out!' And he took it out. And despite enduring this terrible day of fear and pain, I still made time in the evening to listen to your CD.

You see how I suffer for your art? Greater love hath no listener.

I am touched, indeed!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 14, 2009, 05:52:54 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 13, 2009, 12:58:27 PM
beep beep beep!!! >:D ;D

jo! I need to send you a disc . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on October 14, 2009, 06:16:22 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 14, 2009, 05:52:27 AM
I am touched, indeed!

It could have inspired a Dental Duet for clarinet and drill.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 14, 2009, 06:57:38 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 13, 2009, 12:58:27 PMbeep beep beep!!! >:D ;D

I love that work! It's one of my favorite by Varese!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 14, 2009, 07:03:35 AM
Oh, Dana! You mistook Gershwin for Varèse! How could you!?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 14, 2009, 07:14:34 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 14, 2009, 07:03:35 AM
Oh, Dana! You mistook Gershwin for Varèse! How could you!?

Everybody does that eventually...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 10:49:01 AM
Faure, Ravel, Debussy, Franck

All of these French composers, had serious, major flaws in their string quartets.


And that is.......they only composed one each.  :'(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 22, 2009, 11:07:05 AM
If we consider how Brahms hesitated at writing a symphony . . . and the irony that Beethoven had made sketches for an earlier symphony in the mid-1790s, but waited several years before introducing a full-scale symphony in 1800 . . . maybe it was some ineffable part of the French masters' quartets, that they concerned themselves only with writing one, with no thought for a set of quartets.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 11:09:47 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 22, 2009, 11:07:05 AM
If we consider how Brahms hesitated at writing a symphony . . . and the irony that Beethoven had made sketches for an earlier symphony in the mid-1790s, but waited several years before introducing a full-scale symphony in 1800 . . . maybe it was some ineffable part of the French masters' quartets, that they concerned themselves only with writing one, with no thought for a set of quartets.

Well, all four of those are below the green lemon!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 22, 2009, 11:12:07 AM
I certainly need yet to listen to that of either Franck or Fauré.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 11:13:28 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 22, 2009, 11:12:07 AM
I certainly need yet to listen to that of either Franck or Fauré.

Oh, Karl.  You must remedy this quickly!  The Faure, especially.  A true masterpiece.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 22, 2009, 12:53:03 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 10:49:01 AMFaure, Ravel, Debussy, Franck

I'm not familiar with three of those - are they really on the same level as the Debussy?!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 12:53:21 PM
Who came up with the term atonal honkings?   ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 12:54:07 PM
Quote from: Dana on October 22, 2009, 12:53:03 PM
I'm not familiar with three of those - are they really on the same level as the Debussy?!

Yes!  The Ravel is probably widely considered the best of these.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 22, 2009, 01:20:46 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 12:53:21 PM
Who came up with the term atonal honkings?   ;D

Apparently, Conrad Schnitzler. (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22atonal+honking%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 01:36:32 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 22, 2009, 01:20:46 PM
Apparently, Conrad Schnitzler. (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22atonal+honking%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)  ;D

Oh, I thought it was Karl or MN Dave this whole time. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DFO on October 22, 2009, 01:44:38 PM
IMHO, Franck SQ is not only his best chamber work, but also one of the greatest of the 19th.century. Only Magnard's
is comparable.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 22, 2009, 04:10:42 PM
Quote from: DFO on October 22, 2009, 01:44:38 PM
IMHO, Franck SQ is not only his best chamber work, but also one of the greatest of the 19th.century. Only Magnard's
is comparable.

I should give it a listen, I was actually shopping for a recording a couple weeks back but got distracted... :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 22, 2009, 04:47:03 PM
Quote from: DavidW on October 22, 2009, 04:10:42 PM
I should give it a listen, I was actually shopping for a recording a couple weeks back but got distracted... :)

Due next month:

(http://www.naxos.com/SharedFiles/images/cds/others/8.572009.gif)

The FAQ+Ortiz just released a great Faure album, so I expect good things.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 05:11:43 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 22, 2009, 04:47:03 PM
Due next month:

(http://www.naxos.com/SharedFiles/images/cds/others/8.572009.gif)

The FAQ+Ortiz just released a great Faure album, so I expect good things.

I have a Naxos recording of the Piano Quintet, paired w/ Chausson's String Quartet.  Not the same ensemble though.

The Franck's Piano Quintet is magnifique, right up there with his string quartet and violin sonata ! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 22, 2009, 08:31:49 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 12:54:07 PMYes!  The Ravel is probably widely considered the best of these.

Oh duh, I've heard Ravel ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 23, 2009, 04:16:34 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 22, 2009, 01:36:32 PM
Oh, I thought it was Karl or MN Dave this whole time. ;D

Well, DavidW introduced the phrase here in waggish reference to Heedless Watermelon  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 04:24:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 23, 2009, 04:16:34 AM
Well, DavidW introduced the phrase here in waggish reference to Heedless Watermelon  :D

tehehehe

(http://www.tembersep.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/mumbly.gif)

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 04:32:55 AM
Quote from: Dana on October 22, 2009, 08:31:49 PM
Oh duh, I've heard Ravel ::)

Sorry Dana, I misunderstood your question.  I read it as if 'you had only heard the Debussy string quartet'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 04:42:53 AM
I always think Harry is listening to this.  :)

I keep forgetting it's part of his signature.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 23, 2009, 05:04:44 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 04:42:53 AM
I always think Harry is listening to this.  :)

I keep forgetting it's part of his signature.

Doesn't exactly make you want to listen to von Suppé, does it? 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 05:11:21 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 23, 2009, 05:04:44 AM
Doesn't exactly make you want to listen to von Suppé, does it? 8)

Oh no, that doesn't matter.  Although quite frankly, I don't think I'd be interested in any kind of 'operetta'.  Who knows?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 23, 2009, 05:15:24 AM
For good or ill, when I see an overlarge CD cover image as a signature, my response tends to be a little similar to that for 'saturation' ads in the subways stations and on the buses: "Their competition must be good, if they're willing to put THIS MUCH into pushing their product. Say, I'll check out the competition . . . ."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 23, 2009, 05:35:53 AM
No kidding.  ::) I know forums where authors have big banners in their signatures.  :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 06:34:24 AM
You can turn off sigs if it bothers you.  I rarely come across a sig here worth reading. :)  I don't mind Harry's pic though because it's a pretty cool cd cover.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 06:36:04 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 06:34:24 AM
You can turn off sigs if it bothers you.  I rarely come across a sig here worth reading. :)  I don't mind Harry's pic though because it's a pretty cool cd cover.

Thanks David.  I don't mind the signatures, but it can be a little distracting at times.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 23, 2009, 06:36:32 AM
I don't mind text signatures. They add a little personality.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 06:37:38 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 23, 2009, 06:36:32 AM
I don't mind text signatures. They add a little personality.

I like the personal text under the avatar better.  They tend to be cute, while the sigs are just some pompous showy quote. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 06:38:43 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 06:37:38 AM
I like the personal text under the avatar better.

How come you don't have a personal text under your avatar?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Harry on October 23, 2009, 06:44:15 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 05:11:21 AM
Oh no, that doesn't matter.  Although quite frankly, I don't think I'd be interested in any kind of 'operetta'.  Who knows?

O, that pains me to hear, honestly. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Harry on October 23, 2009, 06:45:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 23, 2009, 05:15:24 AM
For good or ill, when I see an overlarge CD cover image as a signature, my response tends to be a little similar to that for 'saturation' ads in the subways stations and on the buses: "Their competition must be good, if they're willing to put THIS MUCH into pushing their product. Say, I'll check out the competition . . . ."

For this recording of Suppe's operetta "Die Schone Galathee", there is no competition. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 23, 2009, 07:45:57 AM
Quote from: Harry on October 23, 2009, 06:45:35 AM
For this recording of Suppe's operetta "Die Schone Galathee", there is no competition. 8)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 23, 2009, 07:48:56 AM
A little annoyed at Charles Munch that he recorded only two of Debussy's three Nocturnes (at least on this RCA reissue).  It's not like the Tanglewood Festival Chorus had not been available  ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: CD on October 23, 2009, 07:53:50 AM
Horribly Millennial Question: Who are some good Classical people to follow on Twitter?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: CD on October 23, 2009, 07:56:04 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 23, 2009, 05:15:24 AM
For good or ill, when I see an overlarge CD cover image as a signature, my response tends to be a little similar to that for 'saturation' ads in the subways stations and on the buses: "Their competition must be good, if they're willing to put THIS MUCH into pushing their product. Say, I'll check out the competition . . . ."

Which is why I disabled signatures.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Harry on October 23, 2009, 08:02:05 AM
Quote from: corey on October 23, 2009, 07:56:04 AM
Which is why I disabled signatures.

Ohooo, a party pooper! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 08:05:04 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 06:38:43 AM
How come you don't have a personal text under your avatar?

Oh just don't have anything to say right now.  My classic is "Beethoven's Archduke Trio is magnificently sublime!" ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: bhodges on October 23, 2009, 08:05:57 AM
Quote from: corey on October 23, 2009, 07:53:50 AM
Horribly Millennial Question: Who are some good Classical people to follow on Twitter?

Your wish is granted!

http://mcmvanbree.com/dutchperspective/twitter/people.htm

--Bruce

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: CD on October 23, 2009, 08:14:08 AM
Quote from: bhodges on October 23, 2009, 08:05:57 AM
Your wish is granted!

http://mcmvanbree.com/dutchperspective/twitter/people.htm

--Bruce



Thanks! I saw that you had posted that, but I was looking to see if there were some that weren't on the list (I've already followed all the Chicago-related tweeters! :D).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: CD on October 23, 2009, 08:16:05 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 06:37:38 AM
They tend to be cute, while the sigs are just some pompous showy quote. :)

Guilty as charged! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 23, 2009, 09:08:34 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 23, 2009, 08:05:04 AM
Oh just don't have anything to say right now.  My classic is "Beethoven's Archduke Trio is magnificently sublime!" ;D

You could put, "I'm the new Bax man". ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 27, 2009, 05:47:17 PM
Okay, just because there's been so much talk about signatures, I added one.  The quote, as far as I know, originated with me. :) Take that! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 27, 2009, 05:50:25 PM
Yesterday I checked out another score: Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony.  Not as complex as, say, the Varèse or Mahler works I've checked out, but it's got its own mysteries.  Most notably, the extreme dynamic markings!  Already in the first movement I've seen ffff not once, but several times. :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 28, 2009, 09:46:05 AM
It is Tchaikovsky, isn't it? I'm surprised you've not seen FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 28, 2009, 09:47:21 AM
I'm feelin' the love
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 28, 2009, 02:08:02 PM
Quote from: Dana on October 28, 2009, 09:46:05 AM
It is Tchaikovsky, isn't it? I'm surprised you've not seen FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! :D
A point. :) Pyotr Ilyich is known for extreme dynamic markings. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 30, 2009, 02:16:49 PM
I put up a new poster in my dorm room!  8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 31, 2009, 04:09:00 PM
 :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on October 31, 2009, 09:11:13 PM
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ySZ-2oFCkdSmaM:http://leiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/shostakovich.jpg)(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:WodmVp9Tk4ExAM:http://www.ecopii.ro/desene%2520animate/harry_potter_wallpaper4-%2520mare.jpg)

(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:DqFHObrZ_7cN5M:http://lh3.ggpht.com/_VM9yDJrkhoM/SO9SzRLi9kI/AAAAAAAAMIs/GKGWqyrEOAo/Cover.jpg)(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:xooWJM7UJrQ5zM:http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2005_Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire/2005_harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire_010.jpg)

Have they ever been photographed together??!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on November 01, 2009, 01:20:56 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KK12AFD4L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

Oh man, I had to giggle when I saw this unfortunate coupling. Take Dvořák's worst symphony, couple it with his worst one movement orchestral work, and what do you get? An unbuyable CD! I can put up with them in sets, but where they are the sole focus? :-X
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 01, 2009, 08:19:16 AM
Quote from: Dana on October 31, 2009, 09:11:13 PM
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ySZ-2oFCkdSmaM:http://leiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/shostakovich.jpg)(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:WodmVp9Tk4ExAM:http://www.ecopii.ro/desene%2520animate/harry_potter_wallpaper4-%2520mare.jpg)

(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:DqFHObrZ_7cN5M:http://lh3.ggpht.com/_VM9yDJrkhoM/SO9SzRLi9kI/AAAAAAAAMIs/GKGWqyrEOAo/Cover.jpg)(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:xooWJM7UJrQ5zM:http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2005_Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire/2005_harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire_010.jpg)

Have they ever been photographed together??!

The resemblance is uncanny!

In fact, if any airheaded folks come in and ask who it is, maybe I'll tell them "It's an age-progression of Harry Potter." Last night a girl who hates classical music came in and asked who it was; I told her it was "a leader of the French resistance" and she believed me.  ;D

(It was a fun evening for making things up. I also convinced a bunch of drunk people that our rug was stolen from a movie set...)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on November 01, 2009, 08:40:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 01, 2009, 08:19:16 AMThe resemblance is uncanny!

And they're both totally emo too!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 01, 2009, 09:46:15 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 01, 2009, 08:19:16 AM
In fact, if any airheaded folks come in and ask who it is, maybe I'll tell them "It's an age-progression of Harry Potter."

Harry loses the scar when he's old! :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on November 01, 2009, 02:28:14 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 01, 2009, 08:19:16 AM
The resemblance is uncanny!...
Amazing what a pair of glasses can do for a person's looks. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: greg on November 01, 2009, 05:12:46 PM
Quote from: Dana on October 28, 2009, 09:46:05 AM
It is Tchaikovsky, isn't it? I'm surprised you've not seen FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! :D
Actually, for Tchaikovsky, wouldn't it be pppppppppppppppppp?...   :-X :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on November 01, 2009, 05:29:50 PM
Zing!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 03, 2009, 01:04:05 PM
I really dislike Santa Fe Listener, a reviewer on amazon.com. He seems to be a "review whore": the guy's covered just about every CD ever. And he's dead wrong on all of them, too. Just a few days ago I discovered that he had panned Gunter Wand's recording of Beethoven's Ninth, inspiring a firestorm of comments from people who have actually heard it. And today I found out that he had written up the new London Philharmonic Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1 and 6, with Vladimir Jurowski, and said that the performance of the Sixth was really light and emotionless and awful. He liked the First, but also called it light and balanced. What is this guy smoking? It actually irked me so much that I wrote a counter-review, even though I've already written a full-length piece on the recording for MusicWeb.
:P
What a tin-ears.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dana on November 08, 2009, 09:21:10 PM
      Hey! Sibelius' 6th (as I've heard from Lorin Maazel and the VPO) is really something! The string writing in the 1st movement really looks forward to the 7th symphony. How come people don't talk about it more often?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: CD on November 09, 2009, 04:41:45 AM
I've mentioned it a few times. That's one of the few pieces that gives me chills within the first few seconds (the thunderclap and torrent of strings at the beginning of Tapiola do the same).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: offbeat on November 09, 2009, 03:18:02 PM
Quote from: Dana on November 08, 2009, 09:21:10 PM
      Hey! Sibelius' 6th (as I've heard from Lorin Maazel and the VPO) is really something! The string writing in the 1st movement really looks forward to the 7th symphony. How come people don't talk about it more often?
Agree. Sibelius sixth is magical - wat i would call a distant beauty especially in first movement and i love that heartrending coda at the end of the symphony  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Martin Lind on November 17, 2009, 11:41:49 PM
Such a classical chat thread is a great idea, never found this elsewhere. For myselve I am still discovering great music and doesn't come to an end. For example I know alot Beethoven, instrumental, piano, opera, masses, chamber - but there are still some string quartetts I don't know. Listen to the Guaneris. Had the Alexander but only with the Guaneris I realy discover this music.

A lot things somehow stopped. For example I have the Bax symphonies but haven't heard everything, haven't heard everything from the Mjaskovskisymphonies, listened only partly to Shostakowitschs string quartetts and so in a way there is alway music before me to explore. Didn't listen to all Puccini operas yet.

In the moment I am also a bit into baroque music to explore more baroque composers. D. Scarlatti is a discovery for example, Rameau was a discovery some months ago.

Classical music is really I wide field and you simply can't know everything and will miss even valuable things. But I am especially glad for the Beethoven string quartetts.

Regards
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on November 18, 2009, 12:48:14 AM
Quote from: Martin Lind on November 17, 2009, 11:41:49 PM
Rameau was a discovery some months ago.
Same for me. When I tiptoed cautiously into the room marked 'Baroque', I found a huge party going on that I'd been completely unaware of. Couperin, Charpentier, Rameau and Lully set me off on a journey that seems to have no end.

Have you tried Rameau's Les Indes Galantes? I'm always looking for excuses to post this youtube excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Martin Lind on November 18, 2009, 04:04:18 AM
Hi Elgarian,

Yes the Indes Galantes is included ( at least in excerpts) in my CD. Splendid. But I think I will buy more of Rameau in some time. There are some Naxos CDs, I will watch out. Rameau has a lot vitality which I sometimes miss in other Baroque composers. But elegance and beauty too. A really nice listening.

Regards
Martin
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on November 18, 2009, 11:19:26 AM
More scores: Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony and Mahler's Second.  Last night I listened to the historic Oskar Fried M2, and I was really amazed at how much of it came through the terribly limited recording techniques they had then.  (For those who may not know, Fried's was the first complete M2 recording, made in 1924 with acoustic recording horns--no electronic anything! :o The orchestra and chorus had to be much reduced from the concert halls because the horn simply couldn't "hear" sounds very far away.)  Fried, too, was very scrupulous about following Mahler's written tempo and style indications, though he added a few major changes of his own.  At one time Fried was a fairly close associate of Mahler himself. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: offbeat on November 19, 2009, 07:12:00 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 18, 2009, 12:48:14 AM
Same for me. When I tiptoed cautiously into the room marked 'Baroque', I found a huge party going on that I'd been completely unaware of. Couperin, Charpentier, Rameau and Lully set me off on a journey that seems to have no end.

Have you tried Rameau's Les Indes Galantes? I'm always looking for excuses to post this youtube excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY)
tks elgarian - that rameau was new to me too - totally brill  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 19, 2009, 07:32:54 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 18, 2009, 12:48:14 AM
Have you tried Rameau's Les Indes Galantes? I'm always looking for excuses to post this youtube excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY)

Oh yes, I have, on the radio. A memorable tune, certainly... and it was just an orchestral suite, as I don't remember hearing any vocals. (I quite didn't expect that choreography, though. ;D Thanks for the video.)

But I have always found these Baroque ballets sounding the same. Lully comes to mind. I can just imagine him keeping the beat -- the same one, to please his employer; one tap at a time, eventually leading that last fateful tap. :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: UB on November 19, 2009, 10:22:05 AM
A Critic's Guide (http://www.earbox.com/posts/40#post) Funny stuff by John Adams.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 20, 2009, 09:36:28 AM
Just like in professional sports, where many teams are going back to their 'retro jerseys', perhaps composers and orchestras should do the same?  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on November 20, 2009, 09:37:53 AM
At first, I always think this is "The Classical Cat Thread".  :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 20, 2009, 09:38:57 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 20, 2009, 09:37:53 AM
At first, I always think this is "The Classical Cat Thread".  :-\

Obviously, those threads should be merged.  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: greg on November 20, 2009, 02:54:47 PM
(http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/classical-cat.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on November 21, 2009, 07:25:43 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on November 19, 2009, 07:32:54 AM
But I have always found these Baroque ballets sounding the same.

I'd have said the same myself not so long ago. Perhaps it's the same with any art form that hasn't quite 'clicked' for one reason or another. The differences between swimming pools might seem less significant than the similarities until we've learned to dive in and bathe in them. (Oh, what rubbish I talk, sometimes!)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on November 21, 2009, 08:16:54 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on November 21, 2009, 07:25:43 AM
. . . The differences between swimming pools might seem less significant than the similarities until we've learned to dive in and bathe in them. . . .

Or until we dive in the shallow end one time and learn the difference between "wading pool" and "diving pool"!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on November 21, 2009, 01:44:08 PM
Quote from: secondwind on November 21, 2009, 08:16:54 AM
Or until we dive in the shallow end one time and learn the difference between "wading pool" and "diving pool"!

"Beware! Baroque ballet enthusiasts have been injured at this end of the pool!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on November 22, 2009, 09:52:27 AM
Ah, you lily-livered liberals want a warning label on everything!  Let 'em learn by experience, is my motto!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on November 22, 2009, 10:00:01 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 20, 2009, 09:37:53 AM
At first, I always think this is "The Classical Cat Thread".  :-\
(//)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on November 22, 2009, 11:30:31 AM
Funny review-ender in the current issue of Fanfare:

"This CD should be taken out and shot."

;D

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on November 22, 2009, 03:15:45 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on November 20, 2009, 09:36:28 AM
Just like in professional sports, where many teams are going back to their 'retro jerseys', perhaps composers and orchestras should do the same?  :D
Hey, a jersey would be a nice change from a tuxedo. :-\ ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on November 23, 2009, 01:43:45 PM
Mendelssohn's 2nd takes up a whole disc in the Karajan box?  :o

Who new?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 27, 2009, 09:28:24 AM
How come operas don't go by basic chronological titles, like symphonies, sonatas and quartets, et al?

Opera # 1
Opera # 2

Not as exciting, huh?  :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 27, 2009, 09:33:11 AM
They have libretti, you know. ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 27, 2009, 09:38:55 AM
Anyone else recognize a theme from the Grosse Fuge and Muss es sein? theme from the Op.135 quartet in the C sharp minor Op.131 finale?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 30, 2009, 01:53:04 PM
Quote from: Brahmsian on November 27, 2009, 09:38:55 AM
Anyone else recognize a theme from the Grosse Fuge and Muss es sein? theme from the Op.135 quartet in the C sharp minor Op.131 finale?

Don't know the quartets yet, but I certainly recognize a theme from Op. 125 in the finale of Op. 111...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on December 01, 2009, 01:48:57 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on November 23, 2009, 01:43:45 PM
Mendelssohn's 2nd takes up a whole disc in the Karajan box?  :o

Who new?
Well, it's a big piece, Mendelssohn's attempt at emulating Beethoven's Ninth.  I've heard it once or twice, and much as I like most of the Mendelssohn siblings' music, this one lacks a little--something...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 01, 2009, 04:45:40 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on December 01, 2009, 01:48:57 PM
Well, it's a big piece, Mendelssohn's attempt at emulating Beethoven's Ninth.

Aye.  I haven't quite fallen for it, but I do want to re-visit it.  It's the Reformation I'm not mad over ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 28, 2009, 02:42:26 AM
Is Scott Joplin's music something I should look into? I'm not a great fan of jazz and related forms, but this is supposedly a hybrid?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Drasko on December 28, 2009, 03:14:52 AM
Quote from: Lethe on December 28, 2009, 02:42:26 AM
Is Scott Joplin's music something I should look into? I'm not a great fan of jazz and related forms, but this is supposedly a hybrid?

I love Joplin's piano rags but it is something you'd ultimately need to hear in order to figure out whether you like the style or don't. Thankfully there is a guy on youtube who plays them marvelously, in my opinion:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FB7AC4F189BD2C2F

Joplin also wrote an opera Treemonisha which I haven't heard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 28, 2009, 03:32:04 AM
Hmm, those are neat, danke!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 12.tone on January 02, 2010, 11:01:07 PM
Quote from: Lethe on December 28, 2009, 03:32:04 AM
Hmm, those are neat, danke!

I've posted four videos in a series of Joplin I did on my Youtube page.  Check them out.  Scroll down the list of uploads and you'll see it listed.  Let me know what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ClassicsHouse (http://www.youtube.com/user/ClassicsHouse)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 04, 2010, 05:36:33 AM
First Impressions

Variations on Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 - Ludwig van Beethoven


I have just finshed listened to the Diabelli Variations by Beethoven for the first time. I feel that I need to listen to it many more times to 'grasp' it fully. And that's just from a lay listener's viewpoint. I forgot how the waltz theme went after the first few variations. ;D Perhaps it was a result of the maiden voyage, or, perhaps, Beethoven managed to disguise it masterfully from the get-go. An extreme case of this is variation no. 31, which I found to be such a beautiful piece of music typical of late Beethoven, and far removed from the simple dance that got the ball rolling. I have not even slightest idea of how he got there, but there he did go: a perfectly valid variation that has been accepted for nearly 200 years! And all of this was done "logically" (i.e. based on musical principles) even though the music is all miraculous -- which makes me want to learn music even more. :) Other highlights for me include the variations nos. 14 and 24. The mood of the music seemed to shift after no. 14. Oh, and the double fugue, of course; although presently it does not  seem to pose a challenge to the likes featured in Op. 106.


P.S.: The recording was Kovacevich's first, on Philips.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on January 04, 2010, 05:46:31 AM
Quote from: Drasko on December 28, 2009, 03:14:52 AM


Joplin also wrote an opera Treemonisha which I haven't heard.
Don't expect anything traditional, and neither anything profound (IMO); but it's very fun stuff that I spin occasionally.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on January 04, 2010, 09:14:55 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 04, 2010, 05:36:33 AM
First Impressions

Variations on Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120 - Ludwig van Beethoven



P.S.: The recording was Kovacevich's first, on Philips.

That's the recording I have.  There are some great 'variations', or I call them 'movements'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on January 05, 2010, 09:26:23 AM
I'm trying to figure out why, in my listening log book, I write down String Quartet # X, while I write down Symphony No. X

:-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on January 05, 2010, 09:32:42 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on January 05, 2010, 09:26:23 AM
I'm trying to figure out why, in my listening log book, I write down String Quartet # X, while I write down Symphony No. X

:-\

I'm trying to figure out why you manage to keep a listening log book, while I can't. Have thought about it for 30 years.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on January 05, 2010, 09:35:43 AM
Quote from: erato on January 05, 2010, 09:32:42 AM
I'm trying to figure out why you manage to keep a listening log book, while I can't. Have thought about it for 30 years.

Something I've been doing for two years now.  I just enjoy doing it, and I'll jot down some notes too from time to time. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 05, 2010, 09:51:37 AM
Quote from: Brahmsian on January 05, 2010, 09:35:43 AM
Something I've been doing for two years now.  I just enjoy doing it, and I'll jot down some notes too from time to time. 

I like that.

I've no clue on the variant typography, though, Ray . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 05, 2010, 10:08:11 AM
Quote from: erato on January 05, 2010, 09:32:42 AM
I'm trying to figure out why you manage to keep a listening log book, while I can't. Have thought about it for 30 years.

Is your pen out of ink?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on January 05, 2010, 10:15:35 AM
Quote from: Dave of MN on January 05, 2010, 10:08:11 AM
Is your pen out of ink?
Something like that. Or rather, a general lack of structure when it comes to relaxing with music. I'm inked out when I've finished work and other chores.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 05, 2010, 11:39:13 AM
And I thought that Moscow orchestra names were confusing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Sinfonia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinfonia_of_London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Sinfonietta

Quote from: 12.tone on January 02, 2010, 11:01:07 PM
I've posted four videos in a series of Joplin I did on my Youtube page.
Hey, thanks, this is ridiculously happy music :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 05, 2010, 11:44:49 AM
Quote from: Lethe on January 05, 2010, 11:39:13 AM
And I thought that Moscow orchestra names were confusing...
Wow, that is really ridiculous. It's like the People's Front of Judea, almost!

I did a MusicWeb review of a Naxos CD back in July (Khachaturian Cello Concerto). The orchestra was called the "Russian Philharmonia," which Dundonnell told me was formerly known as the "TV6 Orchestra" (I think). Well, now the Naxos website has changed the CD entry, so that the orchestra is the "Moscow City Symphony Orchestra," which according to its bio page, bears the additional nickname "Russian Philharmonic."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 18, 2010, 03:52:24 PM
Let every listener choose that which interests him. I have nothing against one person liking Mozart or Shostakovich or Leonard Bernstein, but doesn't like Górecki. That's fine with me. I, too, like certain things. -- Henryk Górecki
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 20, 2010, 05:30:58 AM
Would some explain to me in simple terms what the following means?

QuoteThe completed score was dated 15 August 1905, and the orchestration was finished in 1906

That line was taken from the entry for Mahler's 7th symphony in Wikipedia. Specifically, I would like to know the difference between completing a score [for a work] and orchestrating it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 20, 2010, 05:32:32 AM
I'm not a composer but my amateur guess is that all the notes are in place, now which instruments to play them?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 20, 2010, 05:36:14 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 20, 2010, 05:32:32 AM
I'm not a composer but my amateur guess is that all the notes are in place, now which instruments to play them?
Aha. Thank you, David. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 20, 2010, 06:25:53 AM
It is confusingly stated.  If the writer meant that the piano score was completed on 15 August 1905, it were clearer to say piano score rather than completed score.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 20, 2010, 06:31:19 AM
So I was wrong? Do composers ever write notes without thinking of particular instruments for them?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 20, 2010, 06:33:50 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 20, 2010, 06:31:19 AM
So I was wrong? Do composers ever write notes without thinking of particular instruments for them?

No, you were on the right track, Dave.  The notes were (if we are reading the confusing text aright) in place on a piano grand-staff score*;  and later the composer did the actual orchestration.

* Or a so-called "short score" of three or four staves.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 20, 2010, 06:54:31 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 20, 2010, 06:33:50 AM
No, you were on the right track, Dave.  The notes were (if we are reading the confusing text aright) in place on a piano grand-staff score*

* Or a so-called "short score" of three or four staves.

And is this what people refer to usually when they say, "I was following the score as I was listening..."?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 20, 2010, 08:11:30 AM
Could be following any score, I suppose;  but generally, I think people follow the full score.  The piano score is normally the composer's intermediate tool, and may not necessarily be released for publication.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 20, 2010, 08:13:28 AM
I've never followed a score except when playing an instrument.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 20, 2010, 08:30:34 AM
Then you probably weren't following the score; you were playing a part.

(You might consider that a technical quibble . . . score in general speech tends to be used as a synonym for, well, any music notation.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 20, 2010, 08:31:52 AM
Oy.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 20, 2010, 09:47:39 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 20, 2010, 08:11:30 AM
Could be following any score, I suppose;  but generally, I think people follow the full score.  The piano score is normally the composer's intermediate tool, and may not necessarily be released for publication.

The clarification is appreciated. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 20, 2010, 09:48:34 AM
Karl shoots!

He SCOOOOORES!!!  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 21, 2010, 05:18:52 AM
Ugh.

I purchased some Brahms violin sonatas forgetting I already have two or three versions. I hate when I do that. And it proves I buy too much music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 21, 2010, 05:21:58 AM
Got to curb that Brahmslust!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 21, 2010, 05:23:22 AM
Indeed.

I was actually just testing out Arkiv's download feature and I got a bit hasty. It was late and I was out of it. At least I didn't download the same recording again.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 21, 2010, 05:28:02 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 21, 2010, 05:18:52 AM
Ugh.

I purchased some Brahms violin sonatas forgetting I already have two or three versions. I hate when I do that. And it proves I buy too much music.

Look on the brighter side: you won't feel like leaving GMG again for sometime. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 21, 2010, 05:38:18 AM
Yeah, I pretty much listen to all classical these days.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 21, 2010, 04:42:15 PM
Import from the listening thread:

PROKOFIEV | Alexander Nevsky Cantata
Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra
Karel Ancerl

For me this piece will always be inextricably linked with my first listen - in live performance. As hugely enjoyable as this is at home, hearing the Nevsky Cantata live was just a mind-blowing experience. There's a lot of 20th-century music that's that way. Two of my favorites, Janacek's Sinfonietta and Sibelius' Fifth, are also pieces I heard for the first time at a live concert. It's a pretty interesting coincidence - except that I don't think it's a coincidence. When I heard the First Symphonies of Barber and Mahler live a couple weekends ago, I had heard them before on record and enjoyed them, but they, too, offered a whole new level of impact live. By contrast, with Beethoven or something like that (even the romantics), for as awesome as they are in concert, I can pretty much crank up the volume in my room to con blasto levels and love them just the same. The same broad pattern holds true for my parents; my mother was totally sold on Shostakovich and Prokofiev by live concerts, but she doesn't even think of listening to them at home. Is there something about 20th century music that makes it more enjoyable, more visceral, more follow-able live?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 21, 2010, 06:51:55 PM
When you are present in the space, the experience is much richer.  Interestingly, I was having a similar conversation with the chap in the classical section of a cd shop this morning (when I snaffled the Boulez & Chávez discs).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 22, 2010, 08:49:01 AM
If I were rich, I'd totally hire one of you as my Music Purchaser; that way I wouldn't have to make any decisions.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 24, 2010, 05:53:36 AM
I was looking at the booklet in my Audite Furtwangler set and saw that the LvB 5th and 6th were meant to be complementary, and that the 6th was written first. I don't think I knew that before.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2010, 07:55:30 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 24, 2010, 05:53:36 AM
I was looking at the booklet in my Audite Furtwangler set and saw that the LvB 5th and 6th were meant to be complementary, and that the 6th was written first. I don't think I knew that before.
Indeedie - in the first concert where the 5th and 6th premiered, their numbers were the other way around to how we currently know them. The 4th was composed after both of them too :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on January 24, 2010, 08:03:12 AM
Quote from: Lethe on January 24, 2010, 07:55:30 AM
The 4th was composed after both of them too :D

I'm no Beethoven expert, but according to Wiki sketches of the 5th and 6th predate the 4th, but the 4th was completed 2 years before the 5th and 6th were completed.  Point taken, however.  My personal theory is that the 4th was actually written by a Viennese stable boy and mistakenly attributed to Beethoven.   ;D

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 24, 2010, 08:12:14 AM
Quote from: Lethe on January 24, 2010, 07:55:30 AM
Indeedie - in the first concert where the 5th and 6th premiered, their numbers were the other way around to how we currently know them. The 4th was composed after both of them too :D

There are two radio concerts on the discs I mentioned in which Furtwangler plays 6 first and then 5 for both dates.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2010, 09:32:56 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on January 24, 2010, 08:03:12 AM
My personal theory is that the 4th was actually written by a Viennese stable boy and mistakenly attributed to Beethoven.   ;D
Beethoven was far too crude to have written such a beauty. It could perhaps have been written by the precocious Fanny Mendelssohn, already well into her first year at the time, and who later would have her work all published under the name of her brother Felix :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2010, 01:28:49 PM
What was the deal with Knappertsbusch's hair and giant trousers?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 26, 2010, 09:48:40 AM
Classical blah blah violins blah movement blah blah blah C minor blah blah blah blah sublime.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on January 26, 2010, 01:02:48 PM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 26, 2010, 09:48:40 AM
Classical blah blah violins blah movement blah blah blah C minor blah blah blah blah sublime.

This could be extremely useful to steal and use as a standard fill-in whenever I can't think of anything else to say. May I?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 26, 2010, 01:53:28 PM
Quote from: Elgarian on January 26, 2010, 01:02:48 PM
This could be extremely useful to steal and use as a standard fill-in whenever I can't think of anything else to say. May I?

I would be honored.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on January 27, 2010, 01:23:54 PM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 26, 2010, 01:53:28 PM
I would be honored.  ;D
Oh good, thanks. Look out for it in unexpected places ....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 27, 2010, 03:46:30 PM
Classical blah blah sackbuts blah chaconne blah blah blah D major blah blah blah blah sublime.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on January 27, 2010, 04:07:01 PM
Blah blah blah Modern blah blah blah atonal blah blah blah avant garde blah blah blah gerbil wheel.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on January 27, 2010, 04:15:04 PM
Quote from: Beethovenian on January 27, 2010, 04:07:01 PM
Blah blah blah Modern blah blah blah atonal blah blah blah avant garde blah blah blah gerbil wheel.

I think that's actually the name of Karl's new piece! :D  Requiem for a Gerbil Wheel. ;D  He spends about 90 hours thinking up the clever name for his musical piece, and then ten hours composing it.  I kid Karl, I kid! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on January 27, 2010, 04:26:10 PM
There can be too blah blah blah much of a blah blah good thing blaah blaah y'know, guys blaaah.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on January 27, 2010, 07:37:49 PM
Gerbil Wheel & Potatoes of the Couch
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 01, 2010, 10:00:12 AM
The one-recording-a-week plan is going into implementation here at the Beethovenian household. Three reasons: space, waste and savings. I need more space. Too many CDs is a waste (IMO). And I might need some extra money should I live long enough to retire.

It's also an exercise in discipline. It will be good for me. Won't it? And I'll listen more to what I already own.

I'm not sure how I'll work it. The recording should not be a box set that costs $100.00; that's for sure. Maybe a single recording with a $20/week limit—including postage. It will force me to be careful with my shopping dollar.

Anyone else here do anything like this?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on February 01, 2010, 10:05:43 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 01, 2010, 10:00:12 AM
The one-recording-a-week plan is going into implementation here at the Beethovenian household. Three reasons: space, waste and savings. I need more space. Too many CDs is a waste (IMO). And I might need some extra money should I live long enough to retire.

It's also an exercise in discipline. It will be good for me. Won't it? And I'll listen more to what I already own.

I'm not sure how I'll work it. The recording should not be a box set that costs $100.00; that's for sure. Maybe a single recording with a $20/week limit—including postage. It will force me to be careful with my shopping dollar.

Anyone else here do anything like this?

Yes, but not as strict.  I also try to sell off things I don't like at all.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 01, 2010, 10:06:52 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on February 01, 2010, 10:05:43 AM
Yes, but not as strict.  I also try to sell off things I don't like at all.

Yeah, me too. I've even been known to sell things I sorta like.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on February 01, 2010, 10:08:39 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 01, 2010, 10:00:12 AM


Anyone else here do anything like this?
Yep. Already this year, my calendar have passed 2019, thanks partly to abeille. With the new 23 label offer on mdt, I predict to safely fly by 2025 during February.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 01, 2010, 10:09:23 AM
Quote from: erato on February 01, 2010, 10:08:39 AM
Yep. Already this year, my calendar have passed 2019, thanks partly to abeille.

Another rule then! No foreign purchases!  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 01, 2010, 10:32:16 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 01, 2010, 10:09:23 AM
Another rule then! No foreign purchases!  ;D

But, thanks to the Web, the world is a global village.

(The last good thing I do before hitting the sack. >:D)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 01, 2010, 10:33:33 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 01, 2010, 10:32:16 AM
But, thanks to the Web, the world is a global village.

(The last good thing I do before hitting the sack. >:D)

Nothing that is shipped from overseas!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 01, 2010, 01:09:07 PM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 01, 2010, 10:00:12 AM
The one-recording-a-week plan is going into implementation here at the Beethovenian household. Three reasons: space, waste and savings. I need more space. Too many CDs is a waste (IMO). And I might need some extra money should I live long enough to retire.

It's also an exercise in discipline. It will be good for me. Won't it? And I'll listen more to what I already own.

I'm not sure how I'll work it. The recording should not be a box set that costs $100.00; that's for sure. Maybe a single recording with a $20/week limit—including postage. It will force me to be careful with my shopping dollar.

Anyone else here do anything like this?

Yes!!!!!  I am surprised to find someone else doing the same thing because I just told Gurn I was doing that too just last night because

TOO MANY CDS, I AM OVERWHELMED!!!! :o

I'm actually taking it to another level, all of my huge box sets and big cd wallets are going in the closet (actually put them there last night).  I'm starting over, fresh like it was in the beginning.  A modest collection that I listen to alot and I only buy a new cd after I've listened to one at least five times over.  And then relisten to everything I have.  By buying only one cd though, I can buy whatever I want (well make it under $20) to get the best in performance and sound quality.  I'm excited. :)

edit-- I started with Smetana chamber works and the Jarvi Beethoven.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on February 01, 2010, 01:15:26 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 01, 2010, 01:09:07 PM
Yes!!!!!  I am surprised to find someone else doing the same thing because I just told Gurn I was doing that too just last night because

TOO MANY CDS, I AM OVERWHELMED!!!! :o

I'm actually taking it to another level, all of my huge box sets and big cd wallets are going in the closet (actually put them there last night).  I'm starting over, fresh like it was in the beginning.  A modest collection that I listen to alot and I only buy a new cd after I've listened to one at least five times over.  And then relisten to everything I have.  By buying only one cd though, I can buy whatever I want (well make it under $20) to get the best in performance and sound quality.  I'm excited. :)

edit-- I started with Smetana chamber works and the Jarvi Beethoven.

Soon you'll be moving to an apartment with a much bigger closet.   8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 01, 2010, 01:49:04 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 01, 2010, 01:09:07 PM
Yes!!!!!  I am surprised to find someone else doing the same thing because I just told Gurn I was doing that too just last night because

TOO MANY CDS, I AM OVERWHELMED!!!! :o

I'm actually taking it to another level, all of my huge box sets and big cd wallets are going in the closet (actually put them there last night).  I'm starting over, fresh like it was in the beginning.  A modest collection that I listen to alot and I only buy a new cd after I've listened to one at least five times over.  And then relisten to everything I have.  By buying only one cd though, I can buy whatever I want (well make it under $20) to get the best in performance and sound quality.  I'm excited. :)

edit-- I started with Smetana chamber works and the Jarvi Beethoven.

Yay!!! It's a club.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Martin Lind on February 01, 2010, 05:36:14 PM
A question but I didn't want to start a new thread because of that. Does anybody know a chatroom where you can chat about classical music? I tried hard to find something like that in the internet but couldn't find anything like that.

Regards
Martin
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on February 02, 2010, 10:15:15 AM
Quote from: Martin Lind on February 01, 2010, 05:36:14 PM
A question but I didn't want to start a new thread because of that. Does anybody know a chatroom where you can chat about classical music? I tried hard to find something like that in the internet but couldn't find anything like that.

Regards
Martin

Maybe...here?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: listener on February 02, 2010, 10:39:43 AM
I also have a lot of discs (LP and CD) that I heard only once, maybe did not listen to, (there's a difference).   They are out of order on several shelves, I play each disc now before re-shelving and find a lot of buried treasures I had forgotten.    I have two local retailers who have interesting delete, overstock and used bins so I look there first when I cannot resist the temptation to see what's new.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 10:58:44 AM
Quote from: Martin Lind on February 01, 2010, 05:36:14 PM
A question but I didn't want to start a new thread because of that. Does anybody know a chatroom where you can chat about classical music? I tried hard to find something like that in the internet but couldn't find anything like that.

Regards
Martin

I've asked about that here. Didn't go over well.

You could always start one yourself and let us know.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 02, 2010, 11:44:14 AM
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_brahms_symphony_are_you
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 02, 2010, 09:03:46 PM
In 11 of the last 12 days, and in the last 6 days in a row, I've listened to a work that I'd never heard before. First Listen Friday? Bring on First Listen February!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on February 03, 2010, 12:09:28 AM
I wonder why we're all experiencing heightened awareness of CD overload at about the same time? My daughter looked at my opera collection a couple of weeks ago, and said that if it was hers she'd find it scary. I kind of find it scary myself. I can understand in my case how it happened, because of the sudden discovery that I could enjoy (after a lifetime of thinking I couldn't) music from the baroque and classical eras. Life was pretty simple when I listened mostly to Elgar, RVW, Puccini and French C19th opera, because I owned most of the recorded music I needed. But when suddenly, after decades, you develop a passion for Handel, Vivaldi, French baroque and Mozart in the space of less than two years, the floodgates open and the CDs come pouring through because there's such a lot of it, and so little time left to listen to it all.

For instance: I bought the Sofronitski box of Mozart piano concertos and listened to most of them twice, and found myself getting more and more curious about the difference between these HIP performances, and the traditional post-Romantic approach. Then I saw that jpc were offering the set by Annerose Schmidt and Kurt Masur for next to nothing, so ordered one because it was so cheap; but I know they're regarded as worthy, rather than outstanding, and am wondering whether I should have bought Barenboim instead. Or - no, no, go away, thought - maybe as well??? And so it goes on. One serious problem is the affordability of so many of these sets. If I added up all the time left for listening (just once more) to the CDs that I have, can I actually live that long?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on February 03, 2010, 12:14:58 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 27, 2010, 07:37:49 PM
Gerbil Wheel & Potatoes of the Couch

Very avant-garde.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 04:38:00 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on February 03, 2010, 12:09:28 AM
. . .there's such a lot of it, and so little time left to listen to it all. . . . If I added up all the time left for listening (just once more) to the CDs that I have, can I actually live that long?
Don't waste valuable listening time performing pointless mathematical computations! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 02, 2010, 11:44:14 AM
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_brahms_symphony_are_you
It says I'm the 1st.  Hmmm.  Not sure about that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on February 03, 2010, 04:51:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 02, 2010, 09:03:46 PM
In 11 of the last 12 days, and in the last 6 days in a row, I've listened to a work that I'd never heard before. First Listen Friday? Bring on First Listen February!

Yes, my January was just such a one, nor do I see February shaping much different!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 03, 2010, 04:56:59 AM
Quote from: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 04:44:23 AM
It says I'm the 1st.  Hmmm.  Not sure about that.

I was hoping I'd be the Fourth, but no, not even close. I'm the Third: "When you decide you want something, you take it, but occasionally are stricken by bouts of deep sadness. You tend to polarize those around you."

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 03, 2010, 05:00:59 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 01, 2010, 10:00:12 AM
The one-recording-a-week plan is going into implementation here at the Beethovenian household.

Very wise. I've done a similar thing in the Rock household: limit myself to one CD a day.  ;D

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on February 03, 2010, 08:58:47 AM
Quote from: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 04:38:00 AM
Don't waste valuable listening time performing pointless mathematical computations! ;D

That's what I was hoping someone would say. To heck with the maths. Now then, what's new at Presto Classical .....?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on February 03, 2010, 09:41:06 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on February 03, 2010, 08:58:47 AM
That's what I was hoping someone would say. To heck with the maths. Now then, what's new at Presto Classical .....?
23 new offers at mdt   ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: offbeat on February 03, 2010, 02:40:02 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 02, 2010, 09:03:46 PM
In 11 of the last 12 days, and in the last 6 days in a row, I've listened to a work that I'd never heard before. First Listen Friday? Bring on First Listen February!
[/quote
Yes thats a very good strategy - my problem is i can get a bit lazy and listening to something new requires an effort -but yr idea is a good one - actually today got Kenneth Leighton cello concerto/Symphony 3 and listening now for first time  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on February 03, 2010, 02:51:19 PM
Quote from: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 04:44:23 AM
It says I'm the 1st.  Hmmm.  Not sure about that.

Can we trade?  It says that I'm overwhelmingly the 3rd Symphony.  I'd rather be the first.  :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 03, 2010, 06:07:28 PM
I, like Sarge, was going for 4, but got 3.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 06:13:40 PM
You aspire to greatness and always give it your best effort no matter the endeavor. This perfectionist tendency earns you much respect and admiration, except from whom you most desperately need it: yourself. At times you could benefit from a little relaxation, or perhaps some downright laziness, but you get more satisfaction from hard work. Congratulations!

This is what is says about the 1st.  I'm just not at all sure it's "me".  :-\ So, what do I get in a trade? (I kind of wanted the 4th, too. . . )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 03, 2010, 06:14:53 PM
Quote from: secondwind on February 03, 2010, 06:13:40 PM
You aspire to greatness and always give it your best effort no matter the endeavor. This perfectionist tendency earns you much respect and admiration, except from whom you most desperately need it: yourself. At times you could benefit from a little relaxation, or perhaps some downright laziness, but you get more satisfaction from hard work. Congratulations!

This is what is says about the 1st.  I'm just not at all sure it's "me".  :-\ So, what do I get in a trade? (I kind of wanted the 4th, too. . . )

Together, we can make a 4.  :-*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 03, 2010, 06:33:02 PM
I would have liked to be the 3rd but I am the 4th. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 03, 2010, 06:37:01 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 03, 2010, 06:33:02 PM
I would have liked to be the 3rd but I am the 4th. :)

Ah, someone to trade with.  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on February 04, 2010, 03:47:27 AM
The BSO are playing the Fourth this weekend.  (Not quite the topic, I know . . . .)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 12, 2010, 05:42:18 PM
Ugh.

On iTunes, I just purchased what I thought was Reiner's Living Stereo recording of LvB 5 & 7 and what it actually was was just the 5th and an overture (the covers are identical except for the wording), and you can hear the needle drop in the groove of the "record" and everything. Some company named Hallmark put this travesty out.

I must look more closely at what I'm purchasing from now on.  ;D

I asked for my money back.  >:(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: John Copeland on February 12, 2010, 05:56:55 PM
Took part in that Brahms Symphony quiz thing and it turns out I am the first symphony.
Well, must have been re-written a few times, mind you.   ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on February 13, 2010, 12:01:12 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 12, 2010, 05:42:18 PM
you can hear the needle drop in the groove of the "record" and everything.

Lucky fellow. Some people pay large amounts of money to get that good old genuine 'vinyl sound'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on February 13, 2010, 04:50:07 AM
Quote from: Elgarian on February 13, 2010, 12:01:12 AM
Lucky fellow. Some people pay large amounts of money to get that good old genuine 'vinyl sound'.

It was so strange...  ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Elgarian on February 13, 2010, 06:50:17 AM
Quote from: Beethovenian on February 13, 2010, 04:50:07 AM
It was so strange...
I have a CD set of Massenet's Sapho that's like that:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EPSNN454L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)

The blurb blathers on about the remastering they've done, but the first thing that's noticeable is the rumble of the turntable as a background to  the spits and pops of the dust jammed in the grooves. (In the bad old days when I had a turntable, I never did actually hear any rumble at normal listening levels, so in this case they must've tried extra hard to preserve it.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on February 13, 2010, 12:59:35 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on February 03, 2010, 04:56:59 AM
I was hoping I'd be the Fourth, but no, not even close. I'm the Third: "When you decide you want something, you take it, but occasionally are stricken by bouts of deep sadness. You tend to polarize those around you."

Sarge

Me too.

(bet you're not surprised)  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 14, 2010, 01:13:57 PM
Quote from: George on February 13, 2010, 12:59:35 PM
Me too.

(bet you're not surprised)  8)

Mon frère  ;)

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 17, 2010, 04:12:27 AM
Do you ever find yourself struggling with a work or even a whole genre from a composer whose output you usually love?  I find that the case with Bach.  His concertos and suites are wonderful, his cantatas, oratorios, masses etc are sublime yet I'm not moved by Musical Offering.  Perhaps it's like the WTC and I just need to listen alot more (like ten times instead of five times).

But still there's that thing that some works are effortless to enjoy, and others take work.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 17, 2010, 10:04:46 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 17, 2010, 04:12:27 AM
Do you ever find yourself struggling with a work or even a whole genre from a composer whose output you usually love?  I find that the case with Bach.  His concertos and suites are wonderful, his cantatas, oratorios, masses etc are sublime yet I'm not moved by Musical Offering.  Perhaps it's like the WTC and I just need to listen alot more (like ten times instead of five times).

But still there's that thing that some works are effortless to enjoy, and others take work.

I don't enjoy MO in the same way as I do some of the other works you mention, but I like it as a piece filled with a lot of counterpoint. The only part where I find it actually feels like a single piece of work -- as opposed to a set of loosely-strung canons on a theme, is in the trio sonata. Try, perhaps, listening to one or two parts alone (like just the Riecercare a 6, the trio sonata) or maybe changing the order of some of the pieces in your recording.

And FWIW, I didn't struggle with das WTC. :) (Although listening to it as a single piece or work, when it was not actually intended to be one, can be very exhausting, I confess.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 18, 2010, 04:19:36 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 17, 2010, 10:04:46 PM
I don't enjoy MO in the same way as I do some of the other works you mention, but I like it as a piece filled with a lot of counterpoint. The only part where I find it actually feels like a single piece of work -- as opposed to a set of loosely-strung canons on a theme, is in the trio sonata. Try, perhaps, listening to one or two parts alone (like just the Riecercare a 6, the trio sonata) or maybe changing the order of some of the pieces in your recording.

The opening and ending Ricercare are the only parts that I like right now so you might be on to something...

QuoteAnd FWIW, I didn't struggle with das WTC. :) (Although listening to it as a single piece or work, when it was not actually intended to be one, can be very exhausting, I confess.)

I struggled with WTC as a whole, but then once I stopped seeing it that way and focused on individual bits the struggle ended. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on February 18, 2010, 04:47:16 AM
My preferred Bach work for purposes of asking Just why did he bother, again? is the B Minor Mass ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 18, 2010, 04:53:18 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 18, 2010, 04:47:16 AM
My preferred Bach work for purposes of asking Just why did he bother, again? is the B Minor Mass ; )

Yes a great masterpiece.  I actually plan on buying yet another recording of it sometime in the next few weeks.  I'm thinking Marc Minkowski. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 19, 2010, 04:54:18 AM
Well I've figured out what bugs me-- it's not the music, it's the performance.  It's just too fast.  You can't follow the harmony, and there is no sense of melody, just clanging and banging as fast as possible.  That is also what made the solo keyboard works so hard for me-- just crappy performances.  I've listened to (Paulb style) clips on Müchinger, and it sounded much, much, much, much better.  It actually sounded like Bach.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on February 19, 2010, 05:31:09 AM
Clips do serve a good purpose, for those who know how to use the tool.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 19, 2010, 05:40:37 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 19, 2010, 04:54:18 AM
Well I've figured out what bugs me-- it's not the music, it's the performance.  It's just too fast.  You can't follow the harmony, and there is no sense of melody, just clanging and banging as fast as possible.  That is also what made the solo keyboard works so hard for me-- just crappy performances.  I've listened to (Paulb style) clips on Müchinger, and it sounded much, much, much, much better.  It actually sounded like Bach.

Another factor that may have had an (adverse) effect is instrumentation. Since historians are not clear on exactly which instruments (apart from the flute, possibly) Bach specified for the work, the musicians take an artistic decision on the issue. For example, I noticed that the Koopman recording has two versions of Ra6, one after the other bringing the work to a close, while the Harnoncourt recording has just one version, and that on a single harpsichord.

A version I've enjoyed watching on YouTube (DVD Rip) is from the Kuijken ensemble. (Go here (http://www.youtube.com/user/OedipusColoneus#g/u) and search for '1079'.) Just four members play the work, and the instruments are quite clearly heard. I haven't heard Koopman to tell whether this is faster or not, but the Kuijkens' pace seem quite relaxed to me. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on February 19, 2010, 06:12:46 AM
One version which I enjoy (but which may be too specific, in its own ways, for general approbation) is Igor Markevich's 'deployment' of Das musikalisches Opfer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 19, 2010, 06:25:24 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 19, 2010, 06:12:46 AM
One version which I enjoy (but which may be too specific, in its own ways, for general approbation) is Igor Markevich's 'deployment' of Das musikalisches Opfer.

Oh nice, I'll sample it Paulb style this evening. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on February 19, 2010, 10:12:07 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 19, 2010, 05:31:09 AM
Clips do serve a good purpose, for those who know how to use the tool.

QFT
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 20, 2010, 02:57:51 PM
Well Navneeth that youtube concert was swell.  And I've returned to give Koopman a fresh listen and you know what?  I like it now.  Sometimes I think you just have to give your brain a few days to mull it over. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 20, 2010, 10:36:27 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 20, 2010, 02:57:51 PM
Well Navneeth that youtube concert was swell.  And I've returned to give Koopman a fresh listen and you know what?  I like it now.  Sometimes I think you just have to give your brain a few days to mull it over. :)

I'm glad that turned out well, David. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 04, 2010, 10:19:37 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 04, 2010, 09:56:02 AM
Did Brahms borrow something from E minor fugue, BWV 855, for the last movement of his fourth symphony? I always found those fleeting moments in the fugue familiar but only now did I recognise the pattern.

First the fugue in E minor. It is the first three seconds that is of interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/kKdqwMTISos

Now, to Brahms. 2:00-2:03.

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/WZGWB93-mmI
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on March 04, 2010, 10:21:48 AM
Quote from: DavidW on February 20, 2010, 02:57:51 PM
Well Navneeth that youtube concert was swell.  And I've returned to give Koopman a fresh listen and you know what?  I like it now.  Sometimes I think you just have to give your brain a few days to mull it over. :)

Sometimes, your brain just needs . . . space.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on March 04, 2010, 12:48:48 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 04, 2010, 10:21:48 AM
Sometimes, your brain just needs . . . space.

Yup. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on March 04, 2010, 12:57:42 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 04, 2010, 10:21:48 AM
Sometimes, your brain just needs . . . space.
Thinking is underrated.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on March 19, 2010, 10:54:13 AM
Why were so many of the most popular conductors of the 20th century Hungarian?

Szell, Solti, Ormandy, Reiner, Doráti...

I mean, any big-ish European country would produce a decent amount of talent, but was there something in the water over there or something?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 19, 2010, 11:11:12 AM
Quote from: Lethe on March 19, 2010, 10:54:13 AM
Why were so many of the most popular conductors of the 20th century Hungarian?

Szell, Solti, Ormandy, Reiner, Doráti...

I mean, any big-ish European country would produce a decent amount of talent, but was there something in the water over there or something?

Do you really think so? I mean, Germany, Austria and France, for instance, have produced their fair share of famous conductors in the last century. Perhaps, you could ask why it was mostly Hungarian conductors who were responsible in making many of America's orchestras some of the best in the world?

A question in a similar vein to which I have not yet found an answer: the HIPsters, at least the pioneers, and many today certainly, were either Dutch or English. Why?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on March 19, 2010, 11:40:16 AM
I suppose the popularity I mean stems from their recorded legacies, many of which were indeed with American orchestras.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 20, 2010, 07:16:28 AM
Quote from: Lethe on March 19, 2010, 10:54:13 AM
Why were so many of the most popular conductors of the 20th century Hungarian?

Szell, Solti, Ormandy, Reiner, Doráti...

I mean, any big-ish European country would produce a decent amount of talent, but was there something in the water over there or something?

I've often wondered that myself. Yeah, as Op 106 points out, all countries produced conductors, but something about Hungary ... Fricsay, too, and Arthur Nikisch, who made the first (?) Beethoven's Fifth recording, and Christoph von Dohnanyi barely missed the cut by being "of Hungarian descent." Crazy amount of talent in the conducting department. Especially, as you point out, with American orchestras (Nikisch, by the way, took the LSO on its first tour of America...or indeed, the first American tour of any big European orchestra)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on March 20, 2010, 07:45:51 AM
and Kertez, and a couple of Fischers...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 20, 2010, 07:55:44 AM
And wasn't it reported that Bernstein actually came from Hungary? As nonsensical as that may sound, I remember reading something to that effect in this forum.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on March 20, 2010, 01:53:52 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on March 20, 2010, 07:55:44 AM
And wasn't it reported that Bernstein actually came from Hungary? As nonsensical as that may sound, I remember reading something to that effect in this forum.

It is not true.  Bernstein was born in the US of parents who came from the Ukraine.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on March 20, 2010, 02:13:54 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on March 20, 2010, 01:53:52 PM
It is not true.  Bernstein was born in the US of parents who came from the Ukraine.


In Lowell, Mass, if memory serve.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on March 23, 2010, 12:14:36 PM
Quote from: Lethe on March 19, 2010, 10:54:13 AM
Why were so many of the most popular conductors of the 20th century Hungarian?
Szell, Solti, Ormandy, Reiner, Doráti...

Quote from: erato on March 20, 2010, 07:45:51 AM
and Kertez

Like the five conductors Lethe names, István Kertész almost led a major American orchestra too. After Szell died, he was a leading candidate to be Cleveland's next Music Director. He was the orchestra members overwhelming choice. When they voted,  Kertész received 76 votes, Abbado 13 , Frübeck de Burgos 4, Barenboim 3, Maazel 2, Leinsdorf and Haitink 0. The orchestra's board ignored the musicans and hired Maazel, of course, but Kertész had been in  the running for awhile.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on March 23, 2010, 11:22:51 PM
That appointment was 1972, most of that list are still active: long careers. Kertész died young, Leinsdorf was already elderly by 1972. I was in a performance of his in 76 and he was pretty infirm in terms of his grasp on the performers. Baremboim I was in chorus for in 76, his potential was clear, but he was no world beater at that point. Watching him grow and grow has been one of life's great musical pleasures.

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on March 29, 2010, 05:22:37 AM
I have a classical recording which consists of nine tracks, yet the CD case indicates there are eleven. What they did was list the works' titles as actual tracks. D'oh! Nice work, Sony. You really care a lot.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on March 29, 2010, 05:26:37 AM
On several discs I have, especially where there is insufficient space to list all the tracks on the rear cover, works are listed entire.

Sometimes the track range is printed:


[1] - [3] Symphony in Three Movements

Sometimes just the track at which each work begins:

[1] Symphony in Three Movements

[4] Mass

[10] Threni
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 30, 2010, 11:59:55 AM
Something I didn't know, Mar 31, 2010 edition: Lorenzo Da Ponte died a U.S. citizen!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 12:03:40 PM
Yes, he wound up a grocer in Hackensack, New Jersey. Oh, the humanity!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on March 30, 2010, 12:34:03 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 30, 2010, 12:03:40 PM
Yes, he wound up a grocer in Hackensack, New Jersey. Oh, the humanity!

???

He came to the us to avoid a bankruptcy in London but he ended up a professor of Italian literature at Columbia University and an Opera Producer in New York City.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on March 30, 2010, 12:47:31 PM
Just an apocryphal story I once hoid.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 30, 2010, 12:53:29 PM
Quote from: Scarpia on March 30, 2010, 12:34:03 PM
???

He came to the us to avoid a bankruptcy in London but he ended up a professor of Italian literature at Columbia University and an Opera Producer in New York City.

While selling veggies for a short while in Philly. That's according to Wiki P., anyway.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 06, 2010, 08:03:42 PM
Quote from: erato on January 05, 2010, 09:32:42 AM
I'm trying to figure out why you manage to keep a listening log book, while I can't. Have thought about it for 30 years.

Quote from: Brahmsian on January 05, 2010, 09:35:43 AM
Something I've been doing for two years now.  I just enjoy doing it, and I'll jot down some notes too from time to time.

Boy, I started keeping a listening log on January 9 and it's been a very fun, and very interesting, endeavor. I've noticed a lot about my own listening habits; for instance, that Beethoven and Dvorak are constants but that Sibelius and Shostakovich, my other favorite composers, come and go in very dramatic swings.

And I am VERY proud to see that, in the first 90 days (well, technically 88) of my log, I've listened to 140 pieces of classical music that I had never heard before, from Bach cello suites to music by at least a dozen living composers.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 07, 2010, 05:48:12 AM
Well done, Brian!

We need to get some more new Henning in that queue . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on April 08, 2010, 09:24:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 06, 2010, 08:03:42 PM
Boy, I started keeping a listening log on January 9 and it's been a very fun, and very interesting, endeavor. I've noticed a lot about my own listening habits; for instance, that Beethoven and Dvorak are constants but that Sibelius and Shostakovich, my other favorite composers, come and go in very dramatic swings.

And I am VERY proud to see that, in the first 90 days (well, technically 88) of my log, I've listened to 140 pieces of classical music that I had never heard before, from Bach cello suites to music by at least a dozen living composers.

I've been doing something similar, off and on, for years.  If you don't want to sound like such a nerd, call it your listening diary.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 09, 2010, 05:30:40 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on April 08, 2010, 09:24:57 PM
I've been doing something similar, off and on, for years.  If you don't want to sound like such a nerd, call it your listening diary.

But then I sound like a girl  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 05:32:06 AM
Just call it The Listening.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 09, 2010, 07:00:06 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 05:32:06 AM
Just call it The Listening.

That sounds like the name for a nu-metal band! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 07:20:34 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 09, 2010, 07:00:06 AM
That sounds like the name for a nu-metal band! :D

Or a horror novel.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 09, 2010, 07:22:30 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 07:20:34 AM
Or a horror novel.

When Brian's listening log was found little did he know that there was a hidden message in it warning of the ghosts... ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on April 09, 2010, 08:07:58 AM
The Logging of the Tunes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 11, 2010, 05:18:09 PM
First listen Sunday ;D

Here are my thoughts on the Järvi/Bremen 9th:

It didn't floor me like the third, nothing unusual, experimental like he did in the third IMO, but perhaps it's there and my relative unfamiliarity with the 9th (I play it much less than the 3rd) left me drawing blanks.  But very sharp, incisive phrasing seems to drift between legato and staccato, in tune with the music.  It kind of works because usually when I hear a recording its just predominantly one or the other instead of smart, flexible choices based upon passage.  There is that patented ;D Järvi/Bremen ability to sound like a chamber ensemble one minute and then the next minute make an impossibly huge orchestral sound out of such a small ensemble, these guys can project.  I was also impressed by how fast it is (an hour) but it never feels rushed.  Can't figure out how he did that. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 14, 2010, 07:21:06 AM
DavidW, thanks for that review. I've got all the other Jarvi/Bremen recordings, so I'm going to pick up the 9th, but that writeup just makes me more excited.  :)

For my university's student magazine, I've just penned an article arguing that classical concerts should be a much more informal experience (http://www.ricestandard.org/classical-music-concert/). You know, clap between movements, don't dress up, don't sit still ...  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 14, 2010, 09:40:57 AM
Brian cool article, I'm especially in agreement over applauding before they've even done anything. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 14, 2010, 11:56:29 AM
In Maria Lettberg's hands, the Opus 11 Scriabin Preludes nos. 2 & 4 run a few seconds past two minutes each.  I've been keen to hear these "as written," to compare with the Preludes as Chick Corea muses upon them on the Solo Piano: Originals CD.  Charming comparative listening!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 16, 2010, 07:52:13 AM
Is this a "Classical" [i.e. Mozart] chat thread or a "classical" [chatting about classical music] chat thread?

If the latter, this little essay on Paris, Alexandre Tharaud, and EMI should be a perfect fit:


Paris in Passing (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/paris-in-passing.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 16, 2010, 07:57:47 AM
Jens I think that a blog that long requires an abstract! :D  You kind of make Tharaud seem like Chopin himself as in "frail" sensitive artist. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2010, 08:03:09 AM
I'll admit to continued bafflement over why Tharaud would jump from one of the most exciting record labels there is, to EMI. They must have been treating him very poorly at harmonia mundi.

And, on the bright side, maybe EMI will persuade him to record some chamber music with Reynaud and Gautier Capucon. Or the Faure piano quintets with the Quatuor Ebene - can you imagine how glorious an album that would be?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2010, 08:04:21 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 14, 2010, 09:40:57 AM
Brian cool article, I'm especially in agreement over applauding before they've even done anything. :)

Actually, on that point, somebody just posted an excellent comment rebutting me: a performer who points out that "dead" audiences are disheartening and the applause just gets them energized and ready to go.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 16, 2010, 08:06:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 16, 2010, 08:03:09 AM
I'll admit to continued bafflement over why Tharaud would jump from one of the most exciting record labels there is, to EMI. They must have been treating him very poorly at harmonia mundi.

And, on the bright side, maybe EMI will persuade him to record some chamber music with Reynaud and Gautier Capucon.

Gawd, I hope not. I *hate* Gautier and Reynaud is boring me to tears. Neither of them musically up my alley. Let him continue to make music with Queyras and some fine violinist I haven't yet set my mind on.

Quote
Or the Faure piano quintets with the Quatuor Ebene - can you imagine how glorious an album that would be?

NOW we are talking!!!! A Trout with the Quatuor Ebene, Tharaud, and Olivier Thiery (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/09/last-exit-rota-ionarts-at-large-from.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 16, 2010, 08:08:59 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 16, 2010, 07:57:47 AM
Jens I think that a blog that long requires an abstract! :D  You kind of make Tharaud seem like Chopin himself as in "frail" sensitive artist. :D

Abstracts are too concrete.

Frailty: I wasn't thinking about that connection, actually. Probably because that's neither my view of Chopin (the wilting flower, expiring romantically on the ivory), nor the way that Tharaud plays it. In fact, he doesn't play at all how he looks---if one lets those stereotypes of fragility and paleness roam free.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 16, 2010, 08:35:56 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 16, 2010, 08:04:21 AM
Actually, on that point, somebody just posted an excellent comment rebutting me: a performer who points out that "dead" audiences are disheartening and the applause just gets them energized and ready to go.  :)

Oh, did you object to 'acknowledgement applause', when the musician(s) first step out on to the stage?  Sure, I'd be a little deflated if there was just dead silence.

(A little different in a venue like the West End branch of the BPL, where there is no Green Room . . . but then there's more intimacy with the audience there, anyway.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 16, 2010, 08:40:41 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 16, 2010, 08:35:56 AM
Oh, did you object to 'acknowledgement applause', when the musician(s) first step out on to the stage?  Sure, I'd be a little deflated if there was just dead silence.

(A little different in a venue like the West End branch of the BPL, where there is no Green Room . . . but then there's more intimacy with the audience there, anyway.)


Yes, sir, I did, possibly to my regret? Link (http://www.ricestandard.org/classical-music-concert/)
Relevant excerpt:

QuoteApplause is a sign of gratitude; all they've done is walk on. For too long we have encouraged such stars to indulge their egos by bowing and generally basking in applause before they even do anything. I am reminded of Robin Williams' stand-up comedy routine; he walks on the stage, says "Hello!" and is greeted by a cascade of cheers. Once the applause is finally over, he bows, says "Goodbye!" and pretends to leave. Williams is right: our desire to clap people walking onstage has gotten out of hand.

At a recent Houston Symphony concert, the orchestra played the Gustav Holst suite The Planets while a projector showed an HD video of satellite footage of each planet and its moons. There was a spoken video introduction with interviews of astronomers, and then, before the music could begin, the house lights came up so that the audience could clap as conductor Hans Graf walked onstage. I didn't clap. Graf could have walked on unobtrusively, modestly, during the video and saved us the energy. But it is we, the audience, who enable people like Graf to forget their modesty.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 16, 2010, 08:55:36 AM
Under those circs, my call would have been to have the conductor be unobtrusive at the start.  So I have no quarrel to your quarrel ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 17, 2010, 07:06:49 AM
STUPID QUESTION NUMBER 492772:

In Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations, why does the first variation come before the theme, and why doesn't that make the theme the first variation of the "first variation"?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on April 17, 2010, 07:15:36 AM
Quote from: Lethe on April 17, 2010, 07:06:49 AM
STUPID QUESTION NUMBER 492772:

In Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations, why does the first variation come before the theme, and why doesn't that make the theme the first variation of the "first variation"?

Good question. I have never researched this, but I'd bet that the composer wrote it with the theme first and later decided that it didn't work well as an opening. A Music Theory professor told me when I was in school that it isn't a strict theme and variations, but more of a "fantasy" type variations. Perhaps this flexibility was part of the reason why the theme doesn't come first?   
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 17, 2010, 07:35:39 AM
That does sound feasable - I wonder why he didn't make a new bridge from the introduction section.

A final Rach-related question: which is most correct for the first movement of the 3rd PC: allegro ma non troppo, or allegro ma non tanto? It seems that record labels cannot decide - the Wikipedia article uses the former, but then reverts to the second to title the embedded clip on the page.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 17, 2010, 12:48:18 PM
Quote from: Lethe on April 17, 2010, 07:06:49 AM
STUPID QUESTION NUMBER 492772:

In Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations, why does the first variation come before the theme, and why doesn't that make the theme the first variation of the "first variation"?

Not a stupid question at all, SaraRakhmaninov is picking up on a game that Beethoven started with the finale of the Sinfonia eroica . . . which similarly begins not with a full-dressed theme per se, but with the harmonic skeleton of the theme.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on April 17, 2010, 12:51:05 PM
Quote from: Lethe on April 17, 2010, 07:35:39 AM
A final Rach-related question: which is most correct for the first movement of the 3rd PC: allegro ma non troppo, or allegro ma non tanto? It seems that record labels cannot decide - the Wikipedia article uses the former, but then reverts to the second to title the embedded clip on the page.

The Boosey & Hawkes pocket score is engraved Allegro ma non tanto.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on April 17, 2010, 02:34:31 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 17, 2010, 12:51:05 PM
The Boosey & Hawkes pocket score is engraved Allegro ma non tanto.

That is also the tempo indication on the Naxos and RCA masterings of the composers recording of this work.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 17, 2010, 04:13:24 PM
Hmm, thanks - I guess I'll override the decision of certain other labels and tag all of them with tanto.

At a glance, troppo does seem to be in a vast minority of all my copies, with Janis/Dorati/Minneapolis (Mercury) as one exception. Weird, but annoyingly typical that the WP article is wrong - generally classical music people are not keen on using that thing (which is a shame, as it is a potentially essential resource for this genre), so we have perfectly polished pop articles but junk ones on classical :( There are so many obscure composer articles using unorthodox spellings that can't really be changed by a single person as it requires a small group consensus, and there is no such group.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 18, 2010, 09:41:08 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 17, 2010, 12:48:18 PM
Not a stupid question at all, SaraRakhmaninov is picking up on a game that Beethoven started with the finale of the Sinfonia eroica . . . which similarly begins not with a full-dressed theme per se, but with the harmonic skeleton of the theme.

You took the thought right out of my mind, Karl.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 22, 2010, 07:22:28 AM
Until 3 minutes ago I thought Trevor Pinnock was born in Australia.

WTF did I get that idea from? :'(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 29, 2010, 07:20:54 AM
I've heard the 38th and the 41st symphonies of Mozart for the first time today. :)

Wait?  What!?  By that I mean though I've heard many recordings of those works, I did not realize how dynamic and expressive they should be.  From powerful crescendos to elegant minuet interruptions to transparent layered sound from the orchestra, the performance of Jacob and the Freiburger Orchestra showed me what Mozart's music really sounds like.  My eyes are opened, I have heard the definitive performance of these works, AND I LOVE IT!!! :) :) :) :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DarkAngel on April 29, 2010, 09:16:47 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 29, 2010, 07:20:54 AM
I've heard the 38th and the 41st symphonies of Mozart for the first time today. :)

Wait?  What!?  By that I mean though I've heard many recordings of those works, I did not realize how dynamic and expressive they should be.  From powerful crescendos to elegant minuet interruptions to transparent layered sound from the orchestra, the performance of Jacob and the Freiburger Orchestra showed me what Mozart's music really sounds like.  My eyes are opened, I have heard the definitive performance of these works, AND I LOVE IT!!!

I made a similar "definitive proclamation" in the HIP Mozart thread....... ;)

Quote from: DarkAngel on March 25, 2010, 07:20:20 AM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,232.msg401074.html#msg401074)

(https://secure.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/HMC901959.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EBJNRWJEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Extremely impressed with the new Jacobs 39,40 CD.......
One of the rare performances that makes you think you are hearing these standards fresh again for the 1st time, the music lines are so clarified and transparent you hear all kinds of little details obscured by other versions. Bold, exciting outer movements, charming overall with excellent modern sound from Harmonia Mundi. Comes in 3 panel digipak (2 panel digipak for 38,41 CD), similar in stye to Immerseel recent CD but even better overall

I have 15+ versions of Mozart 38-41 and it may seem impossible choose the best from so many great ones, but I will do it anyway and say Jacobs/HM are now my reference performances
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 29, 2010, 09:42:52 AM
Yeah DA that post that you had made pushed me over to buy it, and I absolutely do not regret it. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 29, 2010, 01:35:15 PM
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/abu-dhabi-festival-logo-c2.png)

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Key-to-the-Mosque-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bella-Mosque-1-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bella-Gardens-150x150.jpg)
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bella-Mosque-2-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/DSC04549-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/DSC04364-150x150.jpg)
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bella-Mosque-Detail-2-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Bella-sunbathing-1-150x150.jpg)(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/DSC04375-150x150.jpg)

Classics in the Desert
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1969 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=1969)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 29, 2010, 01:52:19 PM
I had a friend that came from Abu Dhabi, anyway interesting read Jens. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 30, 2010, 07:32:45 AM
DA where did you find your copy of the Jacobs 39 40?  I looked on amazon and it says that it won't release until May 11. :'(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DarkAngel on April 30, 2010, 08:21:57 AM
Quote from: DavidW on April 30, 2010, 07:32:45 AM
DA where did you find your copy of the Jacobs 39 40?  I looked on amazon and it says that it won't release until May 11.

UK vendor MDT:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//HMC901959.htm (http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//HMC901959.htm)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on May 17, 2010, 04:17:41 AM
What does Jean Françaix sound like? From what I read about him he seems extremely conservative - like Poulenc/Ravel - is there anything more to him than that?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 17, 2010, 08:01:55 AM

Braunfels is an Obligation to Me
a conversation with Manfred Honeck, a re-premiere of The Great Mass, and two recordings of the Te Deum.

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2007 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2007)


(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Braunfels-am-Klavier.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Grazioso on May 20, 2010, 05:25:54 AM
Quote from: Lethe on May 17, 2010, 04:17:41 AM
What does Jean Françaix sound like? From what I read about him he seems extremely conservative - like Poulenc/Ravel - is there anything more to him than that?

What does Francaix sound like? Gallic  ;D Based on what I've heard, I'd say urbane, witty, light-hearted, clear. Fun chamber music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on May 20, 2010, 06:58:11 AM
Hmm, I guess derivative or not, if it's good - it's good :) Thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on May 20, 2010, 07:36:56 AM
Quote from: DarkAngel on April 29, 2010, 09:16:47 AM

I made a similar "definitive proclamation" in the HIP Mozart thread....... ;)

Quote from: DarkAngel on March 25, 2010, 07:20:20 AM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,232.msg401074.html#msg401074)

(https://secure.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/HMC901959.jpg)  (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EBJNRWJEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Extremely impressed with the new Jacobs 39,40 CD.......
One of the rare performances that makes you think you are hearing these standards fresh again for the 1st time, the music lines are so clarified and transparent you hear all kinds of little details obscured by other versions. Bold, exciting outer movements, charming overall with excellent modern sound from Harmonia Mundi. Comes in 3 panel digipak (2 panel digipak for 38,41 CD), similar in stye to Immerseel recent CD but even better overall

I have 15+ versions of Mozart 38-41 and it may seem impossible choose the best from so many great ones, but I will do it anyway and say Jacobs/HM are now my reference performances


I have the first issue, the one with 38 and 41, and have been trying to decide whether to get the second one with 39 and 40.  I probably will.  I find the recordings quite good, but they did not displace my favorite Harnoncourt/RCO from the top of my list of favorites. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 26, 2010, 04:30:49 AM
(http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/templates/main_template/images/logo.png)

Classical Music and the 1st Amendment:

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8186&Itemid=48
More Biebls in the Classroom (http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8186&Itemid=48)


Quote...The move is superficially innocuous, but if thought through (which the district apparently didn't) it would have heinous consequences. What music is purely secular? If anything with a religious text is out, then Handel Oratorios, Bach Passions, all the requiems (Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Brahms, Faure, et al.) are disallowed, along with excerpts therefrom, even in instrumental transcriptions. Bernstein's Mass and "Kaddish" symphony are out. Haydn's "Creation" would be slashed. Spirituals couldn't be performed, and lots of Motown would be banned. If we combed through every instance of music that includes a reference to God or has a hint of Jesus in it, Western music would be slashed to a pitiful trickle. Might someone even suggest the Goldberg Variations could be "too Jewish"? They certainly sound suspicious...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 01, 2010, 01:42:12 PM
(http://www.playbillarts.com/images/logo.gif)


"I Always Wanted to be a Cellist"
Julian Rachlin In Interview
(http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8405.html)
http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8405.html (http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8405.html)

QuoteActually, the main reason why I play viola is that my favorite instrument is not the violin, nor the viola, but the cello. It has always been the cello. It's just that for some reason I didn't become a cellist. My father is a cellist, and becoming a cellist was always my dream. And I was always saying as a child: 'oh, this violin business is all very nice, but of course I'll be a cellist one day.' It just never happened. So the viola is the only way to approach the cello and I actually try to play 'cello' both on the viola and also on the violin. I don't consider myself a classic... you know... completely a violin-violinist."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 27, 2010, 02:05:08 PM
AfriClassical (http://africlassical.blogspot.com/)

Bloody hell, this guy has written about 2000 entries to this blog. I ran into it looking for information on William Grant Still and it seems to be a goldmine in this niche.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on August 18, 2010, 08:16:35 AM
Just listened at the local record store to this disc:

(http://multimedia.fnac.com/multimedia/images_produits/ZoomPE/3/2/2/0794881941223.jpg)

Sounds really refreshing! I will listen to this disc and give my comments.

Henk
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 25, 2010, 05:52:10 AM
I wish Brilliant Classics would put their 3CD sets into slimline boxes (like DG) does rather than those fold-out digipacks, which are flimsy and ugly :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on August 27, 2010, 08:15:41 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 25, 2010, 05:52:10 AM
I wish Brilliant Classics would put their 3CD sets into slimline boxes (like DG) does rather than those fold-out digipacks, which are flimsy and ugly :-\

Their budget image justify ugly boxes. People probably think Brilliant Classics can be cheap because of that, so they buy it. At least that may be the marketing idea behind it. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 27, 2010, 08:26:55 AM
 ;D I can just imagine the conversation:

EMI: Okay, so you are offering to pay me money to licence my recordings on a short-term basis - just what will I get from this deal that I could not make by advertising my own product?*

Brilliant Classics: We will package it in such an ugly digipack that people will want to buy your version anyway!

EMI: Ah, nice, so we'll keep distributing them. It's a deal.

This is actually what I did with the Kempe/Strauss box on EMI. The Brilliant backaging was so ugly that I paid £1 and bought the EMI version.

*As if EMI would ever do such a crazy thing.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 27, 2010, 08:50:56 PM
I love the foldout digipacks. Those plastic boxes break so easily, and so often. I have purchased three "EMI Trio" offerings - or whatever they call the recent superbudget 3CD sets. Berwald symphonies, Rachmaninov/Jansons, and Mozart Don Giovanni. Two of the three arrived with broken prongs so the CDs just bounce around in there.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on August 27, 2010, 09:20:56 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 27, 2010, 08:50:56 PM
I love the foldout digipacks. Those plastic boxes break so easily, and so often. I have purchased three "EMI Trio" offerings - or whatever they call the recent superbudget 3CD sets. Berwald symphonies, Rachmaninov/Jansons, and Mozart Don Giovanni. Two of the three arrived with broken prongs so the CDs just bounce around in there.

Yes, they can be strangely frail.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 28, 2010, 01:54:11 AM
I was ambiguous with my wording, I meant that I would prefer a cardboard clamshell box for the 3CDs. Some labels set the threshold to bring that in at 4 discs, but it worked well for Berman's Années de Pèlerinage on DG with 3 discs and makes me glad they didn't use those nasty wide 3CD cases.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 28, 2010, 06:57:32 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 28, 2010, 01:54:11 AM
I was ambiguous with my wording, I meant that I would prefer a cardboard clamshell box for the 3CDs. Some labels set the threshold to bring that in at 4 discs, but it worked well for Berman's Années de Pèlerinage on DG with 3 discs and makes me glad they didn't use those nasty wide 3CD cases.

Oh, gotcha! Yes, I would too. Love me those cardboard boxes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on August 29, 2010, 10:17:03 AM
Seen this documentary earlier today - fascinating to see this "background" work and that search for perfection.

(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs266.ash1/19367_189944419986_189943164986_726142_2248558_n.jpg)

Trailer :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx9SijTvL6Q&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx9SijTvL6Q&feature=player_embedded)

Write-up in the Guardian :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/16/pianomania-documentary-robert-cibis-interview (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/16/pianomania-documentary-robert-cibis-interview)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on August 29, 2010, 11:50:38 AM
Where'd you see it, Papy? I scoured the internet this morning and it doesn't seem to be playing anwhere near me, nor is it on DVD.  ???
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on August 29, 2010, 11:57:30 AM
Quote from: George on August 29, 2010, 11:50:38 AM
Where'd you see it, Papy? I scoured the internet this morning and it doesn't seem to be playing anwhere near me, nor is it on DVD.  ???

It has only been released earlier this month in the UK at a very limited number of cinemas  -  the original release in Austria was only in February.

No details as yet for a release in the US (cinemas or dvd) on the official websites

http://oval-film.com/wordpressEN/?page_id=204 (http://oval-film.com/wordpressEN/?page_id=204)

http://www.pianomania.de/ (http://www.pianomania.de/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on August 29, 2010, 11:59:28 AM
Quote from: papy on August 29, 2010, 11:57:30 AM
It has only been released earlier this month in the UK at a very limited number of cinemas  -  the original release in Austria was only in February.
No details as yet for a release in the US (cinemas or dvd) on the official websites
http://oval-film.com/wordpressEN/?page_id=204 (http://oval-film.com/wordpressEN/?page_id=204)
http://www.pianomania.de/ (http://www.pianomania.de/)

Thanks! Can't wait to rent it. The previews look wonderful.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 30, 2010, 10:14:53 AM
Cool thing #1: I just noticed that there are three classically-oriented Romantic symphonies by Mendelssohn, Parry and Stanford titled the "Scottish", "English" and "Irish".

Cool thing #2: All three of these are the "Symphony No.3".

Bad thing: Wales sucks so much that nobody has dared to name anything after it, to complete a potentially awesome British Isles symphonies 2 CD set :'(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on August 30, 2010, 10:21:09 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 30, 2010, 10:14:53 AM
Cool thing #1: I just noticed that there are three classically-oriented Romantic symphonies by Mendelssohn, Parry and Stanford titled the "Scottish", "English" and "Irish".

Cool thing #2: All three of these are the "Symphony No.3".

Bad thing: Wales sucks so much that nobody has dared to name anything after it, to complete a potentially awesome British Isles symphonies 2 CD set :'(

This is the closest I could come up with:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WT3V7T7EL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 30, 2010, 10:48:39 AM
That is... awesome (http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/5103/emotmonocle.gif)

Perhaps the prospective symphony could be programmatic of a weekend visit there and thankful return.

I. Introduction: Allegro vivace - Allegro moderato - Allegretto - Andante - Lento assai - Larghissimo - Grave - Graver
II. Adventure through the valleys: Adagio interminablo w/ pibgorn solo
III. Scherzo "There's a dragon on our flag, isn't that cool (no)": Maestoso - Agitato (attaca:)
IV. Finale "At the Severn": (Miner's chorus) Nos da, boyo, nos da...

A composer was able to find a commission to get a "United Kingdom" symphony written (albeit the premiere conductor refused to perform it - it was in the news a few years ago but can't seem to find it on Google), so I'm sure somebody could give this a shot.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 31, 2010, 01:57:00 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 9 - Cello, Semi Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/08/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_30.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/08/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_30.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 02, 2010, 05:12:51 AM

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 10 - Piano Duo, Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 02, 2010, 06:03:07 AM
Quote from: Lethe on August 30, 2010, 10:48:39 AM
A composer was able to find a commission to get a "United Kingdom" symphony written (albeit the premiere conductor refused to perform it - it was in the news a few years ago but can't seem to find it on Google), so I'm sure somebody could give this a shot.

Was that the Barry Wordsworth incident?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on September 02, 2010, 08:25:26 AM
Indeed, good memory :)

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1495066.ece
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 03, 2010, 10:50:47 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 11 - French Horn, Semi Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_03.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_03.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: listener on September 03, 2010, 11:14:18 AM
Noted on the VSO's home page, but not seen elsewhere so this might be a first posting:
Pierre Simard, former Assistant Conductor of Calgary Philharmonic, has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orch.  It's not a very public position, he'll probably get a couple of the new music concerts and senior matinees that have not had a conductor assigned, and pre-concert talks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 03, 2010, 11:56:52 AM
Quote from: listener on September 03, 2010, 11:14:18 AM
Noted on the VSO's home page, but not seen elsewhere so this might be a first posting:
Pierre Simard, former Assistant Conductor of Calgary Philharmonic, has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orch.  It's not a very public position, he'll probably get a couple of the new music concerts and senior matinees that have not had a conductor assigned, and pre-concert talks.

Hmm... could be a shadow-lurking position, unless he ekes out interesting repertoire performances, rather than just the 'strauss open air festival performances'. Will hear the VSO (under Mikko Franck w/Tzimon Barto) in October, as it happens.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 03, 2010, 01:55:20 PM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 12 - Cello, Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_9779.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_9779.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on September 03, 2010, 07:23:18 PM
Quote from: Lethe on August 30, 2010, 10:14:53 AM
Cool thing #1: I just noticed that there are three classically-oriented Romantic symphonies by Mendelssohn, Parry and Stanford titled the "Scottish", "English" and "Irish".

Cool thing #2: All three of these are the "Symphony No.3".

Bad thing: Wales sucks so much that nobody has dared to name anything after it, to complete a potentially awesome British Isles symphonies 2 CD set :'(

Lol...yeah I would like to hear a "Welsh Symphony."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on September 04, 2010, 10:26:54 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on September 03, 2010, 07:23:18 PM

Lol...yeah I would like to hear a "Welsh Symphony."

:D  You could try Welsh symphonist, Daniel Jones.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on September 04, 2010, 10:52:38 AM
Does GMG have a thread for useful classical websites?

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/ (http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/) (Also www.lieder.net (http://www.lieder.net))


This site houses an extensive, growing archive of texts to 84,448 settings of Lieder and other classical art songs (Kunstlieder, mélodies, canzoni, романсы, canciones, liederen, canções, sånger, laulua, písně, piosenki, etc.) and other classical vocal pieces such as short choral works, madrigals and part-songs, in over 90 languages, with 10,693 volunteer translations to English, French, Italian, Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages.

In this collection there are currently 53,267 texts associated with musical settings. Of these, 19,155 have not yet been located and are placeholders for cross-referencing, and 3,088 are hidden due to copyright restrictions, leaving 31,023 entirely visible to visitors. When possible, first lines are shown.

This website was created in May, 1995 by Emily Ezust, and is offered as a free public service.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 04, 2010, 12:30:38 PM

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 13 - Flute, Semi Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_04.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/ionarts-at-large-from-2010-ard_04.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 06, 2010, 04:39:15 AM
Scandal, at last!
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/THwuoFnObHI/AAAAAAAABMM/LqRfBPZSfWA/s400/ard_2010_new_blankBG.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: From the 2010 ARD Competition, Day 15 - Flute, Final
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/music-rules-not-from.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/09/music-rules-not-from.html)

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TITVPNVn05I/AAAAAAAABPI/A7q-7dAvuWQ/s320/IvannaMissing_4-webSM.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 12tone. on October 09, 2010, 12:53:30 PM
Quote from: Lethe on August 30, 2010, 10:14:53 AM

Bad thing: Wales sucks so much that nobody has dared to name anything after it, to complete a potentially awesome British Isles symphonies 2 CD set :'(

What about a Welsh opera?

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 12, 2010, 07:58:27 AM
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2369 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2369)

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Christoph-Eschenbach_bw.jpg)
A Glimpse of Eschenbach
Impressions of an elusive conductor (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2369)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:22:10 AM
I love that sweet spot between pure classical and pure romantic. Something in the Beethoven to Brahms range. Classical loosened up a bit, I guess, but not overblown.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 20, 2010, 06:23:09 AM
Dude, you will be corn to Berlioz's sickle!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:26:38 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 20, 2010, 06:23:09 AM
Dude, you will be corn to Berlioz's sickle!

I do enjoy some of his stuff but nothing has knocked me out yet.  :-[
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:34:40 AM
Beethoven - Schubert - Schumann - Chopin - Brahms. That sort of thing. :D Anyone missing from that bunch?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 20, 2010, 06:36:36 AM
Well, you've already got Liszt.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:37:24 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 20, 2010, 06:36:36 AM
Well, you've already got Liszt.

Yeah, I like his piano stuff for the most part.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 20, 2010, 06:48:16 AM
Dave, do you like Hummel? :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:53:06 AM
Quote from: DavidW on October 20, 2010, 06:48:16 AM
Dave, do you like Hummel? :)

Is he in that span? I should try him. Does he hold a candle?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on October 20, 2010, 06:56:43 AM
Great figurines . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 20, 2010, 07:10:35 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:22:10 AM
I love that sweet spot between pure classical and pure romantic. Something in the Beethoven to Brahms range. Classical loosened up a bit, I guess, but not overblown.

Spohr, "Faust" !

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rcTwQRJTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001WW1?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000001WW1)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 07:13:22 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on October 20, 2010, 07:10:35 AM
Spohr, "Faust" ! (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001WW1?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000001WW1)

Thanks, man.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 20, 2010, 07:31:21 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 07:13:22 AM
Thanks, man.

Hummel is a little closer to the classical chaps, but here are my two Hummel-introduction dics, purposely chosen ahead of the piano trios, piano concertos, et al.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pWtEMtfeL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Hummel
Mass in D Major, Op. 111; Mass in B-Flat Major, Op. 77 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007B8PS?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00007B8PS)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WYY39LGuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Hummel
Missa Solemnis in C Major / Te Deum (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000273AOY?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000273AOY)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 07:33:50 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on October 20, 2010, 07:31:21 AM
Hummel is a little closer to the classical chaps, but here are my two Hummel-introduction dics, purposely chosen ahead of the piano trios, piano concertos, et al.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pWtEMtfeL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Hummel
Mass in D Major, Op. 111; Mass in B-Flat Major, Op. 77 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007B8PS?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00007B8PS)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WYY39LGuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Hummel
Missa Solemnis in C Major / Te Deum (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000273AOY?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000273AOY)

Thanks again. I have ordered the Spohr and will wishlist these two.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 20, 2010, 10:27:39 AM
Hummel masses are great, those were the first works that made me connect with him.  I agree with Jens that he is a bit more classical.  I'm glad that you ordered Spohr, he is a fine composer. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 20, 2010, 11:43:09 AM

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/themes/fmblog/images/masthead/masthead_main.png)
A Select Discography of Christoph Eschenbach (Orchestral / Concertos) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2383)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on October 20, 2010, 11:45:24 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 06:34:40 AM
Beethoven - Schubert - Schumann - Chopin - Brahms. That sort of thing. :D Anyone missing from that bunch?
You might enjoy Burgmuller.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on October 20, 2010, 12:10:48 PM
Quote from: ukrneal on October 20, 2010, 11:45:24 AM
You might enjoy Burgmuller.

You made that name up.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on October 20, 2010, 12:16:10 PM
For some reason I read Burgmuller like Frau Blucher and expect horses to neigh or lightning to strike. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 20, 2010, 12:35:06 PM
Quote from: DavidW on October 20, 2010, 12:16:10 PM
For some reason I read Burgmuller like Frau Blucher and expect horses to neigh or lightning to strike. ;D

Somebody just listened to something by Falkenstein in the 'listening thread' and I thought of that creepy guy at the start of the movie who says "Doctor Frankenstein? I am Bruno von Falkstein. I have come from Transylvania to show you your grandfather's will."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 01, 2010, 01:22:44 PM



Da-dee-dee—da-da-da-dumm—dee-dee: Interview with Rudolf Buchbinder (and Daniel Harding)

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2428 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2428)



Rudolf Buchbinder, the Rant: Why Henle are Morons and H&M Ruins Individualism

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/rudolf-buchbinder-rant-why-henle-are.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/rudolf-buchbinder-rant-why-henle-are.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on November 03, 2010, 05:00:32 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on November 01, 2010, 01:22:44 PM


Rudolf Buchbinder, the Rant: Why Henle are Morons and H&M Ruins Individualism

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/rudolf-buchbinder-rant-why-henle-are.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/rudolf-buchbinder-rant-why-henle-are.html)

Quote"Take a look at men, walking on the street. They all look the same. With the blue jeans and the jackets." Now I really I feel like protesting, ready to cite myself as an example as someone who dresses decidedly unique. But just before I open my mouth I look down on myself and find myself wearing jeans and a suit jacket. I decide to postpone my counter-critique..."

;D :D ;D


Sarge

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 05:13:14 AM
Jen why are those interviews rendered in the smallest font possible?  It hurts my eyes! :'(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 03, 2010, 05:26:07 AM
Quote from: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 05:13:14 AM
Jens why are those interviews rendered in the smallest font possible?  It hurts my eyes! :'(

I'm not sure I can follow you... the rendering of the font (perfectly legible on my computer, tending toward big on ionarts and towards medium-smallish on WETA)  is more dependent on your browser settings than anything I do, methinks.

p.s. ooops. looks like rudolf got in trouble with the henle publishing house following the interview.  ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 05:33:02 AM
Oh sorry Jens ;D

No sorry it has nothing to do with browser settings because I have mine set to allow the site to set the font.  And when I was trying to figure out why you are so mean ;D I looked at the source and saw that you chose 10 pt.  10 pt!!

I hate it when people never stop to think about how their site looks on an hd monitor, especially since hd monitors are the norm now. :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on November 03, 2010, 05:40:20 AM
10pt, woof!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 05:42:56 AM
Woof indeed!  I've started becoming passionate about readable fonts ever since the kindle greatly reduced eye strain for me. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 03, 2010, 06:02:57 AM
Quote from: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 05:33:02 AM
Oh sorry Jens ;D

No sorry it has nothing to do with browser settings because I have mine set to allow the site to set the font.  And when I was trying to figure out why you are so mean ;D I looked at the source and saw that you chose 10 pt.  10 pt!!

I hate it when people never stop to think about how their site looks on an hd monitor, especially since hd monitors are the norm now. :P

You're talking about WETA, then?

Well, for starters, I have no control over the font-size there... though I'll inquire about it.
HD monitors? Whatever might you mean with that, since that term really only makes sense for SOURCE material and TVs, not computer monitors"
I, for one, have no problems reading anything on my monitor at a resolution of 1680 x 1050 at 32b. Is that already no longer the norm or are my eyes just too young to appreciate the difficulties? In any case, you're the first ever to have mentioned it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 06:18:00 AM
HD only refers to resolution, not necessarily source.  I'm using a 1920x1080 monitor and what I see is that the fonts are small on both weta and your blog and on both there are large amounts of unusued white space.  In fact the margins on your weta entry occupy more than 2/3 the space.  Decrease those margins and increase the font, and it would be so much more readable.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 03, 2010, 06:30:32 AM
But I wanted to say that there is nothing particular with those two sites, it's pretty common for sites to be designed poorly these days.  I think that mostly they set them up a few years back when 4:3 low res crts were still the most common and they just don't update.  Even major sites that should know better like cnn and nytimes look bad.  I swear to god I prefer their apps on the touch just because they were designed to be more readable.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 03, 2010, 08:17:28 AM

If every font you read is too small, the resolution of your screen might be too high!

Ionarts-at-Large: Bavarian State Orchestra in Gubaidulina and Strauss
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/ionarts-at-large-bavarian-state.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/ionarts-at-large-bavarian-state.html)


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TNFyfIbHq4I/AAAAAAAABTs/jUr5a7kfdow/s400/bavarian_state_orchestra_konzert.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 04, 2010, 08:37:44 AM


If every font you read is too small, the resolution of your screen might be too high!


The "Morons" at Henle Reply

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/morons-at-henle-reply.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/morons-at-henle-reply.html)


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TNLVlKBogXI/AAAAAAAABT0/F_X2pb7kIfU/s400/Henle_Urtext_Beethoven_Tempest_Sonata_op31-2.gif)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 08, 2010, 09:41:06 AM

A Braunfels Quartet
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2418 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2418)

In light of a plentifully stuffed repertoire in classical music,
from Bach via Bruckner to Boulez (or Vivaldi-Verdi-Varese,
if you wish), there are plenty well known, popular-enough
composers to chose from when performing music. For all
the thrill of discovery, audiences do like what they know
and think they know what they like.

Fine. Just every so often, do get off your arse and try a
Braunfels Quintet...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 08, 2010, 12:40:14 PM
Well, I am ELATED at the moment.  Just got a phone call from one of the local TV stations.  I won tickets to the Moscow Ballet's production of the Great Russian Swan Lake!   :)  The Moscow Ballet is touring Canada, and stopping in Winnipeg on November 29th.

I just went to Swan Lake and The Nutcracker last season (but it was the Royal Winnipeg Ballet).

It will be great to see the Moscow Ballet in action!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on November 08, 2010, 12:53:47 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 08, 2010, 12:40:14 PM
Well, I am ELATED at the moment.  Just got a phone call from one of the local TV stations.  I won tickets to the Moscow Ballet's production of the Great Russian Swan Lake!   :)  The Moscow Ballet is touring Canada, and stopping in Winnipeg on November 29th.

I just went to Swan Lake and The Nutcracker last season (but it was the Royal Winnipeg Ballet).

It will be great to see the Moscow Ballet in action!
Awesome! Very happy for you. Swan Lake really is a great ballet - wonderful music and great dancing.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 08, 2010, 01:15:01 PM
Fantastic Ray!  I'm jealous! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 08, 2010, 01:24:45 PM
Quote from: DavidW on November 08, 2010, 01:15:01 PM
Fantastic Ray!  I'm jealous! :)

I never (or very rarely) enter draws for tickets.  Let's face it, I was probably the only one to put my name down for the tickets.   :D  All kidding aside, it's great to be a classical music fan (it does have its privileges).  Had I put my name down for Justin Bieber tickets, I probably would have had a 1/50,000 chance of winning.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 08, 2010, 01:27:17 PM
I bet you're not as alone as you think.  I've been too some performances in a smallish city that have drawn more people than who post on this entire forum.  There are alot of classical listeners out there, they just don't like obsessively talking about it like we do. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 08, 2010, 01:27:21 PM
correction

Quote from: ChamberNut on November 08, 2010, 01:24:45 PM
Had I put my name down for Justin Bieber tickets, I probably would have had a 1/50,000 chance of winning losing.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 08, 2010, 01:28:41 PM
Quote from: DavidW on November 08, 2010, 01:27:17 PM
I bet you're not as alone as you think.  I've been too some performances in a smallish city that have drawn more people than who post on this entire forum.  There are alot of classical listeners out there, they just don't like obsessively talking about it like we do. ;D

That is true, David.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 08, 2010, 01:29:14 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on November 08, 2010, 01:27:21 PM
correction

Yes, that is another way of looking at it!  ;D 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on November 08, 2010, 02:19:25 PM
Splendid, Ray!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: George on November 08, 2010, 02:57:17 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 08, 2010, 01:24:45 PM
I never (or very rarely) enter draws for tickets.  Let's face it, I was probably the only one to put my name down for the tickets.   :D  All kidding aside, it's great to be a classical music fan (it does have its privileges).  Had I put my name down for Justin Bieber tickets, I probably would have had a 1/50,000 chance of winning.  ;D ;D

And I'd hope the same odds of caring if you won.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 09, 2010, 06:07:03 AM
Jens, I installed the no squint add-on so no more complaints from me! :)  Except for about the content of the reviews themselves. >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 09, 2010, 06:10:17 AM
A mother laments over the death of her son. Can you put a name to the opera?

For the Aussies reading, this scene was shown on screen before Joan Sutherland's son delivered the eulogy at the concert held in tribute to the soprano at the Sydney Opera House.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 09, 2010, 03:39:27 PM
At last, I got to that: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/side-notes-rudolf-barshai-has-died.html

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TNnksXYNNOI/AAAAAAAABUs/WoLNCwLbvZ8/s400/Barshai.png) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/side-notes-rudolf-barshai-has-died.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 09, 2010, 03:44:18 PM
Man I can't believe that I love the Borodin Q's DSCH cycle (either one) and love Barshai's symphony cycle... and yet didn't know that he was one of the founding members of the quartet!!

Great write up Jens.  I feel inspired to listen to Barshai conducting DSCH's 5th. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 14, 2010, 11:01:42 PM
Apart from being an impossibility, what would you be if you were Brahms and Liszt? (Something I learnt today while going through the dictionary.)

It's a Cockney rhyming slang that means drunk. Brahms and Liszt rhymes with Pissed (does it?), which is Brit slang for drunk. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on November 15, 2010, 03:30:46 AM
Perhaps ten years ago (could it have been that long?) I fetched in (via BRO) a Wuorinen disc with Five and Archeaopteryx.  I am not quite certain, now, of the circumstances, but I let that disc go.  May not have grabbed my ear at first; and where normally I should have let the disc sit, and try it again later . . . .

Anyway, I found a new cut-out copy on amazon. Sold, it seems, by Wuorinen's agent, Howard Stokar.  Just waiting for it to land, now.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 15, 2010, 03:43:07 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on November 09, 2010, 06:10:17 AM
A mother laments over the death of her son. Can you put a name to the opera?

For the Aussies reading, this scene was shown on screen before Joan Sutherland's son delivered the eulogy at the concert held in tribute to the soprano at the Sydney Opera House.

^^

*Bump*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 16, 2010, 09:37:24 AM
I've listened to Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto literally a dozen times now! :o  And I wanted to post my impressions after having spent alot of time with it, instead of just initial impressions.

It's not boldly modernist, nor is it indulgantly romantic either, nor new agey Rautavaara-esque, nor minimalist.  It really is a unique piece that is warmly pastorale but punctuated by a few brief intense crescendos and passages that are clinical and not warm.  It's really all over the place.

I think that I would rate it 3/5, I liked but not loved it.  Those stuck in the 18th-19th century because it is too modernist for such ears, and modern/postmodern aficionados need not apply either because it will be too soft for them.  It takes strange ears like mine to be pleased by the music but I am. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on November 16, 2010, 09:45:36 AM
Nice report!

Quote from: DavidW on November 16, 2010, 09:37:24 AM
I think that I would rate it 3/5, I liked but not loved it.

Pretty much my feeling.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: greg on November 16, 2010, 03:14:40 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 16, 2010, 09:45:36 AM
Nice report!

Pretty much my feeling.
Me 3. David's post very well could have been mine.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 18, 2010, 08:11:38 AM
Thanks guys! :)

I have another one but brief: Penderecki's 2nd some consider it hysterical.  Um okay. I consider it conservative. Very Shostakovichian or Mahlerian, neoromantic symphony, ponderous but lyrical.  I like it... but... in the 4th symphony I hear the more mature style of neo-tonal Penderecki.  He pushes tonality to the breaking point but not all like post-Wagner harmony.  This more cerebral work is emotionally intense for me because of it's unique style, which is what I also like about the 3rd, and in fact I swear I hear the 3rd in the fourth movement! :D  And just like the 3rd symphony it seems like Penderecki takes a motif or an idea and transforms it as the symphony progresses.  Similar to Beethoven's 5th conceptually but not at all neoromantic or even postmodern.  These symphonies (3 and 4) are simply different, unique.  Wonderful. :)

Symphony No. 2: 3/5
Symphony No. 4: 4/5

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 07:28:15 AM
Do we take music for granted?  And are we so rushed that we can't stop and appreciate the finer things even when they're right in front of us?

This has probably been talked about before, but I read this article where Joshua Bell performed at a busy metro station in DC, and he went ignored by all but what 6 people out of a 1,000? :o

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 26, 2010, 07:31:25 AM
Quote from: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 07:28:15 AM
Do we take music for granted?  And are we so rushed that we can't stop and appreciate the finer things even when they're right in front of us?

Absolutely David.  I think we do take music for granted.......actually we take a lot of things for granted.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 07:33:36 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 26, 2010, 07:31:25 AM
Absolutely David.  I think we do take music for granted.......actually we take a lot of things for granted.

When we can use ipods to create a constant sound track to our lives, music loses a bit of magic.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 26, 2010, 11:34:21 AM
Quote from: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 07:28:15 AM
Do we take music for granted?  And are we so rushed that we can't stop and appreciate the finer things even when they're right in front of us?

This has probably been talked about before, but I read this article where Joshua Bell performed at a busy metro station in DC, and he went ignored by all but what 6 people out of a 1,000? :o

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

Yes, I believe it has been talked about. And while we do take things for granted, the article and the "experiment" was complete Bull Shit... and deliberately set up to be pointless... manipulated to prove a point that was decided upon long before writing the article.

I've read few articles more dishonest and more insulting to the intelligence of their readers. Enough to still be angry about it, five years after it was written. :-)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 11:39:27 AM
That's probably why they chose a busy train station instead of say a cafe.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 26, 2010, 11:57:01 AM
Quote from: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 11:39:27 AM
That's probably why they chose a busy train station instead of say a cafe.

In the morning, in DC?! With bureaucrats on their way to work, prone to be fired for being late? They could have revived Pierre Fournier and have him play the Suites and I would have pushed him out of the way.  And that's just one issue.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on November 26, 2010, 12:13:29 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on November 26, 2010, 11:34:21 AM
Yes, I believe it has been talked about. And while we do take things for granted, the article and the "experiment" was complete Bull Shit... and deliberately set up to be pointless... manipulated to prove a point that was decided upon long before writing the article.

I've read few articles more dishonest and more insulting to the intelligence of their readers. Enough to still be angry about it, five years after it was written. :-)

Yeah, I agree, it's hard to see how it could have turned out any other way. IIRC, even the people who recognized him and/or wanted to hang for a while simply didn't have time to do it. It's almost as thought the writer had just finished Lebrecht's book and wanted to help him out a little... ::)

8)

----------------
Now playing:
Concerto Armonico \ Szüts  Miklos Spanyi (Fortepiano) - Wq 016 Concerto in G for Keyboard 3rd mvmt - Allegretto
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: greg on November 26, 2010, 03:36:27 PM
Quote from: DavidW on November 26, 2010, 07:28:15 AM
Do we take music for granted?  And are we so rushed that we can't stop and appreciate the finer things even when they're right in front of us?

This has probably been talked about before, but I read this article where Joshua Bell performed at a busy metro station in DC, and he went ignored by all but what 6 people out of a 1,000? :o

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)
That was interesting.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 27, 2010, 07:25:05 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on November 26, 2010, 11:57:01 AM
In the morning, in DC?! With bureaucrats on their way to work, prone to be fired for being late? They could have revived Pierre Fournier and have him play the Suites and I would have pushed him out of the way.  And that's just one issue.  ;)

Well, you know what Jens, that is exactly part of the problem in today's world.  We are so focused on work, and place way to much importance, emphasis and our energies on our work and careers.

The problem is we don't take the time to stop and smell the roses (listen to the beautiful music).  We are so busy rushing to work, worried our jobs won't be there for us if we don't go the extra mile at work once again for the 1,000th day in a row.

When we have families and put so much emphasis on careers and work, we don't have save adequate or enough energy for our families. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 27, 2010, 07:42:37 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 27, 2010, 07:25:05 AM
Well, you know what Jens, that is exactly part of the problem in today's world.  We are so focused on work, and place way to much importance, emphasis and our energies on our work and careers.
The problem is we don't take the time to stop and smell the roses (listen to the beautiful music).  We are so busy rushing to work, worried our jobs won't be there for us if we don't go the extra mile at work once again for the 1,000th day in a row.
When we have families and put so much emphasis on careers and work, we don't have save adequate or enough energy for our families.

Naïveté aside, that's a point about Washington and modern life that a.) didn't need any proof and b.) has nothing to do with music, classical or otherwise, much less Joshua Bell. Which is in turn my point: Why conduct a dishonest experiment of which you know the outcome and which is unrelated to the ingredients? Probably someone worried that his or her job wouldn't be there for him or her if he or she didn't go the extra mile at work...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on November 27, 2010, 09:33:58 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 27, 2010, 07:25:05 AM
Well, you know what Jens, that is exactly part of the problem in today's world.  We are so focused on work, and place way to much importance, emphasis and our energies on our work and careers.

The problem is we don't take the time to stop and smell the roses (listen to the beautiful music).  We are so busy rushing to work, worried our jobs won't be there for us if we don't go the extra mile at work once again for the 1,000th day in a row.

When we have families and put so much emphasis on careers and work, we don't have save adequate or enough energy for our families.

Utter nonsense, in my view, at least with regard to the Bell "experiment."  There is a place for everything.  A subway platform is not the place to listen to Bach.  It would be an annoyance, even if I was on my way to a concert hall or to my stereo at home to hear the same music.

And I think to say that the problem with "today's world" is equally nonsensical.  Do you think an 18th century peasant with a starving family at home going to the fields at dawn to try to harvest the potatoes before started to rot would stop to listen, even if Bach himself was playing one of his partitas for violin solo?  Life now is easier than it has ever been, unless you happened to be a prince with an efficient tax collector.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 27, 2010, 09:37:45 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on November 27, 2010, 09:33:58 AM
...even if Bach himself was playing one of his partitas for violin solo?  Life now is easier than it has ever been, unless you happened to be a prince with an efficient tax collector.
;D :) 8)

Bravo! Spoken from my heart. Although for some people politicians, life is too easy. http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/23/greece-economy-european-union-opinions-contributor-george-pieler-jens-laurson.html (http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/23/greece-economy-european-union-opinions-contributor-george-pieler-jens-laurson.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 02, 2010, 11:51:30 AM
You know what somebody really needs to record? Rafael Kubelik's three symphonies.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 09, 2010, 09:50:05 AM
Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 10
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-10.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: greg on December 09, 2010, 10:33:38 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 09, 2010, 09:50:05 AM
Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 10
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-10.html)
I'm assuming you're going to add 1-9 later?
(because it's a countdown)?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 09, 2010, 11:02:00 AM
Quote from: Greg on December 09, 2010, 10:33:38 AM
I'm assuming you're going to add 1-9 later?
(because it's a countdown)?
That being the nature of countdowns... yes. 10-2 on ionarts, then the whole list incl. no.1 on WETA. Workin' on no.9 as I type.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 09, 2010, 11:37:15 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 9
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-9.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 09, 2010, 05:59:04 PM
I love Gatti Jens, thought those Tchaikovsky recordings were lost to the sands of time.  Thank you, and ordered. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on December 09, 2010, 11:18:50 PM
Quote from: DavidW on December 09, 2010, 05:59:04 PM
I love Gatti Jens, thought those Tchaikovsky recordings were lost to the sands of time.  Thank you, and ordered. :)
You will enjoy them I think. Nice to see them get recognition too - I agree that they are among the best modern 4-6 cycle available. These (4-6) have done well in recording though, so it quite arguable. Still, one can be quite satisfied (thank you very much) with these if they are your lone recording. And the new price point just reinforces that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 10, 2010, 04:46:37 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TQFHv3MB9kI/AAAAAAAABXE/rjBLhCfYgOA/s400/deccaLogo.png)
Side Notes: Decca's Artistic Summer?
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/side-notes-deccas-artistic-summer.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/side-notes-deccas-artistic-summer.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 10, 2010, 07:02:03 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 8
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-8.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 10, 2010, 07:18:25 AM
Quote from: ukrneal on December 09, 2010, 11:18:50 PM
You will enjoy them I think. Nice to see them get recognition too - I agree that they are among the best modern 4-6 cycle available. These (4-6) have done well in recording though, so it quite arguable. Still, one can be quite satisfied (thank you very much) with these if they are your lone recording. And the new price point just reinforces that.

I have Karajan in them as well, but kind of tired of him now.  I used to like Mravinsky but even if he's great, I could do better soundwise.  Who do you like in #3?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 11, 2010, 09:26:38 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 7
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-7.html)

Bach, Duparc et al.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 11, 2010, 11:19:16 AM
Jens is your list meant to be all are equally fine kind of thing, or are you counting down to the top recording of the year?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 11, 2010, 11:24:00 AM
Jens, I really love both of your choices for #9.
Question: the comment about Antoni Wit and Naxos recording Weinberg's symphonies - is that a joke or a real report?

Side note: you really need to hear Weinberg's Cello Concerto. Definitely the most instantly "appealing" piece of his I've heard so far, and boy is it a great one.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 11, 2010, 12:23:05 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 11, 2010, 11:24:00 AM
Jens, I really love both of your choices for #9.
Question: the comment about Antoni Wit and Naxos recording Weinberg's symphonies - is that a joke or a real report?

Side note: you really need to hear Weinberg's Cello Concerto. Definitely the most instantly "appealing" piece of his I've heard so far, and boy is it a great one.

Re: Naxos / Wit: that's straight from the horse's mouth; the horse's name being Klaus Heymann, in that case. Haven't published the interview yet, but that's an excerpt.

Quote from: DavidW on December 11, 2010, 11:19:16 AM
Jens is your list meant to be all are equally fine kind of thing, or are you counting down to the top recording of the year?

Everything included had been whittled down considerably... but there's still a ranking involved here; counting toward those I presumably love the best. Differences aren't great enough to endow this with more than emotional meaning, I suppose, but still...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 11, 2010, 01:28:24 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 11, 2010, 12:23:05 PM
Re: Naxos / Wit: that's straight from the horse's mouth; the horse's name being Klaus Heymann, in that case. Haven't published the interview yet, but that's an excerpt.

Awesome! Get them to do the Cello Concerto. Actually, they'd probably use Dmitry Yablonsky as soloist, wouldn't they? He's got too jumpy and nasal a style to bring it off. Wendy Warner could do it on Cedille Records...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 13, 2010, 04:47:18 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 6
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-6.html)

Carter, Zimmermann, Wilms...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 15, 2010, 09:22:44 AM


Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 5
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-5.html)

Hartmann, Mahler
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 15, 2010, 03:57:42 PM
Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 4
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-4.html)

Maffei, Beethoven...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 15, 2010, 04:50:27 PM
If it's anything like their Mozart VCs set that Zehetmair/Bruggen Beethoven cd has to be gold! :)

btw that Gatti Tchaikovsky set is amazing!!! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 16, 2010, 07:59:19 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 3
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-3.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-3.html)

Haydn, Taraut...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 16, 2010, 08:44:17 AM
Ah shucks!  I thought the Minkowski set would be #1, well it got close.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 16, 2010, 08:50:19 AM
Let's start a guessing game: what is Jens' #1 recording of 2010 -- new and re-release?

I'll start: I have absolutely no idea... so far.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 16, 2010, 09:31:51 AM
If it hasn't been mentioned yet... I'm going to go with that Petrenko recording for my guess.  It's pretty hot shit. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 16, 2010, 01:51:13 PM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown

# 2
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-2.html)

Strauss / Raff
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 16, 2010, 09:50:43 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if the re-release category included either of the DG Mahler boxes. For the new release, the Szymanowski/Boulez?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 17, 2010, 02:32:10 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 16, 2010, 09:50:43 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if the re-release category included either of the DG Mahler boxes. For the new release, the Szymanowski/Boulez?

...neither.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 05:58:16 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 17, 2010, 02:32:10 AM
...neither.  8)

I'm not surprised you weren't 100% with the choices for the people's edition.  Actually I don't know what the other dg set is that Navneeth is talking about.

I didn't know that you were really serious about the Raff, I thought that you were just championing a minor composer! :D  I'll have to check it out some time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:05:20 AM
Quote from: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 05:58:16 AM
Actually I don't know what the other dg set is that Navneeth is talking about.

Dude! :o (Some Mahler fan you are ::) ;) )

The Complete Mahler Edition (http://www.mahler150.com/en_GB/albums/mahler-complete-edition)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 17, 2010, 06:09:59 AM
Ah... refreshing two-hour conversation with young(ish) Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Svenson... some of it even about music.

Quote from: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 05:58:16 AM
I'm not surprised you weren't 100% with the choices for the people's edition.  Actually I don't know what the other dg set is that Navneeth is talking about.

I didn't know that you were really serious about the Raff, I thought that you were just championing a minor composer! :D  I'll have to check it out some time.

yes, perhaps. But a MAJOR minor composer.

The Mahler Edition (not the people's edition, which I lobbied completely very unsuccessfully to turn into something VERY different) is very good of course; not that I asked to have it sent to me, since I already have every recording included on it... but somehow... I try not to include too many huge box sets in the re-issue column; there are enough in it as it is. Anyway, didn't quite tickle me the right way...

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 06:16:39 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:05:20 AM
Dude! :o (Some Mahler fan you are ::) ;) )

The Complete Mahler Edition (http://www.mahler150.com/en_GB/albums/mahler-complete-edition)

Oh son of a.... that's better than the people's edition!! >:(

Well I'm not much of a Mahler fan anymore, those days have passed years ago.  My favorite composers are Haydn and Bach. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on December 17, 2010, 06:17:53 AM
Quote from: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 06:16:39 AM
Oh son of a.... that's better than the people's edition!! >:(

Well I'm not much of a Mahler fan anymore, those days have passed years ago.  My favorite composers are Haydn and Bach. :)

Love the new avatar David!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:18:26 AM
Quote from: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 06:16:39 AM
Well I'm not much of a Mahler fan anymore, those days have passed years ago.

Oh. Didn't know that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on December 17, 2010, 06:22:50 AM
Not sure I want to start a thread just to post another Best of 2010, but I do have another category for 2010:  'Best Pieces in 2010 to finally make an impression'

For me, two works clearly are the front runners:

1) Mahler's 7th Symphony
2) Brahms' 2nd Symphony
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:23:56 AM
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced few native English composers of any real note, so the practical music-loving aristocracy of London came up with a delightful way to ensure continued involvement in European music: they would, from time to time, invite a continental composer over for an extended stay or perhaps many shorter ones, treat him like royalty, play his music, and, eventually, send him along on his way. [Source (http://allmusic.com/work/requiem-for-vocal-soloists-chorus--orchestra-b-165-op-89-c27121/description)]

Didn't know about that, either.

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 06:24:40 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:18:26 AM
Oh. Didn't know that.

Yeah I've listened to Mahler's symphonies no more than twice over in the past three years, while I've listened to most of Haydn and Bach's works several times!  Actually I don't listen to Romantic era music that much, I currently listen to baroque and modern the most frequently, and then classical but only half as much (guess I overdosed on Haydn a bit), and then romantic is more like sometimes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 17, 2010, 06:28:32 AM
Quote from: DavidW on December 17, 2010, 06:24:40 AM
Yeah I've listened to Mahler's symphonies no more than twice over in the past three years, while I've listened to most of Haydn and Bach's works several times!  Actually I don't listen to Romantic era music that much, I currently listen to baroque and modern the most frequently, and then classical but only half as much (guess I overdosed on Haydn a bit), and then romantic is more like sometimes.

I have noticed that ever since I began visiting GMG, the amount of post-Beethoven and mid-19th C music I listen to has considerably gone down. Increased has the early-to-mid 20th C music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 18, 2010, 07:21:40 AM

Best Recordings of 2010 Countdown
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/presents.png)
Nos. 1 - 10
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-recordings-of-2010-1.html)
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2532 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2532)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 18, 2010, 07:26:22 AM
Ha! I almost guessed the Schumann disc, but for some reason I thought it would be something more "high profile."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 18, 2010, 08:33:37 AM
I think that with this, PortugalSom has just taken CPO's crown for dreadful translation of booklet notes:

(http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2825/clipboard01pj.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 21, 2010, 01:05:31 PM
Naxos.com's homepage is featuring a singer named Michael Bundy, and when I saw his name, I realized that the name Bundy has been ruined for me forever.

BTW Sara, that is really funny.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:00:16 AM
Whenever I get adventurous and try some modern music, it scares me away again and I run back to my comfort zone.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 22, 2010, 05:02:09 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:00:16 AM
Whenever I get adventurous and try some modern music, it scares me away again and I run back to my comfort zone.  ;D

It happens to me, too, sometimes, but I also notice my comfort zone expanding with time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:02:34 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 22, 2010, 05:02:09 AM
It happens to me, too, sometimes, but I also notice my comfort zone expanding with time.

Me 2
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 22, 2010, 05:16:44 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:00:16 AM
Whenever I get adventurous and try some modern music, it scares me away again and I run back to my comfort zone.  ;D

Does Henningmusick scare you?  (I ask in earnest.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:18:03 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 22, 2010, 05:16:44 AM
Does Henningmusick scare you?  (I ask in earnest.)

Surprisingly, no.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 22, 2010, 05:43:11 AM
What really surprises me is that once "atonal honking" gets really, really scary and chaotic and mortifying, then we come full circle and I start to like it again. My favorite "modernist" (in the pejorative sense, and in quotation marks) symphony is Hartmann's Sixth, because it's just so darn crazy and maniacal that I can get scared by it and totally enjoy the feeling.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:46:50 AM
I don't know. There's no Beethoven in this crowd that I've heard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 22, 2010, 05:50:55 AM
Well, none of us lives in Beethoven's world, and Beethoven has long been part of ours. The world changes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 22, 2010, 05:51:27 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:18:03 AM
Surprisingly, no.

Glad to know this, of course : )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:52:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 22, 2010, 05:50:55 AM
Well, none of us lives in Beethoven's world, and Beethoven has long been part of ours. The world changes.

I know. There's only one. Same with pop: The Beatles. And then there's everyone else.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 22, 2010, 05:56:35 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:52:35 AM
I know. There's only one. Same with pop: The Beatles. And then there's everyone else.  ;D

Don't push it buster! ; )

Though it's true: I did actually load some of Los Cuatro Fab onto the Sansa Fuze player last night.

(None of it's come up via shuffle yet, though.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 05:58:22 AM
Now you just need some Beethoven...and Judas Priest.

*runs away*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 22, 2010, 06:07:12 AM
But . . . I've already got the LvB symphonies loaded. Can you imagine? Beethoven even before The Beatles ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 22, 2010, 06:13:04 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 22, 2010, 06:07:12 AM
But . . . I've already got the LvB symphonies loaded. Can you imagine? Beethoven even before The Beatles ; )

Yes, there is a hierarchy even among gods.  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 24, 2010, 12:47:58 PM
I just noticed something - with all the composers credited with writing nine symphonies (Bruckner, Schubert, Mahler) who sort of didn't, technically - why not Tchaikovsky too? The Manfred Symphony makes seven, the unfinished "7th" makes eight, and the Orchestral Suite No.3, which he was originally going to designate a symphony* (Das Lied von der Erde anyone?) caps the nine... :-*

*"I meant to write a symphony, but the title is no importance"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MN Dave on December 25, 2010, 11:53:58 AM
You know that high, piercing sound violins can reach that sounds sort of like a tea kettle? Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 28, 2010, 10:39:00 AM

Latest on WETA:

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/bach_logo_halfsize.png)

Bach is for Dancing (If it Suites You)

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2565)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gnDEukDLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
J.S.Bach,
Orchestral Suites, Concerto Köln
Berlin Classics
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007MAQGO/weta909-20)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 28, 2010, 11:35:17 PM

ArkivMusic has put all the WETA 2010 Choices on Sale: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/listPage.jsp?list_id=2114&source=WETA (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/listPage.jsp?list_id=2114&source=WETA)

Titles will be on sale through January 11th.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 29, 2010, 12:24:35 PM
A followup to the recent "which Raff cycle do I choose" talk: I just ran into an intriguing "might be" here. (http://www.classical-mp3.co.uk/index.php?topic=65.0)

(A Chandos employee saying "We are talking to Neeme Jarvi about Raff symphonies right now!".)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 29, 2010, 12:28:02 PM
Ugh... I do wish it weren't Neeme Jarvi. He'll just direct all of them really quickly and emotionlessly.

Although that may not be totally fair. I saw him this year, the first time I've seen him live since I lived in Detroit from 2001-2005 and suffered through his directorship (he was ill and sluggish and conducted listlessly from a chair), and he seemed reasonably energized and communicated with the musicians fairly well. The performance (Dvorak Te Deum and Stabat Mater) was typically fast and not particularly Bohemian, but the orchestra and chorus were on top form and the results exciting...

Still kind of wish it weren't Neeme Jarvi. Hmm. Thomas Dausgaard, maybe.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 29, 2010, 12:32:39 PM
I do wonder what the heck Chandos will do once Neeme dies - his son at least seems to have greater ambitions than holding up an independent. They will have enough trouble replacing Hickox, but finding somebody they can reliably trust to produce high quality standard rep recordings on a low budget might be hard. He may not have been the most scintillating conductor, but on the whole he was very good (although I can't speak so much about his recent performance).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 29, 2010, 12:32:55 PM
Quote from: Brian on December 29, 2010, 12:28:02 PM
Ugh... I do wish it weren't Neeme Jarvi. He'll just direct all of them really quickly and emotionlessly.

And why should he treat Raff any better than he did Prokofiev? ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 29, 2010, 12:36:37 PM
Quote from: Lethe on December 29, 2010, 12:32:39 PM
I do wonder what the heck Chandos will do once Neeme dies - his son at least seems to have greater ambitions than holding up an independent. They will have enough trouble replacing Hickox, but finding somebody they can reliably trust to produce high quality standard rep recordings on a low budget might be hard. He may not have been the most scintillating conductor, but on the whole he was very good (although I can't speak so much about his recent performance).

Yep, Paavo is already used to serving up Beethoven on RCA - although Neeme, too, once released standard fare on DG. Chandos does have a lot of gifted soloists in the stable (Bavouzet, for starters), and maybe they turn to conductors like Martyn Brabbins? A collaboration on Brabbins' live Gothic Symphony next year might be a great start  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on December 29, 2010, 12:40:29 PM
The proms Gothic's appearance on disc I feel is somewhat inevitable - much as Chandos released Foulds' World Requiem on disc after a live performance - some works are too notable not to release, even if "only" in live performance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 10:20:15 AM
Classical Music Survey - 250 Compositions (http://www.ody.ca/~wbailey/Core250Classical(3).pdf)

A very interesting list, Bill! What prompted you to compile it?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fëanor on December 31, 2010, 11:54:27 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 31, 2010, 10:20:15 AM
Classical Music Survey - 250 Compositions (http://www.ody.ca/~wbailey/Core250Classical(3).pdf)

A very interesting list, Bill! What prompted you to compile it?
I'm not a musician or musically trained in any way; when my interest in (classical) music revived a few years ago, I need a way to learn about the repertoire and not waste too much time either (1) listening to the same stuff over & over again, or (2) listening to a lot minor works while overlooking the biggies.  This is to say, I compiled the above list for my own education. I had recourse to a number of popular books on classical music, as well as few websites, were I noted and compare the recommendations. I listed these findings in a spreadsheet.  My behind-the-scene inclusive list is comprised of over a thousand items.  At first I had no notion of sharing my results with other people.

However I decide to condense the full list to 250 to refine my own listening priorities and, also, in order to share with other not very well-informed people like myself.  This I did by recording the authors' relative ratings, and then selecting those works that had the most and strongest recommendations.  All the data was on a spreadsheet which I then analysed in MS Access.  I fiddle raw results to a very minor extent to suit my own tastes, e.g. to force inclusion of a few more contemporary works than arose stricly from the source recommendations.

So basically the list isn't really my own but owes most of its substance to the work of other writers;  I can get around to listing my principal sources is anyone is interested.



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on December 31, 2010, 12:33:19 PM
Well done!

As I was perusing it, the following questions arose naturally, or what for me will pass for naturally . . . don't  feel obliged, though I am curious in any case where you feel inspired to answer.

I don't think I've ever heard Albéniz's Iberia orchestrated (some of it transcribed for guitar trio, yes). Have you had a chance to check out the piano original?

If you're game to bump the Chaconne from the BWV 1004 (as included in the following item, BWV 1001-1006, you've room for another piece
: )

Similar duplication-by-inclusion with the Carter Second Quartet.

I'm a great fan of Berlioz, so I must ask if you've had any chance/desire to check out his work beyond the Fantastique and the Requiem?

You've just one Hindemith work listed (and it's the obligatory Mathis der Maler Symphony) . . . tell me that's not the only Hindemith you've listened to!
: )

Oh, but for Nielsen you must at least add the Clarinet Concerto.

I don't think I've ever seen Stalingrad tied to the Prokofiev Sonata № 7 . . . that's got me curious . . . .

Interesting that the one Satie line is the Gnossiennes, and not you-know-what!

The Sibelius Symphony № 4 . . . it looks almost as if Tapiola is proposed as a nickname for the symphony?

There is the occasional typo, but I don't want to make myself a complete nuisance.

Really impressed that you set about this so methodically! Well done, again!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: petrarch on December 31, 2010, 05:15:12 PM
Quote from: Feanor on December 31, 2010, 11:54:27 AM
However I decide to condense the full list to 250 to refine my own listening priorities

But surely you already know some of the entries, no? Also, I think one way to 'optimize' it would be to start with one work of each type (say, chamber, concerto, symphony, vocal, and overlaps could also be optimized away) for each composer and see where that leads you. As Karl pointed out, there seems to be some redundancy in a few of the entries and that way you might get a better cross section of the output of a composer, but that would imply a composer-centric approach, which might not be what you are interested in.

Stimmung, really? Not Gruppen or Kontakte? No Le Marteau sans Maître?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fëanor on January 01, 2011, 06:01:04 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 31, 2010, 12:33:19 PM
Well done!

As I was perusing it, the following questions arose naturally, or what for me will pass for naturally . . . don't  feel obliged, though I am curious in any case where you feel inspired to answer.

I don't think I've ever heard Albéniz's Iberia orchestrated (some of it transcribed for guitar trio, yes). Have you had a chance to check out the piano original?

If you're game to bump the Chaconne from the BWV 1004 (as included in the following item, BWV 1001-1006, you've room for another piece
: )

Similar duplication-by-inclusion with the Carter Second Quartet.

I'm a great fan of Berlioz, so I must ask if you've had any chance/desire to check out his work beyond the Fantastique and the Requiem?

You've just one Hindemith work listed (and it's the obligatory Mathis der Maler Symphony) . . . tell me that's not the only Hindemith you've listened to!
: )

Oh, but for Nielsen you must at least add the Clarinet Concerto.

I don't think I've ever seen Stalingrad tied to the Prokofiev Sonata № 7 . . . that's got me curious . . . .

Interesting that the one Satie line is the Gnossiennes, and not you-know-what!

The Sibelius Symphony № 4 . . . it looks almost as if Tapiola is proposed as a nickname for the symphony?

There is the occasional typo, but I don't want to make myself a complete nuisance.

Really impressed that you set about this so methodically! Well done, again!

Thank you, Karl.  I appreciate positive from knowledgable people like yourself, (a composer no less!).

The duplications you mentioned obviously need correction; I noticed the Carter myself when at my first look in while at the list.  Also, the Symphony No. 7 is (fairly obviously) incorrectly attribued to Prokofiev instead of Shostakovich.  But these things really just typos and easy to correct, (watch for Ed. 3c).

I can't argue the merits of Nielsen's Clarinet Concert; I dont' have a copy and might never have heard it.  However here's the point: it just didn't make the recommended lists of the sources I used.

Obviously no two people in the entire world would agree on exactly the same list, but I will take your comments into the question.  In particular, I forced a few inclusions & exclusions based on my own taste against the "experts" recommendations:  these are limited my my own listening experience and I'm always ready to reconsider them.

Yes, my approach was methodical, and I give myself due credit for that.  Of course I will continue to reconsider and refine the list over time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fëanor on January 01, 2011, 06:22:52 AM
Quote from: petrarch on December 31, 2010, 05:15:12 PM
But surely you already know some of the entries, no? Also, I think one way to 'optimize' it would be to start with one work of each type (say, chamber, concerto, symphony, vocal, and overlaps could also be optimized away) for each composer and see where that leads you. As Karl pointed out, there seems to be some redundancy in a few of the entries and that way you might get a better cross section of the output of a composer, but that would imply a composer-centric approach, which might not be what you are interested in.

Stimmung, really? Not Gruppen or Kontakte? No Le Marteau sans Maître?
Thank you for your comments, petrach: very much appreciated.

My basic approach was to find frequently and/or highly recommended works regardless of composer.  (I can say, though, that more than one of my sources first identified composers, then representative works.)

I felt compelled, however, to make a few personal choices.  Mostly my choices were either to (1) reduce just a bit the number of Romantic works, (2) add contemporary works such as those by Carter, Birtwhistle, Xenakis, Crumb, et al., (3) include a few more chambers works, such as the Arensky, and Carther and Crumb (-- dual purpose additions!).  Certainly I have to admit that my personal choices were constrained by my still-limited listening experience.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 07, 2011, 08:25:48 AM


Classical music for $100
How to put together an introduction-kit for classical music not to exceed 100 dollars:
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 07, 2011, 10:36:54 AM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TSdq6anAbqI/AAAAAAAABYo/E2uMMWi3Nas/s400/100dollarsBach.png)


Classical music for $100
How to put together an introduction-kit for classical music not to exceed 100 dollars:
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 08, 2011, 07:29:15 AM

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TSh8yjrQ1QI/AAAAAAAABY4/wP07VKrd4TM/s1600/100dollarsHaydn1550.png)


Classical music for $100: "The Second $100"
Now that we've established that such lists are daft but fun, let's continue. If the first list was purely an intuitive collection of lures, without any didactic or representative pretensions, this list makes more assumptions on the potential listener than just that of a most general, vague interest.
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100-second-100.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100-second-100.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fëanor on January 08, 2011, 11:05:26 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 08, 2011, 07:29:15 AM

Classical music for $100: "The Second $100"
Now that we've established that such lists are daft but fun, let's continue. If the first list was purely an intuitive collection of lures, without any didactic or representative pretensions, this list makes more assumptions on the potential listener than just that of a most general, vague interest.
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100-second-100.html
Interesting lists, but they prove 200 bucks doesn't go far buying music!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 08, 2011, 11:25:03 AM
Quote from: Feanor on January 08, 2011, 11:05:26 AM
Interesting lists, but they prove 200 bucks doesn't go far buying music!!

But that wasn't the point at all. If you want to go far, quantitatively, with music... there's almost no limit with $200 with dirt cheap box sets everywhere. The point was to invest those $100 most efficiently for lasting attraction to classical music. I firmly believe, in any case, that one CD is more likely to make a great impression than one hundred.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fëanor on January 09, 2011, 04:33:15 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 08, 2011, 11:25:03 AM
But that wasn't the point at all. If you want to go far, quantitatively, with music... there's almost no limit with $200 with dirt cheap box sets everywhere. The point was to invest those $100 most efficiently for lasting attraction to classical music. I firmly believe, in any case, that one CD is more likely to make a great impression than one hundred.

I concede that your recommendations are a very nice introduction to classical, (though I haven't heard most of your recommendations).  I agree that huge, cheap boxed sets aren't the way to go.

On the other hand, next week after you've ONE has heard these initial suggestions, you're ONE is going to want MORE. (This is my point.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 09, 2011, 04:47:23 AM
Quote from: Feanor on January 09, 2011, 04:33:15 AM
On the other hand, next week after you've heard these initial suggestions, you're going to want MORE. (This is my point.)

You are using "you" in that general way, aimed at the abstract classical music neophyte whom I am addressing, right?
Because that's exactly what the items on the list are supposed to do: leave the newcomer wanting MORE! (Not within a week; I think that a reasonable rate would be 3 to 12 months, depending on musical voracity of subject at hand... but still.) And the second list is already up (see above); which goes further into classical music. (Again: not quantitatively but qualitatively.)

Meanwhile fresh up on ionarts:
Listen What the Cat Dragged In: Nott's Mahler in Bamberg (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/listen-what-cat-dragged-in-notts-mahler.html)


and on WETA:
From Gabrieli to Now! Interview With Yannick Nézet-Séguin (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2612)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 14, 2011, 04:49:52 PM




Late, but here it is anyway: the Best Recordings of 2010 "Almost List". Stupendous rejects, if you will.

Ionarts:
Best Recordings of 2010 - "Almost List"

http://bit.ly/h4PQyh (http://bit.ly/h4PQyh)

From Bach to Titz, from Norrington to Rousset.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 16, 2011, 05:59:43 AM
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/A_Basket_of_Wild_Strawberri.png)

The Musical Adventures of Young Johnny Barto
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2664 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2664)
"She gave me my first real book of music;
I'll never forget it... she gave me a book of Henle Mozart
Sonatas, the first book where the notes weren't as big as
my fist and I had to look really carefully at them. And I
thought: I really made it now. I'm playing from real grown-
up music.
"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 23, 2011, 04:56:20 AM


A New Label for Christophe Rousset
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2640



(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Neuchatel_Harpsichord_2_550.png)
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2640)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Drasko on January 23, 2011, 06:18:18 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 23, 2011, 04:56:20 AM

A New Label for Christophe Rousset
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2640
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2640)

That is excellent news about Bellérophon! It's the only of Lully's tragedies that hasn't been recorded this far. One thing though; it's not his last, that would be Armide, Bellérophon falls somewhere in the middle of the impressive streak of 13 Tragédies en musique in as many years.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 23, 2011, 06:51:37 AM
Quote from: Drasko on January 23, 2011, 06:18:18 AM
That is excellent news about Bellérophon! It's the only of Lully's tragedies that hasn't been recorded this far. One thing though; it's not his last, that would be Armide, Bellérophon falls somewhere in the middle of the impressive streak of 13 Tragédies en musique in as many years.

oops. "last unrecorded" that was supposed to be, me thinks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 23, 2011, 12:21:19 PM


Ionarts-at-Large: Maria João Pires and Markus Stenz in Beethoven



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fvqDJniJWuw/TTyQ7Zgqm0I/AAAAAAAABag/TxDzQaJisHI/s400/BRSO_STENZ_PIRES.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/ionarts-at-large-maria-joao-pires-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/ionarts-at-large-maria-joao-pires-and.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 27, 2011, 02:11:51 PM
Concerning the reissue industry, "legendary" has to be the most increasingly annoying of all words :'( A lot so-called ones have hardly ever been out of print.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Chaszz on January 27, 2011, 03:12:51 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 16, 2011, 05:59:43 AM
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/A_Basket_of_Wild_Strawberri.png)

The Musical Adventures of Young Johnny Barto
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2664 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2664)
"She gave me my first real book of music;
I'll never forget it... she gave me a book of Henle Mozart
Sonatas, the first book where the notes weren't as big as
my fist and I had to look really carefully at them. And I
thought: I really made it now. I'm playing from real grown-
up music.
"

Wow, thanks for that great Chardin I've never seen before. Where on the web did you find it, please? 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 27, 2011, 03:21:19 PM
Quote from: Chaszz on January 27, 2011, 03:12:51 PM
Wow, thanks for that great Chardin I've never seen before. Where on the web did you find it, please?
http://bit.ly/fuahMg (http://bit.ly/fuahMg)

I think I helped myself to the image from the National Gallery.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 28, 2011, 12:52:10 AM
Vintage Hurwitz ;D :

QuoteWhen I was in grad school I met a coed who had the best pickup line I have ever heard. I had borrowed a book from the library that she wanted, and in order to induce me to give it up early, she said, "Why don't you come over to my place and check out my clavichord?" Disappointingly, she actually had one; her sister built them as a hobby. As it turned out, playing it was quite fun. The clavichord...[explanation]

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13182
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 28, 2011, 05:04:40 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2011, 12:52:10 AM
Vintage Hurwitz ;D :

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13182

Even if he was only half as ugly as a grad student than he is now, he shouldn't have been surprised that she actually had a clavichord. And a cataract.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 28, 2011, 05:25:52 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 28, 2011, 05:04:40 AM
Even if he was only half as ugly as a grad student than he is now, he shouldn't have been surprised that she actually had a clavichord. And a cataract.

Left: Dave Hurwitz
Right: Dave Hurwitz, age 25 (artist's representation)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 28, 2011, 05:44:50 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2011, 05:25:52 AM
Left: Dave Hurwitz
Right: Dave Hurwitz, age 25 (artist's representation)

That's not the picture I have one file.

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/hurwitzerhair.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MishaK on January 28, 2011, 11:56:40 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 28, 2011, 05:04:40 AM
Even if he was only half as ugly as a grad student than he is now, he shouldn't have been surprised that she actually had a clavichord. And a cataract.

Ha!

BTW, Jens, you're still one of the most idiosyncratic reviewers I know. Your two $100 selections are quite interesting. I'm amazed at the total lack of symphonic or operatic works.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 28, 2011, 03:49:23 PM
Quote from: Mensch on January 28, 2011, 11:56:40 AM
Ha!

BTW, Jens, you're still one of the most idiosyncratic reviewers I know. Your two $100 selections are quite interesting. I'm amazed at the total lack of symphonic or operatic works.

Is that good or bad?

In any case, I think I've explained that somewhere in the footnotes: Something about my impression of total neophytes being that they can deal with the free flowing form of concertos more readily than appreciate the structured forms of sonata and symphony... (and also: concertos in some way making symphonies less necessary... the Eroica will come on its own, eventually)... and re: Opera: the recordings I *would* want to recommend (in any case never in the first batch, because most neophytes will run and take cover at the very idea of opera) were all too expensive to fit the format. A good case could be made for including some symphony earlier in the game... (a late Mozart Symphony; or maybe a catchy one by Haydn... waitasecond: I DID recommend Haydn symphonies!)...but opera is a specialist's specialist territory. Doesn't make the 'lowest common denominator cut. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 02, 2011, 02:06:31 PM

Notions of Bach, Berio, and Galuppi. An Interview with Andrea Bacchetti
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2721 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2721)
(with audio samples)
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Andrea-Bacchetti_1-Kopie.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 10, 2011, 10:37:51 AM
My new essay is Classical Music on Twitter (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Feb11/Music_and_Twitter.htm), the first half of which is a casual look at how musicians can and currently do use Twitter for outreach and for fun; the second half is a non-exhaustive directory of prominent musicians, composers, and organizations on Twitter (including, of course, our own @karlhenning). I am somewhat totally flattered and awed to have a praise quote: "A really fascinating read." - Joyce DiDonato (http://twitter.com/#!/JoyceDiDonato/status/35782045418536960)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 10, 2011, 04:14:06 PM

March in Music
What to listen for in DC.
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2750

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/15-Crimson-winged-Parrakeet_480.png) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2750)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on February 12, 2011, 10:09:03 AM
Why are Bach's English suites so-named? They use no English and many French dances.

I should know better than to ask things before reading the Wikipedia article :-*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 14, 2011, 10:37:12 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K-SbgzS5SIw/TVmAmkcaxBI/AAAAAAAABbQ/iGYsSBQaA_0/s1600/welcometosaopaulo.JPG)
Side Notes: Marin Alsop A Nova Regente em São Paulo
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/side-notes-marin-alsop-nova-regente-em.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/side-notes-marin-alsop-nova-regente-em.html)


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hsKlxgVWuxg/TVl2claTwUI/AAAAAAAABbA/Wu8wxg5Icl4/s400/LSO_HARDING_GRIMAUD.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Hélène Grimaud's Ravel and London Strauss
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/ionarts-at-large-helene-grimauds-ravel.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/ionarts-at-large-helene-grimauds-ravel.html)


(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Wigmore-Hall.png)

Classical WETA CD Pick of the Week: Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien in Beethoven

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2763 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2763)



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 14, 2011, 11:01:05 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 14, 2011, 10:37:12 AM

Ionarts-at-Large: Hélène Grimaud's Ravel and London Strauss
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/ionarts-at-large-helene-grimauds-ravel.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/side-notes-marin-alsop-nova-regente-em.html)


1. I'm not sure why I didn't go to that. Maybe because I've seen Grimaud live in Houston twice and skipped over the programme with her name in the header, when going through the brochure, because even though she makes an amusing interview (in a chat for students after one, a girl asked for advice for a young musician and she said "If you can do anything else, do that instead!"), she's never really inspired me.
2. Any friend of Walter Kaufmann's is a friend of mine. A man who rendered sublime Nietzsche and who wrote highly poetic (and, needless to say, intelligent) philosophy himself.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Marc on February 14, 2011, 11:16:40 AM
Whilst I was searching the Internet for some moving pictures of the immortal Helmut Walcha playing the organ and/or harpsichord, I ran into this link:

http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/musique/video/SXF99002234/un-doyen-de-40-ans-le-festival-international-de-musique.fr.html

I think this is 1972 (40th jubilee of the Strasbourg International Music Festival), and I really enjoyed this fine documentary of 23 minutes!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: RJR on February 15, 2011, 03:51:13 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 14, 2011, 11:01:05 AM
1. I'm not sure why I didn't go to that. Maybe because I've seen Grimaud live in Houston twice and skipped over the programme with her name in the header, when going through the brochure, because even though she makes an amusing interview (in a chat for students after one, a girl asked for advice for a young musician and she said "If you can do anything else, do that instead!"), she's never really inspired me.
2. Any friend of Walter Kaufmann's is a friend of mine. A man who rendered sublime Nietzsche and who wrote highly poetic (and, needless to say, intelligent) philosophy himself.
The Faith of a Heretic and Shakespeare to Existentialism. Great books as well by Walter Kaufmann.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: RJR on February 15, 2011, 04:19:23 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on September 03, 2010, 07:23:18 PM

Lol...yeah I would like to hear a "Welsh Symphony."
With a plate of Welsh Rarebit and a pint of stout.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: RJR on February 15, 2011, 04:36:09 PM
Quote from: Brian on March 20, 2010, 07:16:28 AM
I've often wondered that myself. Yeah, as Op 106 points out, all countries produced conductors, but something about Hungary ... Fricsay, too, and Arthur Nikisch, who made the first (?) Beethoven's Fifth recording, and Christoph von Dohnanyi barely missed the cut by being "of Hungarian descent." Crazy amount of talent in the conducting department. Especially, as you point out, with American orchestras (Nikisch, by the way, took the LSO on its first tour of America...or indeed, the first American tour of any big European orchestra)
There was a book published not too long ago on the history of the London Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps you've already read it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 17, 2011, 07:01:52 AM
Is the "Gewandhaus-Quartett" the same as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Quartet (the group that records for MDG)? There is a new release from BC containing the quartets of Mendelssohn, played by the former. I gather from the listing at JPC, that this may have been licensed from NCA (hadn't heard of the name before).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 17, 2011, 07:07:25 AM
Quote from: RJR on February 15, 2011, 03:51:13 PM
The Faith of a Heretic and Shakespeare to Existentialism. Great books as well by Walter Kaufmann.

Faith of a Heretic is a masterpiece and should have made Dawkins et al completely unnecessary. This week I was marveling at just what an astonishing selection he assembled for his anthology Religion from Tolstoy to Camus. A lot of surprising/revelatory essays by unlikely people.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 17, 2011, 02:53:12 PM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_UquqBnDF28/TV20yeNnCnI/AAAAAAAABco/Ea1fOFQU29k/s400/OsloPhiharmonic%2BKopie.png)

Side Notes: The Conductor Trading Game (Vasily Petrenko Succeeds Jukka-Pekka Saraste in Oslo)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/side-notes-conductor-trading-game.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/02/side-notes-conductor-trading-game.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 21, 2011, 05:21:24 PM
Mendelssohn Quartets Galore
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/fmb_1822_by_w_hensel-200x300.jpg) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 21, 2011, 10:30:12 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 21, 2011, 05:21:24 PM
Mendelssohn Quartets Galore
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814)

Ah, so the one that records for MDG is simply the Leipzig String Quartet. Thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 22, 2011, 03:06:03 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 21, 2011, 10:30:12 PM
Ah, so the one that records for MDG is simply the Leipzig String Quartet. Thanks.

Searches are made more difficult, since in German they go by "Leipziger Streichquartett"...

...and for some strange reason the box of the complete Mendelssohn seems out everywhere, just not in the US.

Edit: I was just told that the box set is a "special edition" for Europe--and no plans to offer it in the US with the five discs that make up the set being available individually.

Complete String Quartets Vol. 1
Opus 12 E flat major/Es-Dur
Opus 13 A minor/a-Moll

MDG 307 1055-2



Complete String Quartets Vol. 2
Opus 44,1 D major/D-Dur
Opus 44,2 E minor/e-Moll
Fuga Opus 81,4
Capriccio Opus 81,3

MDG 307 1168-2



Complete String Quartets Vol. 3
Opus 44,3 E flat major/Es-Dur
Scherzo. Allegro leggiero Opus 81,2
Tema con variazioni. Andante Opus 81,1
Opus 80 F minor / f-Moll

MDG 307 1056-2



Complete String Quartets Vol. 4
Quartett Es-Dur
Oktett op. 20

MDG 307 1057-2



The Hebrides op. 26
Symphony No. 5 op. 107 "Reformation"
Ruy Blas op. 95
Symphony No. 1 op. 11

MDG 307 1469-2
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 22, 2011, 04:08:11 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 22, 2011, 03:06:03 AM[F]or some strange reason the box of the complete Mendelssohn seems out everywhere, just not in the US.

I see it at the European Amazons (!) and JPC.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 04, 2011, 12:46:55 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 01, 2011, 04:54:50 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B004FUZLYG.01.L.jpg)
D. Scarlatti (1685 – 1757),
Keyboard Sonatas
Alexandre Tharaud
Virgin
 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004FUZLYG/goodmusicguide-20)

Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! genius. and tharaud is marvelous, too.




(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/themes/fmblog/images/masthead/masthead_main.png)
Original and Happy Freaks: Alexandre Tharaud's Latest
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2833 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2833)




Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MishaK on March 04, 2011, 01:36:52 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 21, 2011, 10:30:12 PM
Ah, so the one that records for MDG is simply the Leipzig String Quartet. Thanks.

The also recorded a killer disc of the Bruckner quartet and quintet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on March 04, 2011, 03:47:50 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 21, 2011, 05:21:24 PM
Mendelssohn Quartets Galore
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/fmb_1822_by_w_hensel-200x300.jpg) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814)

Your article says the Leipzig plays at the National Gallery on March 5th.   The correct date is the 6th (according to the link to the National Gallery web site).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 04, 2011, 04:48:21 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on March 04, 2011, 03:47:50 PM
Your article says the Leipzig plays at the National Gallery on March 5th.   The correct date is the 6th (according to the link to the National Gallery web site).

Thanks! I've had the sub-editor fired.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 06, 2011, 06:18:02 AM

Concerts to hear in the Washington area:


April in Music
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2857

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/16-Tabuan-Parrakeet-Kopie.png) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2857)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 12, 2011, 05:18:44 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTvAd3mGrTw/TXpcLzs4A-I/AAAAAAAABdI/OYd3dYcNCWw/s400/OSLO%2BPHIL%2BBdeB.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-oslo-philharmonic-no2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-oslo-philharmonic-no2.html)



(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t3AXLOaRSSM/TXq5dmawDfI/AAAAAAAABdg/RSndBCgQLg8/s400/BRSO_DENEVE_ZIMMERMANN.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-zimmermann-brso-do.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-zimmermann-brso-do.html)



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7VNWTeysURk/TXpcg0xCbZI/AAAAAAAABdQ/Yw6HnJ_IW0E/s400/OSLO%2BPHIL%2BALBRECHT.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-olso-philharmonic-no-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-olso-philharmonic-no-1.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 13, 2011, 11:05:21 AM

Ionarts-at-Large: Beethoven Between Agony and Delight

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pWM6WiDiu3k/TX0R9M3i7RI/AAAAAAAABdo/vlCGATguce0/s400/MPhil_Thielemann_Grimaud_Beethoven_Brahms.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-beethoven-between.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-beethoven-between.html)

In Mme. Grimaud there is something—although I can't quite put my finger on what it is—that stands between her monochromatic renditions and the tediousness that a lesser, if similar straight-forward, bland pianist would evoke.

Or so I thought...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 14, 2011, 02:07:39 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 13, 2011, 11:28:21 AM
How incredibly awesome is this!?!?!

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0044ZQ8TE.01.L.jpg)
W.G. Mozart (1756 – 1791),
Keyboard Music v.2
Sonata K.330, Rondo K.511, Adagio K.540 et al.
Kristian Bezuidenhout
McNulty copy of an Anton Walter & Sohn (~1802)
Harmonia Mundi
 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0044ZQ8TE/goodmusicguide-20)



Dip Your Ears, No. 107

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dip-your-ears-no-107.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dip-your-ears-no-107.html)

For the longest time (well, a couple years, at least) my favorite Mozart
Sonata CD on the fortepiano had been Kristian Bezuidenhout's disc on
Fleur de Son. Well, move over Bezuidenhout and make room for...
Bezuidenhout.

...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on March 15, 2011, 12:17:48 AM
Not really sure where this post would best fit. but it seems there is a new mass from the mid-1500s which is higher than Eminem, Bon Jovi and others on the British charts! Alas, on the classical charts, it is #2, behind Andre Rieu.

Here is the article: http://new.music.yahoo.com/various-artists/news/quot-lost-quot-450-year-old-mass-soars-on-british-charts--62010114 (http://new.music.yahoo.com/various-artists/news/quot-lost-quot-450-year-old-mass-soars-on-british-charts--62010114)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 20, 2011, 05:48:14 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_f6gacWJkcA/TYXVSEhB84I/AAAAAAAABd4/5RhzyED4fhU/s400/BRSO_5Lines.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Uchida's Beethoven Touch

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-uchidas-beethoven.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-uchidas-beethoven.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Antoine Marchand on March 23, 2011, 01:56:03 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 17, 2011, 07:01:52 AM
Is the "Gewandhaus-Quartett" the same as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Quartet (the group that records for MDG)? There is a new release from BC containing the quartets of Mendelssohn, played by the former. I gather from the listing at JPC, that this may have been licensed from NCA (hadn't heard of the name before).

Interesting... Do you know if all the string quartets are performed by the Gewandhaus Quartett?

If that, apparently BC would have licensed this 4-CD set from NCA (New Classical Adventure):

(http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/4019272602054.jpg)(http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/5028421942056.jpg)

I have their set with the complete Beethoven string quartets and they are just superb. This ensemble is formed by the concertmasters and principal viola and cello of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 23, 2011, 07:00:15 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on March 23, 2011, 01:56:03 AM
Interesting... Do you know if all the string quartets are performed by the Gewandhaus Quartett?

Indeed, they are (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Brilliant%2BClassics/94205).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 23, 2011, 07:55:52 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on March 23, 2011, 01:56:03 AM
Interesting... Do you know if all the string quartets are performed by the Gewandhaus Quartett?

If that, apparently BC would have licensed this 4-CD set from NCA (New Classical Adventure):

(http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/4019272602054.jpg)(http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/5028421942056.jpg)

I have their set with the complete Beethoven string quartets and they are just superb. This ensemble is formed by the concertmasters and principal viola and cello of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Quartet is not the same as the Leipzig String Quartet... the latter record for MDG (and have recorded the complete Mendelssohn, also). The former record(ed) for NCA and that's the set Brilliant has currently licensed.  See also: http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2814)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 23, 2011, 10:18:32 AM


Fischer, Kreizberg, and Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart (CD Pick of the Week)


(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/yakovKreizberg_marcoBorggreve480.png)
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2914 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2914)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 24, 2011, 04:00:06 AM



Ionarts-at-Large: A Midget, Frogs, and Broken Tea Cups


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPo3CLIp3bg/TYiLChhoKYI/AAAAAAAABeo/1t6LHysXTKk/s400/BSTOPRavelZemlinsky.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-midget-frogs-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/ionarts-at-large-midget-frogs-and.html)

I love the music of Zemlinsky. How superb to hear his "The Dwarf". Too bad it's not a particularly good opera...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 03, 2011, 12:41:51 PM

"Music – It Has To Become Part of Me" — Interview with Piotr Anderszewski

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/P_Anderszewski_Photo-K_Miur.png)
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2970
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2970)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 12, 2011, 05:44:10 AM
Just when I was thinking I had a grip on late Romantic French composers, I run into this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Labey

I then Google him, only to find that perhaps none of his music has been recorded.

There's still so much for record labels to discover :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 12, 2011, 11:57:19 AM

May in Music
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2987
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/17-Bauers-Parrakeet_480.png)
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=2987)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 17, 2011, 07:42:10 AM
I bought this a while ago, but have only just noticed a key feature of it:

[asin]B00015T1OA[/asin]

The disc contains a piano sonata and solo sonatas for violin and viola, and each piece appears to be performed by the same person :o

I've heard of violinists trying out the viola for shits and giggles, and Julia Fischer, for example, is a fine violinisit and pianist, but three?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 21, 2011, 03:21:42 AM
(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/themes/fmblog/images/masthead/masthead_main.png) (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/)


       Musical Excursions: São Paulo

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/SaoPaulo_jfl_JulioPrestesStation_WETA.jpg)

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3025 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3025)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 23, 2011, 03:54:09 AM



Ionarts-at-Large: Bergen's String Magnificence


(http://www.bachtrack.com/images/concertfinder/GRIEGHALLEN.gif)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/04/ionarts-at-large-bergens-string.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/04/ionarts-at-large-bergens-string.html)
[/quote]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on April 24, 2011, 04:24:45 AM
for those based in the UK, on TV tonight :


Holst - In the Bleak Midwinter
Sunday 24 April
9:00pm - 11:20pm
BBC4

QuoteThis two-hour musical biography of Gustav Holst sits impressively in Tony Palmer's array of marvellous films about musicians. Born in Cheltenham in 1874 to a family with a German background, Holst became one of the foremost English composers. Yet his work owed little to Englishness; he opposed imperialism and the use of his music in the hymn to patriotism I Vow to Thee, My Country. His Planets suite, is, we learn, one of the most original works in English music. A generous set of performances interleaves here with the story of a remarkable man.


An article by the maker of the documentary here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/21/gustav-holst-tony-palmer).



edit : oops, it was mentioned already by Pierre (Boris G) in the Holst thread.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on April 24, 2011, 04:30:38 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on April 24, 2011, 04:24:45 AM
for those based in the UK, on TV tonight :


Holst - In the Bleak Midwinter
Sunday 24 April
9:00pm - 11:20pm
BBC4


An article by the maker of the documentary here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/21/gustav-holst-tony-palmer).



edit : oops, it was mentioned already by Pierre (Boris G) in the Holst thread.

Nothing to "oop" about. Some of us don't visit the Holst thread ;), but are grateful to you for posting it here, despite the fact that one of the aforementioned some doesn't have access to BBC4.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 26, 2011, 10:38:35 AM


Vocal CD Pick of the Week: Diana Damrau's Strauss Sublime

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3057 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3057)
QuoteThere are different kinds of "gorgeous", "pretty", "exciting", and "ravishing" in
music. Really obvious ones—like the Larghetto from Mozart's Clarinet Quintet—where
it is hard to imagine someone from an even remotely similar cultural background not
to share some of the delight on first hearing. Then there are really difficult ones, pieces
of music that usually demand repeat exposure, willingness, and a little background to
come to experience sensual bliss. No matter how much you love Bartók string quartets,
it would take a considerable arrogance or small-mindedness to suggest that it is easy
music to love, much less lovable upon first exposure....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 27, 2011, 04:46:07 PM
Stumbled across this *cough* biopick of Nigel Kennedy. ;D

http://www.youtube.com/v/3itpHGkSs4A

Edit: finally remembered how to post a youtube clip!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on April 27, 2011, 04:47:51 PM
I watched some Verdi (La Traviata), and I'm can feel myself beginning to despise Puccini.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 27, 2011, 05:13:19 PM
I've got another one, it's Andrew Lloyd Weber, but still appropriate because it's about him ripping off composers of the past...

http://www.youtube.com/v/JoVccXgAy6U
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 29, 2011, 05:33:26 AM



Ionarts-at-Large: Berlioz and Strategically Lowered Expectations


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dl_Sz4GK3IM/Tbq1IT-mhNI/AAAAAAAABfQ/pRdfHx5ncWs/s400/MPhil_Znaider_Anderszewski.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/04/ionarts-at-large-berlioz-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/04/ionarts-at-large-berlioz-and.html)

Quote...This premonition of mediocrity isn't just a hunch. Nikolaj Znaider has been conducting the
Munich Philharmonic before; most recently in a program of Mozart and Tchaikovsky Symphonies.
The Mozart was so atrocious that, in ill health anyway, I was compelled to leave at intermission.
A local colleague who stayed (and, not knowing I had been there, referred to said Mozart
symphony as "making you want to run away") assured me that the Tchaikovsky was consid-
erably better than the Mozart... but then, it would have been almost impossible not to be. So
what did that mean for the Mozart Concerto KV466 tonight? Ever the seasoned pessimist, I
decided to anticipate disaster; which is the concert-going analogue to the George W. Bush
approach to successful speaching: Lower expectations as much as possible, then hit it out of
the park just by not completely gaffing....

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 29, 2011, 05:36:29 AM
Hey Jens have you done a Bruckner survey similar to your Mahler survey?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 29, 2011, 05:52:43 AM
Quote from: haydnfan on April 29, 2011, 05:36:29 AM
Hey Jens have you done a Bruckner survey similar to your Mahler survey?

Not quite... no. But since I love Bruckner (and am 'merely' addicted to Mahler), I think there will be one, before long. (WETA or some other publication would have to play along; can't do those things on a shoestring budget...)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:09:22 PM
I've only listened to a Beethoven symphony once in the last 24 days.  :o  The First, on April 19 (Paavo Jarvi). How long will this drought continue? Maybe if it lasts a few weeks more unassisted, I'll try to hold back until midsummer and then return to them for some intensive listens.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on May 01, 2011, 02:10:51 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:09:22 PM
I've only listened to a Beethoven symphony once in the last 24 days.  :o  The First, on April 19 (Paavo Jarvi). How long will this drought continue? Maybe if it lasts a few weeks more unassisted, I'll try to hold back until midsummer and then return to them for some intensive listens.

I haven't listened to a Beethoven symphony in six months at least, maybe a year.  Why do you think anyone would care in the least whether you have listened to a Beethoven symphony in the last 24 days.   ::)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:31:36 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on May 01, 2011, 02:10:51 PM
I haven't listened to a Beethoven symphony in six months at least, maybe a year.  Why do you think anyone would care in the least whether you have listened to a Beethoven symphony in the last 24 days.   ::)

Well, I just said it 'cause I was surprised. I live on a pretty steady diet of them, usually about two a week, and I tell friends "there's a Beethoven symphony for every musical mood." I checked the listening log, was really surprised, and had to write it down somewhere or tell somebody. So sorry that it was you whose time was so criminally wasted.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on May 01, 2011, 02:34:14 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:31:36 PM
Well, I just said it 'cause I was surprised. I live on a pretty steady diet of them, usually about two a week, and I tell friends "there's a Beethoven symphony for every musical mood." I checked the listening log, was really surprised, and had to write it down somewhere or tell somebody. So sorry that it was you whose time was so criminally wasted.

If I listened to two Beethoven symphonies a week, after a year I would never want to hear the name Beethoven ever again.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 01, 2011, 02:36:16 PM
His symphonies are great, but I have to say congrats for breaking out of a rut!  There is too much great music out there to spend that much time even with Beethoven's symphonies.  Just think of it this way, for every time you listen again to one of Beethoven's symphonies you missed out on an opportunity for a Bach cantata, or a Brahms piano trio... and you have less heartbeats left before your heart stops ticking. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:47:08 PM
Scarpia: What if you listened to the same symphony once per week, every single week, a la Gurn??  :P

Quote from: haydnfan on May 01, 2011, 02:36:16 PM
His symphonies are great, but I have to say congrats for breaking out of a rut!  There is too much great music out there to spend that much time even with Beethoven's symphonies.  Just think of it this way, for every time you listen again to one of Beethoven's symphonies you missed out on an opportunity for a Bach cantata, or a Brahms piano trio... and you have less heartbeats left before your heart stops ticking. :)

Well, you didn't have to get so damn depressing about it.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 01, 2011, 02:48:12 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 01, 2011, 02:47:08 PM
Scarpia: What if you listened to the same symphony once per week, every single week, a la Gurn??  :P

Well, you didn't have to get so damn depressing about it.  ;D

hehehe ;D guess it's about time for some Pettersson. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on May 05, 2011, 03:53:44 PM
http://www.birgitnilssonprize.org/

Just what music needed, an award designed specifically to make the rich even richer. The two winners so far have been Plácido Domingo and Riccardo Muti, each receiving a much-needed $1m.

With talented everyday musicians making such paltry amounts it's sad that she would put her name to something so ignoble.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 05, 2011, 04:01:20 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on May 05, 2011, 03:53:44 PM
http://www.birgitnilssonprize.org/

Just what music needed, an award designed specifically to make the rich even richer. The two winners so far have been Plácido Domingo and Riccardo Muti, each receiving a much-needed $1m.

With talented everyday musicians making such paltry amounts it's sad that she would put her name to something so ignoble.

Ignoble might be overshooting... but I share your sentiment exactly. What a B.S. adventure of self-promotion on the part of the jury members et al. No wonder classical music isn't in the healthiest state...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 05, 2011, 05:30:12 PM
Where the hell do they get all that money from? Was she a multi millionaire?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 06, 2011, 02:16:35 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on May 05, 2011, 05:30:12 PM
Where the hell do they get all that money from? Was she a multi millionaire?

Enough appearances at the MET will do that to you. A few well selling recordings (in times they still sold well), royalties from a few well-selling books... if all of that is well invested. I suppose you could about five to ten million quid together. That's "all" you need to dole out 1m every three to four years.

5m @ 5% = 250k a/annum x 4 = 1m

In Mahler-'news':

I Like This Guy a Lot: Thomas Hampson on Gustav Mahler (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3077)
May is Mahler Month on WETA, remembering the composer who
died on May 18th, one hundred years ago. Mahler is a reoccurring
topic in this column and you can find all the Mahler-themed posts
at this link  (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?cat=24)and an overview of the WETA Mahler Survey here (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/12/mahler-survey.html).

http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3077 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3077)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on May 06, 2011, 06:50:20 AM
Hey....I want to know what happened to the wonderful Bi-weekly Listening Thread we had going?  Any reason why it stopped?   ???
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 06, 2011, 01:37:12 PM
Faux Elliot Carter has this to say on Twitter:

[5 May]
Cinco de Mayo party starts at 5. Sent out 50 invites. Sorry you didn't make the cut this year either, Ned. Better luck next year.
Sofia G. wants us to do shots off her stomach. She just wants to show off her abs & rub in the fact that she's had P90x longer than me.
@briansrobinson Charlie Wuorinen never wants to blend. Says he's only going to make tequila sunrises.

[6 May]
still recovering from Cinco de Mayo. It was CRAZEEE. Ferneyhough playing beer pong & Boulez telling dirty jokes.
but Cinco de Mayo hasn't been the same since Alberto Ginastera passed away. #tips40 #spillalittleonetheground #formyhomey
http://twitter.com/_Elliott_Carter
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 14, 2011, 12:26:30 PM
Boy Kremer's cadenzas in the Beethoven Violin Concerto (in the Harnoncourt set) are out of control!  Really wild, out there let's have fun. :D

What are your favorite candenzas that you've heard in recordings or performances?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on May 16, 2011, 02:44:37 AM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 14, 2011, 12:26:30 PM
Boy Kremer's cadenzas in the Beethoven Violin Concerto (in the Harnoncourt set) are out of control!  Really wild, out there let's have fun. :D

What are your favorite candenzas that you've heard in recordings or performances?

The Schnittke cadenze? Kremer in the Opus 61 could be the clincher for me ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 16, 2011, 05:37:42 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 16, 2011, 02:44:37 AM
The Schnittke cadenze? Kremer in the Opus 61 could be the clincher for me ...

Another vote for Kremer! ;D  What is the Schnittke cadenza... as in he wrote a candenza for the lvb vc or there is a great cadenza in one of his concertos?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 16, 2011, 06:28:43 AM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 16, 2011, 05:37:42 AM
Another vote for Kremer! ;D  What is the Schnittke cadenza... as in he wrote a candenza for the lvb vc or there is a great cadenza in one of his concertos?

Schnittke wrote a cadenza for Beethoven's op.61; Gidon Kremer recorded it with Neville Marriner & AStMitF (Philips).

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bCr2hZeWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
L.v.Beethoven
Violin Concerto (w/Schnittke Cadenza)
Kremer - Marriner (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000E2NO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=goodmusicguide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B00000E2NO)

Myself, I am partial to the Beethoven-Schneiderhan cadenza ("op.61b")
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on May 16, 2011, 06:31:23 AM
Thanks for the clarification, Jens.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 16, 2011, 08:44:37 AM
Yes thanks, cool Jens! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 19, 2011, 08:51:01 AM
Great operas in 10 minutes, this was funny ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNReqUGtsc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNReqUGtsc)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 04:48:38 AM
Ripping my meager classical CD collection to my hard drive.  :) I think I have more download albums than CD's.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 22, 2011, 04:57:07 AM
Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.2:

Mahler Festival Leipzig: Salonen - Dresden - Third Symphony

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kqilU6eehto/TdhR_oUEDGI/AAAAAAAABgE/mJ19JRoZh1k/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_3_Dresden_Salonen.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-salonen-dresden.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-salonen-dresden.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2011, 07:03:57 AM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 04:48:38 AM
Ripping my meager classical CD collection to my hard drive.  :) I think I have more download albums than CD's.

I have about 4 gigs of downloaded albums vs ~215 gigs of flac or ~80 gigs of mp3s ripped.  I think I'm going to need a bigger hd soon.  Is your meager my meager?  I bet your collection is bigger! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 07:54:20 AM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 22, 2011, 07:03:57 AM
I have about 4 gigs of downloaded albums vs ~215 gigs of flac or ~80 gigs of mp3s ripped.  I think I'm going to need a bigger hd soon.  Is your meager my meager?  I bet your collection is bigger! :D

Are you talking just classical or everything?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2011, 12:14:04 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 07:54:20 AM
Are you talking just classical or everything?

For me it doesn't matter I don't have that much pop music. But to answer your question-- everything.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 12:17:31 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 22, 2011, 12:14:04 PM
For me it doesn't matter I don't have that much pop music. But to answer your question-- everything.

It might be around the same gig size as yours but I don't rip anything to FLAC either. So maybe more recordings.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 12:40:02 PM
I've been taking classical music seriously for about 26 years now.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2011, 03:09:13 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 12:17:31 PM
It might be around the same gig size as yours but I don't rip anything to FLAC either. So maybe more recordings.

Uh yeah that is 3x more! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 22, 2011, 03:09:48 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 12:40:02 PM
I've been taking classical music seriously for about 26 years now.

You've been taking classical music seriously since I was 5! :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 22, 2011, 03:16:51 PM
Quote from: haydnfan on May 22, 2011, 03:09:48 PM
You've been taking classical music seriously since I was 5! :o

Really? Ha! You're a youngin'. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2011, 04:49:30 AM

Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.4:

Mahler Festival Leipzig: Nezét-Séguin - BRSO - Seventh Symphony

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ScFUxxakWU/TdpRmqBW0CI/AAAAAAAABgs/fLV5J6rg_q4/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_7_BRSO_Nezet_Seguin.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-nezet-seguin.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-nezet-seguin.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2011, 04:50:43 AM

Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.3:

Mahler Festival Leipzig: Märkl - MDR SO - Tenth Symphony

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hf3aJegbYkw/TdkSWMQN01I/AAAAAAAABgM/ulpLF4-msVE/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_10_MDRSO_Markl.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-markl-mdr-so.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-markl-mdr-so.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on May 25, 2011, 07:33:39 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51i4DS0IHHL._SS500_.jpg)

I know it's the podium, but Celi looks so creepy here - like one of the Rheingold giants in Boulez's floppy-arms production.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 10:00:05 AM
20th Century composers and I.

Love: NA

Like well enough: Barber, Bartók, Bax, Bernstein, Brian, Britten, Busoni, Górecki, Holst, Janáček, Khachaturian, Mahler, Nielsen, Orff, Prokofieff, Satie, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Strauss, Weill, Zwilich

No: Berg, Copland, Gershwin, Ives, Messiaen, Vaughan Williams, Schoenberg, Stravinsky

The jury is out: Bloch, Davies, Duruflé, Enesco, Ginastera, Hanson, Harris, Hindemith, Honegger, Ibert, Kodály, Martin, Martinu, Menotti, Milhaud, Mompou, Piston, Poulenc, Rubbra, Schmidt, Schuller, Schuman, Sessions, Simpson, Szymanowski, Thompson, Thomson, Tippett, Tournemire, Tubin, Turina, Villa-lobos, Walton, Respighi, Rodrigo
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on May 25, 2011, 10:25:42 AM
I think I shall probably count as a 21st-c. composer, anyway ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 10:26:22 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 25, 2011, 10:25:42 AM
I think I shall probably count as a 21st-c. composer, anyway ; )

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 10:36:44 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 25, 2011, 10:25:42 AM
I think I shall probably count as a 21st-c. composer, anyway ; )

Although Sibelius, Shostakovich and Prokofiev have individual pieces I really love.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 25, 2011, 06:05:15 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 10:00:05 AM
Like well enough: Barber, Bartók, Bax, Bernstein, Brian, Britten, Busoni, Górecki, Holst, Janáček, Khachaturian, Mahler, Nielsen, Orff, Prokofieff, Satie, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Strauss, Weill, Zwilich

No: Berg, Copland, Gershwin, Ives, Messiaen, Vaughan Williams, Schoenberg, Stravinsky

The jury is out: Bloch, Davies, Duruflé, Enesco, Ginastera, Hanson, Harris, Hindemith, Honegger, Ibert, Kodály, Martin, Martinu, Menotti, Milhaud, Mompou, Piston, Poulenc, Rubbra, Schmidt, Schuller, Schuman, Sessions, Simpson, Szymanowski, Thompson, Thomson, Tippett, Tournemire, Tubin, Turina, Villa-lobos, Walton, Respighi, Rodrigo

Surprised you don't like Vaughan Williams or Copland. The Naxos disc of Copland's early symphonies is pretty good.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 06:13:23 PM
Quote from: eyeresist on May 25, 2011, 06:05:15 PM
Surprised you don't like Vaughan Williams or Copland. The Naxos disc of Copland's early symphonies is pretty good.

I guess my Vaughan Williams rating is more indifference than anything. Maybe I haven't heard enough; maybe I have. :)

Copland does not do it for me at all. I know. Shocker.  :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 26, 2011, 12:27:14 PM

Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.6:

Mahler Festival Leipzig: Gilbert - NY Phil - Fifth Symphony / Kindertotenlieder

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ivtTyw_MfWA/Td6zGOGaq6I/AAAAAAAABhM/UlQydUFM9mA/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_5_NYP_Gilber.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-gilbert-ny-phil.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-gilbert-ny-phil.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on May 26, 2011, 12:28:30 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 06:13:23 PM
I guess my Vaughan Williams rating is more indifference than anything. Maybe I haven't heard enough; maybe I have. :)

Is your exposure to Vaughan Williams the English Folk Song type stuff, or the more thorny works?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on May 26, 2011, 12:42:38 PM
Quote from: Il Barone Scarpia on May 26, 2011, 12:28:30 PM
Is your exposure to Vaughan Williams the English Folk Song type stuff, or the more thorny works?

Oh, a little bit of everything. It's probably that I haven't found the right entry piece for myself. Or I'm not trying hard enough. But should I have to try that hard? :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on May 26, 2011, 12:44:22 PM
Quote from: Mn Dave on May 26, 2011, 12:42:38 PM
Oh, a little bit of everything. It's probably that I haven't found the right entry piece for myself. Or I'm not trying hard enough. But should I have to try that hard? :)

No, just curious.  He is a composer who seems to compose in a broader range of styles than most.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 27, 2011, 09:52:58 AM
Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.7:

Mahler Festival Leipzig: Zinman - Tonhalle Zurich - Sixth Symphony

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r9dDg2VHfaw/Td_gWwGB4mI/AAAAAAAABhU/n20nxcC05rg/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_6_Tonhalle_Zinman.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-zinman-tonhalle.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-zinman-tonhalle.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 28, 2011, 07:04:32 AM

Mahler in Leipzig

Here from Night No.8:


Mahler Festival Leipzig: Harding - Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Fourth Symphony


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gebHpo_apOw/TeELx0d4AeI/AAAAAAAABhc/LoACikVAd4Q/s400/Leipzig_Mahler_4_MCO_Harding.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-harding-mahler.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/05/mahler-festival-leipzig-harding-mahler.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 28, 2011, 02:10:04 PM


(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/themes/fmblog/images/masthead/masthead_main.png)
Christian Gerhaher, Otmar Schoeck – A Love Story

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/O_Schoeck.png)
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3151 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3151)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 01, 2011, 04:59:53 AM


(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/themes/fmblog/images/masthead/masthead_main.png)
Bernstein via Angers: John Axelrod in Conversation*

(http://www.weta.org/fmblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/johnAxelrod.png)
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3178 (http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=3178)


*"Kaddish Symphony: Rubbish or Genius?"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 12, 2011, 04:14:33 PM
Some of you may remember the "esteemed" Dr. David Wright, who got quietly kicked out of MusicWeb for being a bit of a nutter. He seems to have found some friends who share his perculiar interests with him so closely that I assume he's conversing with his own sockpuppet:

Link to another rant about Britten from his new website (PDF). (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/britten-more-thoughts.pdf)

Choice quote: "He was a criminal in the days when homosexuality was illegal"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 12, 2011, 04:33:13 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on June 12, 2011, 04:14:33 PM
Some of you may remember the "esteemed" Dr. David Wright, who got quietly kicked out of MusicWeb for being a bit of a nutter. He seems to have found some friends who share his perculiar interests with him so closely that I assume he's conversing with his own sockpuppet:

Link to another rant about Britten from his new website (PDF). (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/britten-more-thoughts.pdf)

Choice quote: "He was a criminal in the days when homosexuality was illegal"

Wow. Just "wow". Cringeworthyhilariousandveryverysad! The copyright notice alone is terrific... and the rest... an imbecilic rant that beggars belief. No wonder he was asked to leave the pastures of GMGCMF behind...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 12, 2011, 11:59:18 PM
Two can play this game! (Re-arranged below to reflect my me.)

Quote from: Mn Dave on May 25, 2011, 10:00:05 AM
20th Century composers and I.

Love: Atterberg, Gershwin, Janáček, Ravel, Roussel, Shostakovich, Sibelius

Like quite a bit: Bernstein, Copland, Ibert, Hartmann, Holst, Khachaturian, Kodály, Martinu, Lutoslawski, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Respighi, Rodrigo, Scriabin, Strauss, Turina, Villa-lobos

Like well enough: Barber, Ginastera, Górecki, Hindemith, Ives, Lloyd, Milhaud, Suk, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Walton

No: Berg, Davies, Orff [O Fortuna drives me batty, that's all], Schoenberg

Indifferent/Unmoved: Bartók, Bax, Busoni, Hanson, Satie

The jury is out: Bloch, Brian, Britten, Duruflé, Enesco, Harris, Honegger, Mahler, Martin, Menotti, Messiaen, Mompou, Nielsen, Piston, Prokofieff, Rubbra, Schmidt, Schuller, Schuman, Sessions, Simpson, Szymanowski, Thompson, Thomson, Tippett, Tournemire, Tubin, Weill, Zwilich

Dave, you do know you left Ravel off, right? And Roussel? And Rachmaninov?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on June 13, 2011, 01:10:07 AM
No, he didn't - check again.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 13, 2011, 02:04:24 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on June 13, 2011, 01:10:07 AM
No, he didn't - check again.

Yes, he did - they're in the quoted version in my post because I rearranged all the composers to display my own tastes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 13, 2011, 02:05:16 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on June 12, 2011, 04:14:33 PM
Some of you may remember the "esteemed" Dr. David Wright, who got quietly kicked out of MusicWeb for being a bit of a nutter. He seems to have found some friends who share his perculiar interests with him so closely that I assume he's conversing with his own sockpuppet:

Link to another rant about Britten from his new website (PDF). (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/britten-more-thoughts.pdf)

Choice quote: "He was a criminal in the days when homosexuality was illegal"

And there's the part where they spell his name "Britain"...

EDIT: Though my favorite bit is that "sexy" is frequently used as a pejorative.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 13, 2011, 02:41:57 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 13, 2011, 02:05:16 AM
And there's the part where they spell his name "Britain"...

EDIT: Though my favorite bit is that "sexy" is frequently used as a pejorative.

I think no pretense needs to be made calling the author(s) "they". If you compare the "response" of "40 eminent musicians to the brilliant Dr. Watson's lucid essay on Benjamin Britten", you will find that the examples, anecdotes, even the spelling mistakes and the frequent habit of just dropping entire words is the very same.
I wouldn't, however, rule out that in his mind these authors are 'separate'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 16, 2011, 07:19:42 AM
Question
When string players are playing so hard (?) that they make those annoying click/scratch sounds, is there a word for that sound?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 16, 2011, 08:43:16 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 16, 2011, 07:19:42 AM
Question
When string players are playing so hard (?) that they make those annoying click/scratch sounds, is there a word for that sound?

On purpose or as a by-product of enthusiasm gone overboard?
If the former, it's best to look into the score... if it's strepitoso (rare), or sulla tastiera (which can explain the clicking of strings on the fingerboard), sforzato, or the like.
If not... I can't think of a term that would neatly describe it better than the words you suggest. And it wasn't 'col legno', presumably... because you would have noticed...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 16, 2011, 09:31:06 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 16, 2011, 08:43:16 AM
On purpose or as a by-product of enthusiasm gone overboard?

Certainly the latter - I mean accidental byproducts of enthusiasm heard in some performances but not others. I'll try to find a clip if uncertainty remains...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 17, 2011, 01:53:33 PM
What is wrong with Amazon's classical reviewers? Many of the major contributors seem extremely angry and combatative, to the extent that I don't click on review comments any more because it's no doubt part of some gigantic cross-post series of skirmishes between various factions unknown to me. It's bizarre :-\
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 24, 2011, 07:21:05 AM
Does anybody know exactly what went on with the piano music attributed to George Gurdjieff? I can't find a helpful source, but it has the appearance that Thomas de Hartmann must have written it all rather than co-wrote, with Gurdjieff acting merely as a "mentor" figure, and as such should I file it under Hartmann rather than Gurdjieff?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 24, 2011, 07:29:18 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on June 24, 2011, 07:21:05 AM
Does anybody know exactly what went on with the piano music attributed to George Gurdjieff? I can't find a helpful source, but it has the appearance that Thomas de Hartmann must have written it all rather than co-wrote, with Gurdjieff acting merely as a "mentor" figure, and as such should I file it under Hartmann rather than Gurdjieff?

We (Tower DC) always filed under "Hartmann, T.de". He wrote the music... or 'interpreted' the hummings of Gurdjieff, if you wish
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 24, 2011, 07:30:32 AM
Thanks!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: chasmaniac on June 24, 2011, 07:37:42 AM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on June 12, 2011, 04:14:33 PM
Some of you may remember the "esteemed" Dr. David Wright, who got quietly kicked out of MusicWeb for being a bit of a nutter. He seems to have found some friends who share his perculiar interests with him so closely that I assume he's conversing with his own sockpuppet:

Link to another rant about Britten from his new website (PDF). (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/britten-more-thoughts.pdf)

Choice quote: "He was a criminal in the days when homosexuality was illegal"

This stuff is hilarious! Any chance Poe's Law applies and the whole thing's a send-up? If not, let me amend my reaction to: How sad.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on June 24, 2011, 08:30:27 AM
Quote from: chasmaniac on June 24, 2011, 07:37:42 AM
Any chance Poe's Law applies and the whole thing's a send-up? If not, let me amend my reaction to: How sad.

Unfortunately not... Wright is a well known crank.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 06, 2011, 01:08:46 PM
Those of you who don't use/enable AdBlock on this forum may have noticed a "download Bach's WTC here" banner during the past week or two. I wish I could find it now, but yesterday I Googled the pianist, and it turns out he has a rather colourful history (http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&source=hp&q=Tzvi+Erez&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=1&biw=1440&bih=776&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b).

This may be the world's first case of a fraudster working his way out of bankrupcy by recording Bach :) It beats honest work I suppose :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on July 06, 2011, 01:28:41 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on July 06, 2011, 01:08:46 PM
Those of you who don't use/enable AdBlock on this forum may have noticed a "download Bach's WTC here" banner during the past week or two. I wish I could find it now, but yesterday I Googled the pianist, and it turns out he has a rather colourful history (http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&source=hp&q=Tzvi+Erez&aq=f&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=1&biw=1440&bih=776&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&cad=b).

This may be the world's first case of a fraudster working his way out of bankrupcy by recording Bach :) It beats honest work I suppose :P

Thanks.  I was wondering he was.  I clicked on the ad last week just to see who the pianist was (and I suppose clicking on the ad might generate some revenue to GMG?).

Well, he'll just have to play his way out of trouble without my help, I guess.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 06, 2011, 01:34:23 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 06, 2011, 01:28:41 PM
and I suppose clicking on the ad might generate some revenue to GMG?

Hopefully - I disable my blocker on important sites because of that. A general note to anyone - don't be tempted to overdo the clicks, as G--gle tracks that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on July 06, 2011, 07:32:38 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on July 06, 2011, 01:34:23 PM
don't be tempted to overdo the clicks, as G--gle tracks that.

- unless you've blocked Google cookies.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 07, 2011, 02:12:39 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on July 06, 2011, 07:32:38 PM
- unless you've blocked Google cookies.

It's at least in part measured by IP, and also range if it's a dynamic one...

Ah, here we go:

(http://i.imgur.com/wuYJp.jpg) (http://www.nivmusic.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?products_id=90&gclid=CLTzuveD76kCFRRc4QodgRv-XA)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 07, 2011, 05:22:33 AM
Next month Opus Arte releases the Blu-Ray of "Anna Nicole: The Opera."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 07, 2011, 05:37:46 AM
Oh, you don't mean it?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 07, 2011, 05:39:22 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 07, 2011, 05:37:46 AM
Oh, you don't mean it?

(http://imc-static.simranmt.com/catalog/product/cache/2/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/a/n/annanicolebr.jpg)

I sincerely regret not seeing it in person and probably will acquire the DVD (though not the Blu-Ray...).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on July 07, 2011, 05:50:57 AM
Can't be enough tabloid opera out there for me . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on July 07, 2011, 05:38:34 PM
Yes, from the subject and the timing I imagined it to be the "arty" equivalent of Rocky Horror. Should get the queens in though.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 08, 2011, 04:54:18 AM
Just discovered the Timpani label from France. Yikes: looking through their catalog on Classicsonline, I think I want to hear every single release. The programs are all so appetizing - and so many of them have such beautiful cover designs!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 08, 2011, 01:06:21 PM
Definitely check their Ropartz symphonies and Le Flem. The Chandos series makes the D'Indy less of a discovery than it might have been, but they have a good disc of his chamber music. If you are feeling masochistic, Timpani also recorded some Furtwängler.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 11, 2011, 08:18:15 AM
After leaving a bronzed disc ripping (constant error correction with EAC) for 24 hours, lagging up my PC, I think it's time to abort :( I am perhaps destined not to hear George Lloyd's chamber music ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on July 11, 2011, 05:30:21 PM
Listening to Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf (instrumental version on Infinity Digital) had me wondering if Sergei identified with the duck (or as Michael Flanders called her, "the stupid duck"). He was after all a bit of an "odd duck", and ended up through his own foolishness being swallowed by the Soviet Union, much as the duck, after swimming out to safety, came back to land and was swallowed by the wolf.

"If you listen very carefully, you'd hear the duck quacking inside the wolf's belly, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive."

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 19, 2011, 12:14:44 PM
When I tag CDs, I tend to translate foreign ensemble names into English, this is fine with "symphoniker" and so on, but I just encountered "Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik".

What is a "Hofmusik" when it's at home?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 19, 2011, 12:23:11 PM
Hmmm... the New Dusseldorf Court Musicians? What an odd name; what are they playing?

How do you translate, say, Hofkapelle Stuttgart (unless you haven't got any of their discs)?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 19, 2011, 12:41:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 19, 2011, 12:23:11 PM
Hmmm... the New Dusseldorf Court Musicians? What an odd name; what are they playing?

How do you translate, say, Hofkapelle Stuttgart (unless you haven't got any of their discs)?

Chapel Royal or court orchestra.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 19, 2011, 12:50:14 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 19, 2011, 12:23:11 PM
Hmmm... the New Dusseldorf Court Musicians? What an odd name; what are they playing?

How do you translate, say, Hofkapelle Stuttgart (unless you haven't got any of their discs)?

This 'un:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CZMRJRnLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Haydn-8-Concerti-Franz-Joseph/dp/B002ED6VL8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311108324&sr=8-2)

I... don't have a clue how I'd do the one you suggest either :'( Why can't they all be easy like the Freiburger Barockorchester. The translation system is useful though, as many Continental European norms involve putting the most generic word (orchestra) at the beginning of the name, rather than the English manner of prioritising the most distinctive word - i.e., the city that the ensemble is from.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 19, 2011, 12:56:12 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Shostakovich on July 19, 2011, 12:50:14 PM
This 'un:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CZMRJRnLL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Haydn-8-Concerti-Franz-Joseph/dp/B002ED6VL8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311108324&sr=8-2)


New Dusseldorf Court Musicke, I'spose.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on July 19, 2011, 01:04:36 PM
Thanks! I know that these things can sometimes be pesky to translate :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 31, 2011, 01:35:23 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 1 )

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-1.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on August 03, 2011, 07:04:15 PM
I wonder if I can encourage more forumites to participate in the "GMG's favorite..." threads? Only, at the moment it's the same half dozen people posting repeatedly, which is hardly presentative.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on August 04, 2011, 03:49:20 AM
I don't because I don't consider myself familiar enough to rank so many different pieces.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 04:38:24 AM
Quote from: Gabrieli on August 04, 2011, 03:49:20 AM
I don't because I don't consider myself familiar enough to rank so many different pieces.

But you have like five billion cds! :D  I have not as many as you but have heard nearly everything on the chamber thread.  Give it a shot! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on August 04, 2011, 04:44:34 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 04:38:24 AM
But you have like five billion cds! :D  I have not as many as you but have heard nearly everything on the chamber thread.  Give it a shot! :)

I might have heard them but I can't remember them all; I certainly don't know every chamber piece in existence so how could I possibly rank them? And besides, I'm too lazy to figure out how the ranking works.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on August 04, 2011, 04:59:37 AM
...Though I have been watching the threads. For instance, I wondered why Gurn was dissing the Alkan duo, so I pulled it up on Spotify, listened to it and decided he was crazy. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 04, 2011, 05:09:52 AM
Quote from: Gabrieli on August 04, 2011, 04:59:37 AM
...Though I have been watching the threads. For instance, I wondered why Gurn was dissing the Alkan duo, so I pulled it up on Spotify, listened to it and decided he was crazy. ;)

Wanderer would be ecstatic if you showed up just to support Alkan! :D  All you have to do is +2 one work, +1 another, -1 a third and then post the new board. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 05, 2011, 02:02:03 PM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 2 )

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-2.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: chasmaniac on August 06, 2011, 01:38:44 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on August 03, 2011, 07:04:15 PM
I wonder if I can encourage more forumites to participate in the "GMG's favorite..." threads? Only, at the moment it's the same half dozen people posting repeatedly, which is hardly presentative.

I did it for a while, but then... ooo, shiny!

I'm easily bore- ooo, another shiny!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on August 06, 2011, 03:22:35 AM
Quote from: chasmaniac on August 06, 2011, 01:38:44 AM
I did it for a while, but then... ooo, shiny!

I'm easily bore- ooo, another shiny!

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 07, 2011, 03:51:36 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 3 )

Mozart * Le nozze di Figaro * Claus Guth * Robin Ticciati * Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-3.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-3.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 07, 2011, 12:13:27 PM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 4 )

Sokolov Recital



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-4.html)


Last night Macbeth * Muti * Peter Stein; earlier this morning Mozart with Ivor Bolton & Julia Fischer. Later tonight: Sasha Waltz-choreographed performance of assorted modern works.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on August 08, 2011, 01:52:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 08, 2011, 04:54:18 AM
Just discovered the Timpani label from France. Yikes: looking through their catalog on Classicsonline, I think I want to hear every single release. The programs are all so appetizing - and so many of them have such beautiful cover designs!
Yes indeed. Start with the Pierne issues, all are fantastic. And there's a couple of Florent Schmitt discs that are absolutely superb.

Waiting for the next Timpani offer on the usual UKwebshops.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 08, 2011, 12:01:06 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 5 )

Perfumed Naphthalene: Riccardo Muti, Peter Stein, Giuseppe Verdi, Mr. & Mrs. Macbeth



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-5.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 08, 2011, 05:52:36 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/TTXbv.png)

6 & 9 are £10. In general, Amazon's mp3 download costs more than the CDs. The British have always been shit at capitalism, but srsly guys.

One day I will understand.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 09, 2011, 06:30:01 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 6 )

Mozart Matinee * Ivor Bolton * Julia Fischer



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-6.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on August 09, 2011, 11:22:24 AM
Hehe, I am so immature - I take a kind of perverse pleasure in seeing an otherwise intelligent person try to be a wit but slip up. In the latest Gramophone, a reviewer adds [sic] tags to a claim that a pianist's survey of "all 35" of Beethoven's piano sonatas is being undertaken - but clearly this means that the electoral sonatas will be included.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 11, 2011, 05:52:11 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 7 )

The Fifth Continent • Continū, Salzburg Media Productions



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-7.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 14, 2011, 08:21:26 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 8 )

Mahler Scenes • Mahler, Strauss, Schnittke



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-8.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 17, 2011, 06:23:12 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 9 )

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia • Haydn, Rossini



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-9.html)


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 10 )

Chamber Concert 3 • Schubert, Schumann, Schoenberg



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-10.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 21, 2011, 01:16:53 PM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 11 )

Recital • Mullova & Bezuidenhout



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-11.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-11.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 24, 2011, 02:36:28 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 12 )

Nestlé Young Conductors Award • Round Table • Winner • Concert



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/kit-kat-conductor-notes-from-2011.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/kit-kat-conductor-notes-from-2011.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on August 24, 2011, 12:41:55 PM
WOW!  The Havergal Brian composer thread officially holds top spot for the most replies posted in the active composer discussion threads!!  Quite an accomplishment.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 24, 2011, 12:46:01 PM
If I posted a bunch on the Mahler thread I could change that pretty quick! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 25, 2011, 06:57:06 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 12 )

Guest Orchestra • ORF RSO Vienna • Rott / Berg



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/rottnroll-notes-from-2011-salzburg.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/rottnroll-notes-from-2011-salzburg.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 26, 2011, 07:53:55 AM
Salzburg Highlight
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 14 12 )

Camerata 1 • Mahler Scenes 8
Ives • Hartmann • Mahler • Mozart
Nagano  •  Pires



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-12.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-12.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 30, 2011, 05:43:16 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 15 )

Chamber Concert • Ives & Beethoven
Zehetmair Quartet •  P.L.Aimard



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-15.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-15.html)


Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 16 )

Die Frau ohne Schatten
Thielemann •  Loy



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/phantasmorgastic-but-with-shadows.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/08/phantasmorgastic-but-with-shadows.html)



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 31, 2011, 08:45:29 AM
An opportunity for Martinu's fans to take issue with Arkiv:

QuoteSupraphon is now on sale, including Martinu: Overture, Rhapsody / Belohlávek, Czech PO, perhaps the single most appealing selection of Martinu's orchestral works.
[emphasis mine]

Despite not being one myself, I feel like quibbling about it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 01, 2011, 02:45:42 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bC8Vaqn59fc/TjWmN03d2vI/AAAAAAAABlE/8A-kKphVQMs/s400/2011notesfromsalzburgfestiv.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 17 )

Janáček • Věc Makropulous
Salonen •  Denoke



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-17.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-17.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 01, 2011, 05:35:25 AM
(http://www.seenandheard-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/notesfromthesalzburgfestiva.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 18 )

Shostakovich SQ4t Cycle • Mandelring Quartett



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-18.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-18.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on September 06, 2011, 06:17:22 AM
As of now - the Top 10 Most Posted Composer Threads (unlocked) are:

1 - Havergal Brian
2 - Mahler Mania, Rebooted
3 - Vaughan Williams's Veranda
4 - Bruckner's Abbey
5 - The Carter Corner
6 - Haydn's Haus
7 - Elgar's Hillside
8 - Ludwig Van Beethoven
9 - The Snowshoed Sibelius
10 - Stockhausen's Spaceship

As of now, the Top 10 Most Viewed Composer Threads (unlocked) are:


1 - Bruckner's Abbey
2 - Mahler Mania, Rebooted
3 - Vaughan Williams's Veranda
4 - The Carter Corner
5 - Ludwig Van Beethoven
6 - Havergal Brian
7 - Haydn's Haus
8 - Prokofiev's Paddy Wagon
9 - The Snowshoed Sibelius
10 - Scandinavian and Finnish Composers
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 06, 2011, 07:13:26 AM
What about the Luchesi thread? :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on September 06, 2011, 07:27:13 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 06, 2011, 07:13:26 AM
What about the Luchesi thread? :D

Not sure?   :D

Hey, did you order or check into Tchaik's Orchestral Suites yet?  I'm dying to know your thoughts!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on September 06, 2011, 07:41:41 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 06, 2011, 07:27:13 AM
Not sure?   :D

Hey, did you order or check into Tchaik's Orchestral Suites yet?  I'm dying to know your thoughts!

I've been into RVW's Sea Symphony so much it slipped my mind!  Soon though!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on September 06, 2011, 07:45:28 AM
Quote from: DavidW on September 06, 2011, 07:41:41 AM
I've been into RVW's Sea Symphony so much it slipped my mind!

Now there's something you don't read every day. Thanks, it made me smile :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: karlhenning on September 06, 2011, 07:49:50 AM
Very cool, Davey!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 07, 2011, 01:18:11 AM

(http://www.seenandheard-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/notesfromthesalzburgfestiva.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 19 )

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra • Great Beethoven, Great Bullshit



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-19.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-19.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 07, 2011, 08:05:23 AM

(http://www.seenandheard-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/notesfromthesalzburgfestiva.png)

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 20 )

Vienna Philharmonic • Lang Lang, Liszt, and Jansons



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-20.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/notes-from-2011-salzburg-festival-20.html)

+



Heart of a Soldier: Interview with Thomas Hampson
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YNZn8G4FopI/TmeRMrpfQBI/AAAAAAAABq8/ZvP1YJyuVfU/s400/Thomas%2BHampson_D_Acosta.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/heart-of-soldier-interview-with-thomas.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/09/heart-of-soldier-interview-with-thomas.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mn Dave on September 22, 2011, 06:26:10 PM
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2011/09/minnesota-orchestra-names-erin-keefe-as-concertmaster.shtml
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on October 03, 2011, 08:04:48 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/wMmbX.png) (http://www.miumiu.com/en/campaign/video?cmp=youtube_en_UK_comm_04102011)
(click)

I thought it was nice that they didn't pick the usual suspect, either composer or piece.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 03, 2011, 08:15:00 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Pettersson on October 03, 2011, 08:04:48 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/wMmbX.png) (http://www.miumiu.com/en/campaign/video?cmp=youtube_en_UK_comm_04102011)
(click)

I thought it was nice that they didn't pick the usual suspect, either composer or piece.

Video was cool, mostly stuck around to see who the cellist was, though. That image, though. That's my new No 1 All Time Favorite Thing Ever. Also avatar.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on October 14, 2011, 01:38:00 PM
Check track 15 (http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Beach-Still-Waters/dp/B000000T9R/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318627827&sr=1-3)

I believe it's supposed to be "birches" ::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 17, 2011, 01:34:02 PM
Quote from: Lethe Dmitriyevich Pettersson on October 14, 2011, 01:38:00 PM
Check track 15 (http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Beach-Still-Waters/dp/B000000T9R/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318627827&sr=1-3)

I believe it's supposed to be "birches" ::)

Excellent! Sounds like the kind of young bitrches I wouldn't mind. Civilized and calm, well behaved and refined. But naked.



Listen What the Cat Dragged In: Music by Naji Hakim

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/10/listen-what-cat-dragged-in-music-by.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/10/listen-what-cat-dragged-in-music-by.html)
(With audio samples)


(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B004S6N8TW.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
N. Hakim,
Set Me As A Seal Upon Your Heart
Chamber & Organ Music
N.Hakim et al.
Signum Classics
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004S6N8TW/goodmusicguide-20)


(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B004C1C9FM.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
N. Hakim,
Hakim plays Hakim
Organ Music
N.Hakim et al.
Signum Classics
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004C1C9FM/goodmusicguide-20)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 10, 2011, 07:19:06 AM
Any particular music one would listen to perhaps, on Remembrance Day?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 10, 2011, 09:36:35 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 10, 2011, 07:19:06 AM
Any particular music one would listen to perhaps, on Remembrance Day?

Berlioz, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on November 10, 2011, 09:47:15 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 10, 2011, 09:36:35 AM
Berlioz, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale

Good one.  I do have a recording of said work.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: chasmaniac on November 10, 2011, 09:55:59 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on November 10, 2011, 07:19:06 AM
Any particular music one would listen to perhaps, on Remembrance Day?

Maybe it's obvious, but how about that symphony #3 by Vaughan Williams? Came after the First Last War and has a "My God, what have we we done?" feel to it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on November 14, 2011, 07:25:41 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/CCC66.jpg)

:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jared on November 14, 2011, 07:32:20 AM
Quote from: chasmaniac on November 10, 2011, 09:55:59 AM
Maybe it's obvious, but how about that symphony #3 by Vaughan Williams? Came after the First Last War and has a "My God, what have we we done?" feel to it.

complete with 'Last Post' trumpet... a superb work.

Last night, I was privileged to watch Derek Jarman's silent film to Benjamin Britten's War Requiem... very powerful images..

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 14, 2011, 09:37:56 AM
I can't bring myself to take part in the Roussel thread . . . too put off by the whiney thread title.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jared on November 14, 2011, 09:48:23 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 14, 2011, 09:37:56 AM
I can't bring myself to take part in the Roussel thread . . . too put off by the whiney thread title.

so, what you're basically saying is that if I were to start a 'Why Doesn't anyone love RVW as much as I do?' thread, you wouldn't be one of the principle participants... is that it??  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 14, 2011, 10:47:53 AM
Or Koechlin: Why don't the rest of you get on the program?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 02, 2011, 02:35:50 PM
Alexandre Tharaud: A Case of Perpetual Puppy
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/12/tharaud-case-of-perpetual-puppy.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/12/tharaud-case-of-perpetual-puppy.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 09, 2011, 12:27:59 AM
I remember during a discussion (or was it a debate?) about the 'Living Stereo' box someone wished the powers-that-be would release the 'Living Presence' from Mercury. Well, folks, it's here:

[asin]B005XBA9Y8[/asin]

I've used the ASIN tag for reference, although it's much cheaper at UK stores.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 09, 2011, 02:23:30 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 09, 2011, 12:27:59 AM
I remember during a discussion (or was it a debate?) about the 'Living Stereo' box someone wished the powers-that-be would release the 'Living Presence' from Mercury. Well, folks, it's here:

I've used the ASIN tag for reference, although it's much cheaper at UK stores.

pictures here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-Living-Presence-50-1-CD-Collectors-Box-Set-New-/120726192220?pt=Music_CDs&hash=item1c1bd7805c (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-Living-Presence-50-1-CD-Collectors-Box-Set-New-/120726192220?pt=Music_CDs&hash=item1c1bd7805c)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 11, 2011, 04:44:32 PM


ionarts:Best of 2011, Part 10 (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/12/best-recordings-of-2011-10.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 13, 2011, 08:43:50 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=WQCOr8UiS7I#t=220s

Is the kind of singing unique to Monteverdi or even this work, or was it prevalent during his time? (It lasts for about 9 seconds from where the video starts and transformed afterwards.) Somehow, to these modern ears, they seem slightly less reverent for a religious work of that time (not that I hold an encyclopaedic knowledge about it between my ears ::)) and perhaps even playful.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 21, 2011, 05:56:27 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 21, 2011, 05:30:43 AM

Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on December 20, 2011, 04:18:22 PM
True, Sarge, I'm no good. I have a thing about symphonies going over 30 minutes. I can only think of 2 that can justify it, and they weren't written in the 20th century, or even after 1825.

Gosh.

Gotta say it again: Gosh.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on January 12, 2012, 10:28:09 AM
The film/documentary "Pianomania" in full on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 12, 2012, 07:38:49 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on January 12, 2012, 10:28:09 AM
The film/documentary "Pianomania" in full on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c)

Thanks. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on January 13, 2012, 03:19:34 PM
O fortuna!

(http://catsandcoupons.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/TunaCan.jpg)

:P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: John Copeland on January 13, 2012, 03:33:37 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on January 12, 2012, 10:28:09 AM
The film/documentary "Pianomania" in full on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvGwpq_S_c)

Es ist in deutscher Sprache.
Ich bin hoffnungslos an deutschen. Ich kann es nicht verstehen.
Ach!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 13, 2012, 11:02:18 PM
Quote from: Ataraxia on January 13, 2012, 03:19:34 PM
O fortuna!

:P

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=o+fortuna+misheard+lyrics
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on January 13, 2012, 11:47:18 PM
Quote from: Scots John on January 13, 2012, 03:33:37 PM
Es ist in deutscher Sprache.
Ich bin hoffnungslos an deutschen. Ich kann es nicht verstehen.
Ach!

Hi John,
if you click the CC button on the youtube player, you can select English subtitles in the menu that pops up  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: John Copeland on January 13, 2012, 11:55:36 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on January 13, 2012, 11:47:18 PM
Hi John,
if you click the CC button on the youtube player, you can select English subtitles in the menu that pops up  ;)

Thank you papy.  Great.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 20, 2012, 02:09:48 PM
What does the French word tableau translate into when applied to music - 'part' or 'scene'?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on January 20, 2012, 05:33:13 PM
I've been busted humming to Mahler's 2nd! :D

Earlier this week my students were working on completing a virtual lab... and they didn't need my help for the time being so I was listening to the glorious final movement of the M 2 when I looked down to see they had all gathered around the door giggling!! :-[ ;D :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on January 21, 2012, 12:11:47 AM
Quote from: Lethevich Dmitriyevna Pettersonova on January 20, 2012, 02:09:48 PM
What does the French word tableau translate into when applied to music - 'part' or 'scene'?

I'm inclined to say scene.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 21, 2012, 01:19:49 AM
Quote from: Wanderer on January 21, 2012, 12:11:47 AM
I'm inclined to say scene.

Merci!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 23, 2012, 10:45:12 AM
Today I learned: both Tchaikovsky and Korngold's violin concertos are in D major, and both are assigned opus 35.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 23, 2012, 10:59:00 AM
Sara, you remind me that I need to revisit the Korngold concerto . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 23, 2012, 11:15:38 AM
It's perfect, although I keep hearing the E.T. theme in the first movement. Someone who I mentioned this to didn't hear it the same, though.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: KeithW on January 23, 2012, 01:14:48 PM
Quote from: Lethevich Dmitriyevna Pettersonova on January 23, 2012, 10:45:12 AM
Today I learned: both Tchaikovsky and Korngold's violin concertos are in D major, and both are assigned opus 35.

Elgar's violin concerto is in B minor, Op. 61.  The third violin concerto by Saint-Saens is also in B minor, Op. 61.

I'm sure there was another violin concerto (most definitely not in B minor) assigned Op. 61  :)

Ah, but it was in D major, so there's some connection to Tchaikovsky and Korngold






Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 23, 2012, 01:26:08 PM
Quote from: KeithW on January 23, 2012, 01:14:48 PM
Elgar's violin concerto is in B minor, Op. 61.  The third violin concerto by Saint-Saens is also in B minor, Op. 61.

I'm sure there was another violin concerto (most definitely not in B minor) assigned Op. 61  :)

Ah, but it was in D major, so there's some connection to Tchaikovsky and Korngold

That is a cool pick n__n I've noticed some composers doing deliberate Beethoven opus number hommages with certain works, but can't recall one for the life of me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on January 23, 2012, 11:07:02 PM
Hanson's 6th is in six movements, and I think I can hear reference to Prokofiev's 6th in it.

Dvorak's 3rd is his only symphony in three movements.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2012, 05:16:04 AM
Oh, that reminds me of Lepo Sumera:

Symphony No.1 - 2 movements
Symphony No.2 - 3 movements
Symphony No.3 - 4 movements
Symphony No.4 - 5 movements
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 24, 2012, 05:43:56 AM
QuoteFor truly spiritual music, you need to turn to Jonathan Harvey, says Ivan Hewett.

As someone who's composed a setting of a Passion, I half-resent this sort of remark.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 24, 2012, 10:00:28 AM
IMO any use of the s-word is highly suspect anyway.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 24, 2012, 10:01:02 AM
Good point.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on January 30, 2012, 07:51:55 PM
Quote from: nesf on January 30, 2012, 07:36:23 PM
Anyone got any advice on how to get into atonal/modern stuff? At the moment it's just unpleasant to me and I'm curious as to what I'm missing. Is it just a matter of adjusting to it through putting in the hours listening to it or is it something that someone can just find unpleasant and never get past that point?

*awaits the barrage of conflicting opinions* :D

Okay what have you heard so far? :)  It's okay to not like famous atonal music btw, you have to get used to it.  But knowing what you've heard and what you felt about 'em will help everyone come up with good alternatives.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on January 30, 2012, 09:05:01 PM
Depending on your experience, what you call "atonal" may not be what we generally recognise as such. Crazy notes-all-over-the-place stuff can actually be quite tonally centred, once you know what to listen for.

I find actual atonal music (IF any music can truly be atonal) in general pretty boring BTW. Rare is the composer who can make something interesting to the listener while avoiding the game of harmonic relationships.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 31, 2012, 02:12:29 AM
Quote from: DavidW on January 30, 2012, 07:51:55 PM
Okay what have you heard so far? :)  It's okay to not like famous atonal music btw, you have to get used to it.  But knowing what you've heard and what you felt about 'em will help everyone come up with good alternatives.

Quote from: nesf on January 30, 2012, 07:36:23 PM
Anyone got any advice on how to get into atonal/modern stuff? At the moment it's just unpleasant to me and I'm curious as to what I'm missing. Is it just a matter of adjusting to it through putting in the hours listening to it or is it something that someone can just find unpleasant and never get past that point?

*awaits the barrage of conflicting opinions* :D

I know we have a thread (or a discussion within a thread) on precisely that topic somewhere.

Echoing DavidW: What have you arrived at so far? In any case:

Gently, is the idea! It took me a considerable time, but the enjoyment that waits at the end of that progression is very considerable.

In between your gentle path might pluck a few real 'difficult' pieces so as to give you contrast that that which you already like... it helps the mind, somehow, when it goes back to Webern and suddenly thinks: Oh, my... he sure was a romantic at heart.

I loved approaching Schoenberg through Strauss and especially Webern through Bach. One foot on solid ground, the other gently pulled on over into the pantonal camp.
These discs, in various ways, were instrumental in that and are still among my most cherished recordings:

(http://www.arkivmusic.com/graphics/covers/full/59/592445.jpg)
Schnittke, Bach, Webern-Bach,
Faust-Cantata,
Chorales, Fuga a 6 voci,
Boreyko / Hamburg SO
Berlin Classics (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005FUT97U/goodmusicguideUK-21)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IKj6PgkzL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Bach, Webern, Webern-Bach,
"Ricercar"
Poppen / MKO / Hilliard Ens.
ECM (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008HCEY/nectarandambrUK-21)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OvVQ0CB8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
J.Strauss II (via Schönberg, Webern, Berg),
Waltz Arrangements,
Berliner Streichquartett et al.
Berlin Classics (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00070FZWG/nectarandambrUK-21)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/dip-your-ears-no-42.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/dip-your-ears-no-42.html)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/dip-your-ears-no-43.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/dip-your-ears-no-43.html)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/02/reviewed-not-necessarily-recommended_11.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/02/reviewed-not-necessarily-recommended_11.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/03/between-boulez-and-bach-interview-with.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/03/between-boulez-and-bach-interview-with.html)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Oct08/Schonberg_phoenix133.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Oct08/Schonberg_phoenix133.htm)

Get your hands on a copy of "Langsamer Satz" (Webern, see link above), too. Oh, and perhaps the piece teetering on the edge between romanticism and atonality: Berg's Piano Sonata op.1. There's a YouTube clip of Gould, explaining it, and then playing it: His best performance of all the ones I have of him playing op.1. Unfortunately it's not a complete performance, not on disc, and finding it on Youtube always takes me ages. There are other fine performances that I've found recently... after being frustrated with almost every recording for a long time. The one I have on record that satisfies me the most is probably Uchida (see below). But I'm surprised (very much, so) by how absolutely wonderful and feeling Marc Andre Hamelin's performance is in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67mnXTttoE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67mnXTttoE). Listen to the coffee house sentimentality seeping through the cracks in the harmonies.
Shura Cherkassy ain't half bad, either. http://youtu.be/41m49EdJRGY (http://youtu.be/41m49EdJRGY) But too many miss the wistful, romantic quality. If that work were played by a program like 'Sibelius', it would sound like an awful jumble of notes. It needs to breath like slime-mold. :-) http://youtu.be/HUA6N9DWwa8 (http://youtu.be/HUA6N9DWwa8)


(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pV4kfbJ1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
Mitsuko Uchida / Boulez
Philips (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000058BGZ/goodmusicguide-20)
UK-link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000058BGZ/goodmusicguideUK-21)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 03:13:50 AM
Thanks jlaurson, that's very helpful.

What I think of atonal (and I'm very much aware that what I think of atonal might very well be tonal) is some Schoenburg stuff like his second string quartet. I remember when it first listened to it it sounded like quite alien to me. I found it hard to find anything I liked in it, though I could tell it was music if that makes sense. What I think of "modern" is more dissonant music, starting with the likes of Prokofiev as a beginning point here for me, though I recognise that dissonance has a far, far older pedigree than that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2012, 03:48:55 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 31, 2012, 03:13:50 AM
What I think of atonal (and I'm very much aware that what I think of atonal might very well be tonal) is some Schoenburg stuff like his second string quartet. I remember when it first listened to it it sounded like quite alien to me. I found it hard to find anything I liked in it, though I could tell it was music if that makes sense. What I think of "modern" is more dissonant music, starting with the likes of Prokofiev as a beginning point here for me, though I recognise that dissonance has a far, far older pedigree than that.

On one hand, I am unsure how to be of help, because much the of atonal music which I heard early on in my musical journey, I found attractive right away.

On the other . . . one wants to try to be of help
: )

In tonal/atonal terms, what is your impression of this (http://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1/12-how-to-tell-op-103)? (Fair disclosure: it's a piece of my own)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 03:53:57 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 31, 2012, 03:48:55 AM
In tonal/atonal terms, what is your impression of this (http://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1/12-how-to-tell-op-103)? (Fair disclosure: it's a piece of my own)

I get an error when I follow that link.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2012, 03:55:56 AM
Hm, I don't know why. I just tried it myself, and it worked.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:09:31 AM
It worked after a few minutes.

I don't know. I think it's chromatic (could be very wrong) and I can't tell if it is has a key or not. Thus proving your point to me that I can't tell atonal from tonal yet. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2012, 04:26:57 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:09:31 AM
It worked after a few minutes.

I don't know. I think it's chromatic (could be very wrong) and I can't tell if it is has a key or not. Thus proving your point to me that I can't tell atonal from tonal yet. :)

Glad you're being a good sport! : )

Actually, you've done just fine here.  Fact is that in my own music, sometimes I write at no great distance from Common Practice, sometimes at quite a great distance indeed.  And I will often range about within the same piece.

Probably someone has pointed this out already . . . but Schoenberg famously didn't care for the term atonality (What can it mean? Music without tones?) In brief, rather than thinking of them as two compartmentalized opposites (tonality VS. atonality), I think more something of a sliding scale, where it is a matter of how many/few centers of tonal gravity, and of how strong the gravitational pull may be at one time or another.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:30:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 31, 2012, 04:26:57 AM
Glad you're being a good sport! : )

Actually, you've done just fine here.  Fact is that in my own music, sometimes I write at no great distance from Common Practice, sometimes at quite a great distance indeed.  And I will often range about within the same piece.

Probably someone has pointed this out already . . . but Schoenberg famously didn't care for the term atonality (What can it mean? Music without tones?) In brief, rather than thinking of them as two compartmentalized opposites (tonality VS. atonality), I think more something of a sliding scale, where it is a matter of how many/few centers of tonal gravity, and of how strong the gravitational pull may be at one time or another.


You mean like writing in mostly in a diatonic scale but then using chromatic elements in places? It's still pretty much "in the key of C" but not quite?

Edit: Or introducing some dissonance but having the piece mostly consonant?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 31, 2012, 04:48:21 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:30:33 AM
Edit: Or introducing some dissonance but having the piece mostly consonant?

True dissonance presupposes tonality. That's why pan-tonal music has such a difficult time. (Well, one of the reasons, at any rate.) There needs to be a consonance from which to deviate to create that delicious (or jarring) tension... and then to release it (to induce that smile or the relief). That's why many works toy with so-called a-tonality but the way the notes work together, we are drawn toward making sense of their relationship and -- like magnets, or the 'magnetic lines' in Photoshop -- are ready to snap to the nearest 'tonally logical explanation'. The music can then take us into other directions, suggesting to our ears that they were misguided... only for them to snap onto the next chord-like structure that comes along.

Schoenberg used (or rather: theorized about) his tone-row system to un-train the ears from doing that and to make sure that no accidental tonality allowed them their bad habits. That was new... not the sounds themselves. There's plenty of tonally ambiguous work that preceded him... not the least in Debussy where there's often no more than a diffuse tonality-cloud that shape-shifts as it goes along. Berg, of course, 'ruined it' right away when he used Schoenberg's strict system and showed how it could still be utilized to do something rather romantic with it. (Violin Concerto being the most popular example of that. A violinist friend of mine, with stubbornly conservative taste but at least the grace to acknowledge "theoretical greatness" to Berg's VC, eventually, finally came around to the work after being exposed to it for hours and hours because it's the background music for the '20th Century' developmental stage in Sid Meier's "Civilization IV".  ;D)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:56:35 AM
I'm glad to see the Civ obsession stretches to even the most cultured amongst us. ;)

Thanks, this is proving most educational. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2012, 04:58:40 AM
I'm going to throw in a rec for Ligeti, I don't know if he is described as atonal but he is pretty out there when compared to pre-20th century music, but rarely does he sound abrasive.  Many of his works have an eerie atmosphere that is hard to find elsewhere.  Sounding beautiful in a very unique way. :)

[asin] B0016A8E1K[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2012, 05:14:29 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 31, 2012, 04:48:21 AM
True dissonance presupposes tonality. That's why pan-tonal music has such a difficult time. (Well, one of the reasons, at any rate.) There needs to be a consonance from which to deviate to create that delicious (or jarring) tension... and then to release it (to induce that smile or the relief). That's why many works toy with so-called a-tonality but the way the notes work together, we are drawn toward making sense of their relationship and -- like magnets, or the 'magnetic lines' in Photoshop -- are ready to snap to the nearest 'tonally logical explanation'. The music can then take us into other directions, suggesting to our ears that they were misguided... only for them to snap onto the next chord-like structure that comes along.

Schoenberg used (or rather: theorized about) his tone-row system to un-train the ears from doing that and to make sure that no accidental tonality allowed them their bad habits. That was new... not the sounds themselves. There's plenty of tonally ambiguous work that preceded him... not the least in Debussy where there's often no more than a diffuse tonality-cloud that shape-shifts as it goes along. Berg, of course, 'ruined it' right away when he used Schoenberg's strict system and showed how it could still be utilized to do something rather romantic with it.

Or indeed, rather that Romantic was Schoenberg's idiom, whether he worked in a 'more straightforward' late-tonal idiom, or in his method of using twelve tones equally.

Nice thumbnail, Jens.  From here we pivot to the manner/method of those points of repose, whether a matter of within (or orbiting) Common Practice, or of (for instance) Hindemith's interesting ideas of a hierarchy of intervals, arranged by their power to assert a tonal center. There's more ways to the woods than one.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 31, 2012, 06:51:17 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 31, 2012, 04:56:35 AM
Thanks, this is proving most educational. :)

Same here. It's at about this stage of the development of 20th C. music that I stopped reading Ross' book -- one that I would recommend to you (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rest-Noise-Listening-Twentieth-Century/dp/1841154768/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1328024739&sr=8-4), nesf, if you haven't already read it -- because he fooled me into thinking that I would end up liking all this 'honking' and I wouldn't be able to follow the 'line' of the book if I stopped to listen every piece listed in it. ;) (Actually, it was through this work that I eventually started listening to Berg.) And staying on the topic of atonality, I remember reading that the earliest signs of <music-technical mumbo-jumbo> can be traced back to a piece by Liszt.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on January 31, 2012, 07:10:48 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 31, 2012, 06:51:17 AM
Same here. It's at about this stage of the development of 20th C. music that I stopped reading Ross' book -- one that I would recommend to you (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rest-Noise-Listening-Twentieth-Century/dp/1841154768/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1328024739&sr=8-4), nesf, if you haven't already read it -- because he fooled me into thinking that I would end up liking all this 'honking' and I wouldn't be able to follow the 'line' of the book if I stopped to listen every piece listed in it. ;) (Actually, it was through this work that I eventually started listening to Berg.) And staying on the topic of atonality, I remember reading that the earliest signs of <music-technical mumbo-jumbo> can be traced back to a piece by Liszt.

I have that book on my shelves waiting for my concentration to be good enough to read it!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 31, 2012, 07:43:08 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 31, 2012, 06:51:17 AM
Same here. It's at about this stage of the development of 20th C. music that I stopped reading Ross' book -- one that I would recommend to you (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rest-Noise-Listening-Twentieth-Century/dp/1841154768/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1328024739&sr=8-4), nesf, if you haven't already read it -- because he fooled me into thinking that I would end up liking all this 'honking' and I wouldn't be able to follow the 'line' of the book if I stopped to listen every piece listed in it. ;) (Actually, it was through this work that I eventually started listening to Berg.) And staying on the topic of atonality, I remember reading that the earliest signs of <music-technical mumbo-jumbo> can be traced back to a piece by Liszt.

The Bagatelle sans tonalité
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b29qCN3rFIE

I haven't been listening to more modernistic music too long either, but lately I've been listening to the Second Viennese school, and occasionally tipped my ears in Dutilleux, Ligeti, Penderecki, Xenakis.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on January 31, 2012, 08:05:00 AM
Quote from: nesf on January 31, 2012, 07:10:48 AM
I have that book on my shelves waiting for my concentration to be good enough to read it!

It reads more like a series of articles than a book.  Instead of gearing up for a big read you can treat each chapter like an article that you read every once and awhile when you have the hankering. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 31, 2012, 08:05:34 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 31, 2012, 07:43:08 AM
The Bagatelle sans tonalité
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b29qCN3rFIE

Yep, that's the one.

QuoteI haven't been listening to more modernistic music too long either, but lately I've been listening to the Second Viennese school, and occasionally tipped my ears in Dutilleux, Ligeti, Penderecki, Xenakis.

I find the likes of Dutilleaux, what little I've heard of him anyway, much preferable to hard-core VS II. Of course, to me the Strauss-Mahler-influenced works of Webern and Berg are more engaging.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on January 31, 2012, 08:50:45 AM
An alternate route which worked for me is Mahler - Shostakovich - Schnittke. By the time you are able to tolerate the latter, you're ready for all kinds of weirdness.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 31, 2012, 09:03:09 AM
Quote from: Lethevich on January 31, 2012, 08:50:45 AM
By the time you are able to tolerate the latter, you're ready for all kinds of weirdness.
;D
The cello sonata is nice.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on February 16, 2012, 04:44:13 PM
In an effort of outreach toward my father, I copied some music to CD-R for him. Our tastes are very different - he only likes Nice vocal music. But I thought he'd like Mozart's Coronation Mass and Requiem. Giving him Mahler's 8th was a risk. I'm not sure if he was joking when he said "I tried and failed to feel some inspiration from Prokofiev's 'Hail to Stalin'."

He liked Allegri's Miserere. Apparently he really likes the sound of boy singers, news which fills me with horror. He recommended this to me:

[ASIN]B0035FZ66U[/ASIN]

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 17, 2012, 04:40:51 AM
 Quote from: eyeresist on February 16, 2012, 09:44:13 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=13493.msg602222#msg602222)
. . . Giving him Mahler's 8th was a risk.
 
Unless he likes things like the Harvard Fight Song arranged for 400 singers and massive orchestra ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 17, 2012, 04:42:41 AM
 Quote from: eyeresist on February 16, 2012, 09:44:13 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=13493.msg602222#msg602222)
He liked Allegri's Miserere. Apparently he really likes the sound of boy singers, news which fills me with horror.
 
Dude, there's nothing wrong with liking that sound.

You should try Jas O'Donnell's recording of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms; there are boy trebles in the choir (which Stravinsky's score denotes as a preference).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on February 18, 2012, 02:14:35 PM
A question, with a new piece of complicated music what are good ways to approach it? I'm starting on Beethoven's Late Quartets and finding them a bit overwhelming and I feel a bit out of my depth musically, should I perhaps try and break them down into movements and get to know each movement before trying to listen to them straight through at the start? Or is it just a case of listen until it starts making some sense to you?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 18, 2012, 02:16:56 PM
Quote from: nesf on February 18, 2012, 02:14:35 PM
Or is it just a case of listen until it starts making some sense to you?

That's the key with me, just repeat several times.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on February 18, 2012, 02:57:02 PM
Quote from: DavidW on February 18, 2012, 02:16:56 PM
That's the key with me, just repeat several times.

I do that too, but if one mvmt then clicks for me, I either repeat it a bit, or I play the two movements around it to get a feel for the transition - to map it out.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 18, 2012, 10:08:46 PM
Quote from: nesf on February 18, 2012, 02:14:35 PM
A question, with a new piece of complicated music what are good ways to approach it? I'm starting on Beethoven's Late Quartets and finding them a bit overwhelming and I feel a bit out of my depth musically, should I perhaps try and break them down into movements and get to know each movement before trying to listen to them straight through at the start? Or is it just a case of listen until it starts making some sense to you?

However one looks at it, for me it essentially boils down to liking parts and then figuring out the whole later (even in a simplistic way), for works which don't click immediately. There have been many times where I liked only one movement but not the others initially (the 3rd movement from Brahms' D minor cto., for example), but I would let the whole piece play while anticipating what I liked. That way, the chances of picking up something in the other movements increased and at the same time I didn't get an overdose of the last movement alone. Repeated listening to single movements may work in the case of Mahler or Bruckner, say, where some movements last as long, if not longer, than a late quartet by Beethoven. ;D

That said, I don't make a routine out of it. It's best when I'm in the mood to explore. YMMV, of course. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on February 19, 2012, 03:39:59 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 18, 2012, 10:08:46 PM
That said, I don't make a routine out of it. It's best when I'm in the mood to explore. YMMV, of course. :)

Yeah, that's my current approach to new music and it seems to work. :)


Thanks guys, it's interesting to hear opinions on this.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on February 19, 2012, 05:35:27 AM
I don't think that I've ever tried it by individual movements, I think I'll give that a shot myself. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 05, 2012, 03:38:22 AM
An organist buddy introduced me to this yesterday. Can you even believe it?

http://www.youtube.com/v/QApu6Xk5w28
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 05, 2012, 12:36:28 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 05, 2012, 03:38:22 AM
An organist buddy introduced me to this yesterday. Can you even believe it?

http://www.youtube.com/v/QApu6Xk5w28

In which direction do you mean our disbelieve to go??

There's little of his that I like, but nothing that doesn't amaze me.
And as long as he looks (looked) like Pee-wee Herman came in out of a glue-storm and was rolled around in the Svarovsky factory reject bin, there will  be (were) a lot of people that won't even allow themselves to be amazed by him. And he talks, for all the unbridled enthusiasm, like someone typing in All-CAPS. At least he's thrown away the white rhinestone costume... so he seems to be on the right track!  ;D

- - - - -


For Winter's Rains and Ruins Are Over
Music in celebration of springtime
http://www.listenmusicmag.com/feature/for-winters-rains-and-ruins-are-over.php (http://www.listenmusicmag.com/feature/for-winters-rains-and-ruins-are-over.php)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 05, 2012, 01:44:23 PM
 Quote from: jlaurson on Today at 05:36:28 PM (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=13493.msg607637#msg607637)
In which direction do you mean out disbelieve to go??
 
You are at perfect liberty.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 09, 2012, 09:06:55 AM
Approaching two years late, I find out that the blog, Dial 'M' for Musicology (http://musicology.typepad.com/) has shuttered up.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Leo K. on March 09, 2012, 01:25:25 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 05, 2012, 12:36:28 PM
as long as he looks (looked) like Pee-wee Herman came in out of a glue-storm and was rolled around in the Svarovsky factory reject bin, there will  be (were) a lot of people that won't even allow themselves to be amazed by him.

I am one of those people  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 11, 2012, 05:05:30 AM
Er...didn't Classics Today used to get updated...I dunno..like daily?  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on March 11, 2012, 06:18:58 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 11, 2012, 05:05:30 AM
Er...didn't Classics Today used to get updated...I dunno..like daily?  ;D

Yup that's why they have today's new reviews... boy I can't remember how long it's been since I used that site.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 11, 2012, 06:31:54 AM
Those reviews have been out there for at least three days.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on March 11, 2012, 06:45:03 AM
You should write them a letter! :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 11, 2012, 08:01:44 AM
 :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 14, 2012, 09:24:35 AM
Quote from: DavidW on March 11, 2012, 06:45:03 AM
You should write them a letter! :D

It appears they've changed the look of the site.

http://www.classicstoday.com/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on March 16, 2012, 01:06:06 AM
Wow, ClassicsToday's new search function is a load of shit. Instead of simply selecting categories from a drop-down list, you have to type, and get those annoying autocomplete prompts. I ignored them, searched for "shostakovich" and "quartet", and got f-all. Genius. Oh, I did get a warning about a script threatening to cause a memory leak, so I guess that's something....?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on March 18, 2012, 05:40:51 PM
On Sunday afternoon, ABC TV showed the second half of 2011 last of the proms. (They showed the first half a few weeks ago.) A horrible experience. The audience was blowing those cheap plastic horns and also employing other noisemakers, even during the music; Britten's Young Person's Guide was ruined by mediocre poetry recited by a mediocre, crowd-baiting actress, there was a singalong of "You'll never walk alone", and all the prommers bobbing in time to P&C1 looked like twats. I sat there watching all the Champagne Charlies and Hooray Harrys, thinking "If a bomb went off now would it really be so terrible? True, it would take out the orchestra, but London has so many who would notice?"
>:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 21, 2012, 06:40:06 PM
Digging through MDT's clearance sale, I found something really surprising. The 23-year-old Emmanuel Pahud recorded a Marco Polo CD just as he was joining the Berlin Philharmonic.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/8.223527.jpg)

Looks pretty tempting at US $3.60.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on March 22, 2012, 12:35:15 PM
oh dear... one was not impressed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/21/philharmonia-salonen-lang-lang-review)  >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on March 24, 2012, 05:25:24 PM
Things I want to see #28: an orchestra playing an opera where each instrumentalist whose mouth is not occuped by an instrument also fills the role of the of the singers and choir members.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on March 25, 2012, 04:49:59 AM
Quote from: Lethevich on March 24, 2012, 05:25:24 PM
Things I want to see #28: an orchestra playing an opera where each instrumentalist whose mouth is not occuped by an instrument also fills the role of the of the singers and choir members.

I've witnessed something like that in a small and much less straining work: Berio's Opus Number Zoo.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 25, 2012, 05:48:39 AM
Quote from: Lethevich on March 24, 2012, 05:25:24 PM
Things I want to see #28: an orchestra playing an opera where each instrumentalist whose mouth is not occuped by an instrument also fills the role of the of the singers and choir members.


What a concept!
Here's your chance to write an original opera about an orchestra, the staging is a full orchestra tuxedos and all, it takes place during a performance and while certain musicians aren't playing their instruments they are singing...of course the difficulty is creating a plot that would be interesting...some love triangles, political disagreements...a slightly similar concept was done by the great Fellini...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestra_Rehearsal

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on March 25, 2012, 05:52:54 PM
An amusing review teaser at MusicWeb today:

Pyotr Il'yich TCHAIKOVSKY (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Mar12/Tchaikovsky_Nutcracker_107086.htm) (1840-1893) The Nutcracker Marie Lindquist, Anders Nordström, Jens Rosén, Alexandra Kastrinos, Royal Swedish Opera O/Renat Salavatov rec. 1999 ARTHAUS MUSIK [RMay]  Not a first choice but certainly an interesting supplement for anyone seeking a new slant on a popular old favourite or intending to cast a vote for the Social Democratic Party.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 26, 2012, 12:39:47 PM
I have a $25 iTunes gift card burning a hole in my wallet.

HELP!!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 26, 2012, 12:43:56 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on March 26, 2012, 12:39:47 PM
I have a $25 iTunes gift card burning a hole in my wallet.

HELP!!!


Just PM me the gift card code, thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 26, 2012, 01:11:30 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on March 26, 2012, 12:43:56 PM

Just PM me the gift card code, thanks.

>:(

:-*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 27, 2012, 03:03:08 PM
Quote from: Metal Dave on March 26, 2012, 12:39:47 PM
I have a $25 iTunes gift card burning a hole in my wallet.

HELP!!!

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Y-z-Jl9PL._SS400_.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 27, 2012, 03:09:11 PM
You are a day late, my friend.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on March 27, 2012, 03:11:56 PM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nightfall/id452171014

*hides*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Antoine Marchand on March 27, 2012, 03:23:16 PM
Quote from: Metal Dave on March 27, 2012, 03:09:11 PM
You are a day late, my friend.  ;D

http://www.amazon.com/Couperin-L-uvre-pour-clavecin/dp/B002UYG940

It's a shame because who knows if this is not the best complete set of Couperin's keyboard music in existence and you even get some change.  :)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on March 27, 2012, 04:07:30 PM
Quote from: Lethevich on March 27, 2012, 03:11:56 PM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nightfall/id452171014

*hides*

Nice!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 28, 2012, 03:35:34 AM
Quote from: Antoine Marchand on March 27, 2012, 03:23:16 PM
http://www.amazon.com/Couperin-L-uvre-pour-clavecin/dp/B002UYG940

Antoine, many thanks for that!  I am very happy with the Olivier Baumont box of Couperin, but for 20 clams, a second account (and so highly recommended) is, in the parlance of our times, a no-brainer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Antoine Marchand on March 28, 2012, 07:10:51 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 28, 2012, 03:35:34 AM
Antoine, many thanks for that!  I am very happy with the Olivier Baumont box of Couperin, but for 20 clams, a second account (and so highly recommended) is, in the parlance of our times, a no-brainer.

You're welcome, Karl. I hope you will enjoy those discs.

BTW, maybe it's time to add that Baumont to my collection after years in my wishlist. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on March 31, 2012, 02:33:22 AM
Apparently the cousin of my great grandfather (on my mother's side) was Clytie Hine, a soprano (born in Australia) who was in the first performance of Elgar's Starlight Express, sang opera in Beecham's company, and ended up as a singing teacher and trainer in NY (by this time married and known as Hine Mundy - her husband was a cellist who went on to some sort of work with the Met Opera). Oh, she taught Peters Pears, and apparently Britten's song "Down by the Salley Gardens" was dedicated to her.

My question to the panel is: does any collector of older vocal recordings know if Clytie is on CD anywhere? Like many people nowadays, my parents are uncovering the family history, and would love to have an artifact of our "famous" ancestor. Her performinging songs would be ideal, but an opera in which she was of the ensemble would be great too.

Grateful for any help :)

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/hine/1/brochure.pdf
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 01, 2012, 09:00:46 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on March 31, 2012, 02:33:22 AM
Apparently the cousin of my great grandfather (on my mother's side) was Clytie Hine, a soprano (born in Australia) who was in the first performance of Elgar's Starlight Express, sang opera in Beecham's company, and ended up as a singing teacher and trainer in NY (by this time married and known as Hine Mundy - her husband was a cellist who went on to some sort of work with the Met Opera). Oh, she taught Peters Pears, and apparently Britten's song "Down by the Salley Gardens" was dedicated to her.

My question to the panel is: does any collector of older vocal recordings know if Clytie is on CD anywhere? Like many people nowadays, my parents are uncovering the family history, and would love to have an artifact of our "famous" ancestor. Her performinging songs would be ideal, but an opera in which she was of the ensemble would be great too.

Grateful for any help :)

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/hine/1/brochure.pdf
IS this the same person? http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hine-clytie-may-12640 (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hine-clytie-may-12640) If so, there is unlikely to be much on record, though you might try contacting one of the organizations listed. Here is a picture: http://www.historicopera.com/beecham_page3.htm (http://www.historicopera.com/beecham_page3.htm). If there is a Peter Pears or Britten organization, they may be able to help as well. If you are able to contact any of the opera companies or opera houses where she performed, they may be able to help too.

EDIT: This has some performance listings: http://www.musicweb-international.com/hooey/licette_chrono.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/hooey/licette_chrono.htm)
It also appears the daughter is still alive. Maybe she can help if someone can track her down, though she is nearly 100 now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Mundy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Mundy)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on April 01, 2012, 09:49:35 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 01, 2012, 09:00:46 AMIf there is a Peter Pears or Britten organization, they may be able to help as well.

There's a Britten and Pears archive here (http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=380).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on April 01, 2012, 05:57:31 PM
Thanks MK, and also Papy. I don't seem to be any closer - perhaps I am chasing a grail. :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on April 04, 2012, 11:28:59 PM
This is probably not serious enough for the Mahler Mania thread...

I think probably the first time I heard Mahler's name was as spoken by Tom Lehrer in his introduction to his song "Alma". This transcription (http://www.casualhacker.net/tom.lehrer/the_year.html) doesn't really give an idea of his wry comic delivery (though I've tried to improve the punctuation):
QuoteLast December 13th, there appeared in the newspapers the juiciest, spiciest, raciest obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read. It was that of a lady name Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel, who had in her lifetime managed to acquire as lovers practically all of the top creative men in central Europe. And among these lovers (who were listed in the obituary, by the way, which was what made it so interesting) there were three whom she went so far as to marry: one of the leading composers of the day, Gustav Mahler, composer of Das Lied von der Erde, and other light classics; one of the leading architects, Walter Gropius, of the Bauhaus school of design; and one of the leading writers, Franz Werfel, author of the Song of Bernadette and other masterpieces.
It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that, when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years. It seemed to me, reading this obituary, that the story of Alma was the stuff of which ballads should be made, so here is one.

One of the big laughs of the monologue came after the line "Das Lied von der Erde, and other light classics". Now that I've grown into that work (after finding a version with non-strangulated tenor and non-hooting alto), this joke doesn't really work, particularly as the people who laughed at this joke in concert were probably the type of cultural dabblers who'd sit down fairly happily to a couple of hours of Puccini, who by comparison with DLvdE is basically the same thing but less good. :P



  The first one she married was Mahler,
  Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav.
  And each time he saw her he'd holler:
  "Ach, that is the fraulein I moost have!"

  Their marriage, however, was murder.
  He'd scream to the heavens above,
  "I'm writing Das Lied von der Erde,
  And she only wants to make love!"

  ...

  While married to Gus, she met Gropius,
  And soon she was swinging with Walter.
  Gus died, and her tear drops were copious.
  She cried all the way to the altar...

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread - yoddeling
Post by: Scion7 on April 05, 2012, 01:43:20 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 27, 2012, 03:03:08 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Y-z-Jl9PL._SS400_.jpg)

Good ... Lord ...

:o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 05, 2012, 02:45:47 AM
Quote from: Scion7 on April 05, 2012, 01:43:20 AM
Good ... Lord ...

:o
But there is so much more. There are your 'yodeling for dummies':
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CZYV07KZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X30KKWR8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (love the chicken)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HsPFdwR7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Then there is national yodeling:
AMerica
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Zn3rRphvL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Germany
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bz08spxNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Bulgaria
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515fIHEG3FL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Bavaria
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dQOl%2Br5QL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Switzerland
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YfFFfTMrL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Austria
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61i0BXTog3L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Somewhere in Asia
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61i1cvXhwcL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Arabia (That is what Amazon says):
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31vxfufLZIL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Swissconsin (Swiss + Wisonsin - gotta love it)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61VIq9TsCHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Then there's yodeling for different professions:
Cowboys(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KgfXPXoHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Rangers(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vfupPk4qL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Astrologers(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61B9YTliw0L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Customer Service(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61672u7143L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Drifter(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31DMUJS3PML._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

There's national professions (apparently):
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4120C9VY1ZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yodeling oldies:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/610EKbV78UL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51g12KZrr1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

And even here, hot chick covers:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41iz6ZQYyDL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511F34FMPyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Yodeling and jumping:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qRLF2LagL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

And "I bet they regret that when they get older ' cover posing yodeling:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61lacmcpdCL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Religious:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iULx2yCHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Secular:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21F90502XSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

And 'that's really out there, perhaps I should cut down on the mind altering substances' yodeling:
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/a1/8d/5bb8225b9da0a2fc0405f010.L._AA300_.jpg)

What I can't figure out is why they spell it both yodelling and yodeling... :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on April 05, 2012, 03:08:38 AM
Who here (other than myself and Ray, perhaps) has heard the yodelled version of the Overture to Guillame Tell? ;D

[asin]B00004R7U4[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 05, 2012, 04:06:17 AM
On that note: My 2011 Yodeling Favorites "Almost List"



Best Recordings of 2011 - "Almost List"

http://ionarts.blogspot.de/2012/04/best-recordings-of-2011-almost-list.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.de/2012/04/best-recordings-of-2011-almost-list.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 05, 2012, 04:11:25 AM
Whatever did happen to the yodeling cowgirls? . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 06, 2012, 03:34:50 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 05, 2012, 04:11:25 AM
Whatever did happen to the yodeling cowgirls? . . .
Probably more information that you wanted to know, but then you did ask! :) http://www.cockmanfamily.com/butterpats/ (http://www.cockmanfamily.com/butterpats/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Szykneij on April 06, 2012, 06:14:38 PM
I had the opportunity today to go for a drive through northeastern Massachusetts and visit some old haunts from several years ago when I was working on my Masters degree. It was a beautiful sunlit morning, and just as I was passing through a scenic area along the Ipswich River, George  Butterworth's "Banks of Green Willow" came on the radio. What a terrific piece of music! I had never heard it before, and to experience it for the first time under those conditions was amazing.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 06, 2012, 06:35:04 PM
If this were Facebook, I would thumb-up that post ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on April 06, 2012, 06:36:29 PM
Quote from: Lethevich on April 06, 2012, 06:35:04 PM
If this were Facebook, I would thumb-up that post ;D

Me too! That's a gorgeous work by Butterworth. I think I'll listen to it now. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 07, 2012, 04:54:27 AM


Ionarts-at-Large: David Fray on a Day in D-Minor
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/04/ionarts-at-large-david-fray-on-day-in-d.html)
Quotecomplauding [kuhm-plawd-ing]
Gerund
1. The contemporaneous grumbling and praise of the presence of Haydn on a concert program, but performed as the first piece, thereby subliminally or overtly suggesting that Haydn is 'nice', but 'not really that important'. When of course he is that important. And more.
+ some Bach & Dvořák
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I8DS1Vk_SPQ/T3-rtaobp1I/AAAAAAAAB6c/0j9rw6iMFh8/s1600/bach_solopart_BWV1052_PNG.png) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/04/ionarts-at-large-david-fray-on-day-in-d.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on April 07, 2012, 04:21:13 PM
I am feeling increasingly guilty for not knowing a note of Denisov's music. Seemingly half of the multi-composer CDs Gubaidulina is featured on includes at least one of his compositions, and yet I never get around to playing them -_-
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 09, 2012, 11:18:29 AM
Mercy, but those were the days, eh?

Quote from: M forever on January 11, 2008, 06:50:11 PM
Just *how* do you come up with all that silly stuff? I have to admit there is some kind of negative genius shining through your nonsensical contributions sometimes. Are you currently on medication?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on April 09, 2012, 11:31:25 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 09, 2012, 11:18:29 AM
Mercy, but those were the days, eh?

Who was at the receiving end of that one?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 09, 2012, 11:56:41 AM
That curious character Sydney Grew . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 10, 2012, 06:17:04 AM
It may not be for everyone . . . but I really dig this alternation in this morning's listening between Haydn and Wuorinen . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 07, 2012, 07:29:35 PM
Has anyone been trying to follow the Gramophone forum lately? It is a pitiful place. The same half dozen always insulting each other in an endless circular pattern....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 14, 2012, 09:03:21 PM
David Robertson will take over from Ashkenazy at the Sydney Symphony from 2014 (http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/sydney-symphony-appoints-us-conductor-as-new-chief-20120515-1ynwt.html)

So more John Adams. Oh great.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 15, 2012, 03:47:16 AM
Ah! Another Jn Adams enthusiast! Isn't he just the greatest?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on May 15, 2012, 11:49:51 AM
François Hollande, the new French president got sworn in today in the lounges of the Palais de l'Elysée... to his chosen tune of Air des Sauvages off Les Indes Galantes by Rameau.

http://www.ouest-france.fr/ofdernmin_-Quand-Francois-Hollande-choisit-l-air-des-Sauvages-_6346-2077219-fils-tous_filDMA.Htm (http://www.ouest-france.fr/ofdernmin_-Quand-Francois-Hollande-choisit-l-air-des-Sauvages-_6346-2077219-fils-tous_filDMA.Htm)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 16, 2012, 02:09:50 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 15, 2012, 03:47:16 AMAh! Another Jn Adams enthusiast! Isn't he just the greatest?

You test me, boy, you test me! :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 20, 2012, 02:56:57 PM
Just realized the reason ClassicsToday is such a wasteland is that 90% of the new content is behind a $50/yr paywall. Guess it's time to finally deprogram my brain from wanting to visit that site.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on May 20, 2012, 04:27:27 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 20, 2012, 02:56:57 PM
Just realized the reason ClassicsToday is such a wasteland is that 90% of the new content is behind a $50/yr paywall. Guess it's time to finally deprogram my brain from wanting to visit that site.

I haven't used that site in years excluding that time I looked up Hurwitz' idiotic HIP wine.  The reviews there are useless to me.

So I had no idea that those fools put up a paywall!  Ha they really think their reviews have that much value!? :D :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on May 20, 2012, 06:35:05 PM

If you have to pay, surely Fanfare beats ClassicsToday?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 22, 2012, 02:06:36 PM


Notes from the 2012 Dresden Music Festival ( 1 )
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G3kIvbiVq_E/T7wIRK9Cu0I/AAAAAAAACAU/GdkIKqbRONE/s1600/notes-from-the-dresden-music_festival.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLKjHZOHkWw/T7vMWDQDFOI/AAAAAAAACAE/w-XobW9Jqrg/s1600/Palais_im_Garten2.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/05/notes-from-2012-dresden-music-festival.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/05/notes-from-2012-dresden-music-festival.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 04, 2012, 12:44:27 AM
Is there a practical difference in English language musical terminology between "fantasy" and "fantasia"?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 04, 2012, 12:54:05 AM
'Fantasia' is Italian and 'fantasy' English, I don't think there's any other difference.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lethevich on June 04, 2012, 01:50:38 AM
Thanks. I had noticed that often the French and German spellings of the word are sometimes translated into English, but that Italian form seems to come through unchecked.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 04, 2012, 02:03:25 AM
And then . . . what did Vaughan Williams mean by invoking the spelling phantasy . . . ?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 04, 2012, 02:32:22 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 04, 2012, 02:03:25 AM
And then . . . what did Vaughan Williams mean by invoking the spelling phantasy . . . ?

A phenomenal-fantasy?  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 04, 2012, 02:47:38 AM
That Phaughan Williams was a fenom!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 07, 2012, 05:34:07 AM
apropos to this thread's title and increasingly more so in the future.


Classical:NEXT, Classical Music's new MIDEM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cVv8T0tKRLA/T89_4UZ4x4I/AAAAAAAACSU/EZVe16cchog/s1600/ClassicalNext_Logo.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/06/classicalnext-classical-musics-new.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/06/classicalnext-classical-musics-new.html)
QuoteThe Event

What's "Classical:NEXT"? In short: it's the independent classical music label's MIDEM.
It's the outgrowth of collective disgruntlement with the music industry's dominant trade
fair where classical music had become a tolerated afterthought. CLASS, the association
for classical independent labels in Germany (read: Musikproduktion Dabringhaus &
Grimm), banked on the dissatisfaction of Cannes in February, crowded expensive hotels,
and increasingly high participation fees and opted instead for Munich in May (May 30 –
June 2), a winning proposition right there...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 08, 2012, 06:41:06 AM
Quote from: Lethevich on June 04, 2012, 12:44:27 AM
Is there a practical difference in English language musical terminology between "fantasy" and "fantasia"?

Quote from: karlhenning on June 04, 2012, 02:03:25 AM
And then . . . what did Vaughan Williams mean by invoking the spelling phantasy . . . ?

And what did Frank Bridge mean by spelling it phantasie for a trio but phantasy for a quartet?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: stingo on June 08, 2012, 09:22:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 04, 2012, 02:03:25 AM
And then . . . what did Vaughan Williams mean by invoking the spelling phantasy . . . ?

Phillies phan?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on June 22, 2012, 02:22:17 AM
I just received an email about another petition to save La Petite Band. Of course I went to the site straight away and commented "La Petite Band are a treasure, not only of Belgium but of the world." Not sure if the site registered my "signature", though...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on June 22, 2012, 02:38:15 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on June 22, 2012, 02:22:17 AM
Not sure if the site registered my "signature", though...

It's registered, Neil.

(Let's just hope that Cato doesn't notice your 'indirect' pluralisation of the band. ;D ;))
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 22, 2012, 04:14:32 AM
I don't think Cato will consider that a Grumble.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 22, 2012, 11:05:34 AM
It must be exciting: listen — the orchestra cannot stay together!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on June 22, 2012, 11:18:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 22, 2012, 11:05:34 AM
It must be exciting: listen — the orchestra cannot stay together!

I can already see a list or sorts taking shape, along with Jens' The recording is OOP, therefore it must be excellent!. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on June 24, 2012, 08:21:00 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 22, 2012, 11:05:34 AMIt must be exciting: listen — the orchestra cannot stay together!

True! Barbirolli's live recording of Walton's Partita for orchestra - the third and final movement gets quite hectic towards the finish, and the sense that the orchestra are barely keeping it together adds to the excitement (there's a big cheer at the end).

[ASIN]B00000IYMT[/ASIN]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on July 08, 2012, 02:37:33 PM
I'm considering buying a book on Beethoven and one on String Quartets. Any thoughts? :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: KeithW on July 12, 2012, 01:42:17 PM
Quote from: nesf on July 08, 2012, 02:37:33 PM
I'm considering buying a book on Beethoven and one on String Quartets. Any thoughts? :)

So many to choose from.  A scholarly but immensely enjoyable one is :
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hLvTKnSxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)


On SQs - a Beethoven specific 'must-have' for me is
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Vz2OMwqTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

This volume - which is in the same series as Steingberg's three volumes (symphony, concerto and choral) is a useful desk reference

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hFYNiT9WL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: nesf on July 12, 2012, 02:41:16 PM
Thank you. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 17, 2012, 09:11:33 AM


Evelyn Lear's (Recorded) Legacy

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pGmzk01gylM/T_GgtYzetTI/AAAAAAAACzo/zdciDMF3T54/s1600/Evelyn_Lear_laurson.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/evelyn-lears-recorded-legacy.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/evelyn-lears-recorded-legacy.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 20, 2012, 09:36:56 AM




The Cocooned Cadaver: Kriegenburg's Walküre

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fb2tknYe57Q/UAl2qh9xDQI/AAAAAAAADNI/kih8cR0zDkI/s400/Wagner_Ring_BStOp_Walkure.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-cocooned-cadaver-kriegenburgs.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-cocooned-cadaver-kriegenburgs.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 23, 2012, 07:33:43 AM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)

Dip Your Ears, No. 122 (Kuijken's Third Brandenburgs)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/dip-your-ears-no-122-kuijkens-third.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/07/dip-your-ears-no-122-kuijkens-third.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on July 25, 2012, 12:41:40 PM
A couple of videos on the background behind the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, bringing together young musicians from more than 30 nationalities, orchestra I saw last week at Snape. The first video has several views of Snape maltings and locations around, that will give you a feel for the place  0:)

http://thespace.org/items/e00000l8 (http://thespace.org/items/e00000l8)

http://thespace.org/items/e0000h06 (http://thespace.org/items/e0000h06)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2012, 02:17:42 AM
Yesterday I finally loaded my Braga Santos onto my player. Oh, and Barber.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 08, 2012, 02:13:33 AM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 1 )
Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-1.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 10, 2012, 07:31:46 AM


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jdz0MduXBaw/UCUTK1NQAyI/AAAAAAAADdA/8Ug6Wdlv6K0/s1600/Oleg_Kagan_Musikfest_Breslik_laurson.jpg)

Breslik's Sweltering, Paradisical Müllerin


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bresliks-sweltering-paradisical-mullerin.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bresliks-sweltering-paradisical-mullerin.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 11, 2012, 06:14:50 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 2 )
Handel Tamerlano


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-2.html)


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 3 )
Christian Gerhaher Liederabend


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-3.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-3.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 13, 2012, 04:27:38 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 11, 2012, 06:14:50 AM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wmk803_NfUc/UCjldnshSKI/AAAAAAAADic/FNlitgzAv0A/s1600/Rachmaninoff_Southpaw_laurson.jpg)
No Composer Left Behind
International Left Handers Day Contribution
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-composer-left-behind.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-composer-left-behind.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 14, 2012, 12:31:47 AM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 4 )
Beethoven Cycle • Hagen Quartet


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-4.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 17, 2012, 08:37:41 AM
I'm thinking of creating a playlist of crazy/unusual/gargantuan piano waltzes. Some combination of:

Godowsky (J. Strauss): Kunstlerleben metamorphosis 14'
Ferrata: Second study on Chopin's Minute Waltz 2'
Moszkowski: Valse Op 34 No 1 8'
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No 1 11'
Rodgers: Carousel Waltz 6'
Rihm: Brahmsliebewalzer 4'
Barber: Waltz Op 28 4'
Rudolf Hindemith: Des Kaisers Neue Kleider 5'
Saint-Saens: Etude Op 52 No 6, En forme de valse 6'
Szpilman: Paraphrase on a Waltz by Robert Stoltz 3'
Sudbin (Chopin): A la minute 5'
Ravel: La valse 11'

That's 79 minutes. What am I missing? I need one or two things in minor keys.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 17, 2012, 01:52:13 PM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X60z_D957rw/UC6WUBzC7-I/AAAAAAAADpw/C0D7vnoJH6E/s1600/Contemp8_Zimmermann_Stein_Lelli_600.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 6 )
Salzburg contemporary 8
B.A.Zimmermann | Ecclesiastic Action


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-6.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 17, 2012, 02:44:42 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 17, 2012, 08:37:41 AM
I'm thinking of creating a playlist of crazy/unusual/gargantuan piano waltzes. Some combination of:

Godowsky (J. Strauss): Kunstlerleben metamorphosis 14'
Moszkowski: Valse Op 34 No 1 8'
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No 1 11'
Rihm: Brahmsliebewalzer 4'
Rudolf Hindemith: Des Kaisers Neue Kleider 5'
Sudbin (Chopin): A la minute 5'
Ravel: La valse 11'

That's 58 minutes. What am I missing? I need one or two things in minor keys.
Well, these are just collections of smaller waltzes, but nonetheless:
Ravel's Valses nobiles et sentimentales and Brahms's Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 17, 2012, 03:28:58 PM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-II88aKARETE/UC6kbq_0rtI/AAAAAAAADro/oVhw_LlHR2o/s1600/Mozarteum_GS_Laurson_blueprint_600.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 7 )
Salzburg contemporary 9
H.Holliger | E.Carter et al.


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-7.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on August 29, 2012, 04:17:56 PM
I own two Mahler recordings. I'm all about the Mahler.
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 29, 2012, 06:44:51 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 29, 2012, 04:17:56 PM
I own two Mahler recordings.

Both of them! Good on ya, mate!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on August 29, 2012, 08:36:01 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 29, 2012, 04:17:56 PMI own two Mahler recordings. I'm all about the Mahler.

Hey, Mahler didn't make any recordings!  $:)


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 29, 2012, 11:05:36 PM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 29, 2012, 04:17:56 PM
I own two Mahler recordings. I'm all about the Mahler.

One. Beat that! :P

Quote from: eyeresist on August 29, 2012, 08:36:01 PM
Hey, Mahler didn't make any recordings!  $:)

There's a video clip in YouTube that's supposedly of G. playing a piano reduction of the first movement of the Fifth.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on August 30, 2012, 03:48:55 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on August 29, 2012, 11:05:36 PM
One. Beat that! :P

You're halfway there!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 30, 2012, 06:31:37 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 30, 2012, 03:48:55 AM
You're halfway there!

Oddly enough I have twice as many recordings of Bruckner's music as of Mahler's.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ataraxia on August 30, 2012, 06:40:38 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on August 30, 2012, 06:31:37 AM
Oddly enough I have twice as many recordings of Bruckner's music as of Mahler's.

Oh, yes. I have many more Bruckners.
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 30, 2012, 10:35:34 AM
Quote from: MN Dave on August 30, 2012, 06:40:38 AM
Oh, yes. I have many more Bruckners.

Quite right!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 30, 2012, 12:12:49 PM
Quote from: eyeresist on August 29, 2012, 08:36:01 PM
Hey, Mahler didn't make any recordings!  $:)
Actually one of the CDs MusicWeb had on its latest reviewer distribution list (I didn't request it) was Mahler piano rolls? Are those a thing? It definitely said "Gustav Mahler, piano".

But piano rolls aren't quite the same kind of "recording".
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 30, 2012, 01:16:28 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 30, 2012, 12:12:49 PM
Actually one of the CDs MusicWeb had on its latest reviewer distribution list (I didn't request it) was Mahler piano rolls? Are those a thing? It definitely said "Gustav Mahler, piano".

But piano rolls aren't quite the same kind of "recording".
There are piano roll recordings of at least the first movement of 5th symphony, something from the 4th symphony, and the accompaniment to a song from fahrenden Gesellen.

I haven't got a note of Bruckner. however, if anyone believes they can convert me, feel free to do so.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 30, 2012, 02:31:51 PM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-slwEMUFsup0/UDeqx3sjCiI/AAAAAAAADzg/VZBoexQFYMU/s1600/Notes%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BBayreuth%2BFestival.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LQH_5TePBoc/UD6bvJY-ReI/AAAAAAAAD7A/kN8dJ6JXNEE/s1600/bayreuth_tannhaeuser2012_betty_hubby.jpg)
Bayreuth 2012: Tannhäuser is a Gasser
Tannhäuser • Thielemann • Baumgarten


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bayreuth-2012-tannhauser-is-gasser.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bayreuth-2012-tannhauser-is-gasser.html)


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-slwEMUFsup0/UDeqx3sjCiI/AAAAAAAADzg/VZBoexQFYMU/s1600/Notes%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BBayreuth%2BFestival.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OIFSrsUZTmI/UD6nbsTkEZI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/FU2qF6ULk0Q/s1600/bayreuth_parsifal2012_ii.jpg)
Bayreuth 2012: Parsifal, a Gift of Greatness
Parsifal • P.Jordan • Herheim


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bayreuth-2012-parsifal-gift-of-greatness.html (http://hhttp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/bayreuth-2012-parsifal-gift-of-greatness.html)
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on August 30, 2012, 06:22:20 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 30, 2012, 10:35:34 AMQuite right!

Oh, you'll rue that in a few years ;)
Title: Re: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 31, 2012, 02:46:06 AM
Quote from: eyeresist on August 30, 2012, 06:22:20 PM
Oh, you'll rue that in a few years ;)

Well, time was when the music of neither Mahler nor Bruckner did much for me. FWIW, it was (eventually) the former whose symphonies I took to first; nor have I reached any point of tiring of them. But in the past six months, of the two, I've been listening to Bruckner more.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 04, 2012, 08:11:46 AM

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vX4OVdt1_3s/UEYhwwo_XGI/AAAAAAAAEDc/z3sh4t3_Z0g/s1600/LISTEN_600_1.2.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/listen-up-remembering-fischer-dieskau.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/listen-up-remembering-fischer-dieskau.html)

Quote
A Voice from Ruins
An appraisal of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/listen-up-remembering-fischer-dieskau.html)

When Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau passed away this year, there were few superlatives raining down on him in obituaries that hadn't already been used during his lifetime. He was one of three or four giants in classical music who were able to shape the cultural landscape — and he was the last one. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau need not have been your favorite singer in order to acknowledge his greatness and importance.

Like Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, Fischer-Dieskau arrived right at the time when recording technology allowed for the easier-than-ever dissemination of music, when competition was limited, and when classical music still defined mainstream culture, even for those who didn't much care for it. With some four hundred records to his name, Fischer-Dieskau became one of the most recorded singers of all time. In Germany he is called Der Jahrhundertsänger — literally that's "singer of the century," or "hundred-year singer," although neither translation does justice to the air of veneration the term connotes. His complete recordings of Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Wolf, Beethoven and Brahms and copious doses of other, less well-known Lieder composers were the record collector's natural (and often sole) choice. There are few classical-music listeners above the age of thirty-five for whom Fischer-Dieskau's interpretations of this repertoire didn't leave the emotional footprint of first exposure.

The quantity and, at its best, quality, intelligence and matter-of-course-ness of his Lieder singing made German art songs known, even popular, in non-German-speaking countries. American critics, marveling at the quality of his Lied interpretations, were more reserved in their Fischer- Dieskaumania than their German and English colleagues, but not by much. Harold C. Schonberg called him "the most protean singer alive today," saying he was "acknowledged to be the greatest of contemporary lieder singers [who] has triumphed in opera . . . from Handel to Henze [and] a stalwart in oratorio work." Donal Henahan referred to Fischer-Diesk...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 04, 2012, 09:58:34 AM
God bless Brilliant Classics, but Lawd knows I don't need a 37-CD box of Boccherini.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 04, 2012, 02:09:20 PM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aI3aXIpMnDY/UEZ7_CxEnNI/AAAAAAAAEIc/gQS7_jfMxxk/s1600/SOLDATEN_4_Ruth-Walz_collage.jpg)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 12 )
Bernd Alois Zimmermann • Die Soldaten


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-12.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-12.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 05, 2012, 07:09:34 AM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r2Vy3_Fo-LM/UEdhePb2TCI/AAAAAAAAEP0/hH2NircLGx4/s1600/Staatskapelle_Dresden_600.png)
Christian Thielemann's Inauguration Concert
Hugo Wolf • Anton Bruckner


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/christian-thielemanns-inauguration.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/christian-thielemanns-inauguration.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: eyeresist on September 05, 2012, 05:47:27 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 04, 2012, 09:58:34 AMGod bless Brilliant Classics, but Lawd knows I don't need a 37-CD box of Boccherini.

:D

How about a hole in the head, instead?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 06, 2012, 07:30:02 AM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Chamber Music You Didn't Know You Love
Joseph Marx • String Quartets


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/chamber-music-you-didnt-know-you-love.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/chamber-music-you-didnt-know-you-love.html)



(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwIFAjsXUW0/UCEyRdJv4rI/AAAAAAAADbM/hiDaGbuNi3M/s1600/Salzburg-Festival-NEU_2012_laurson.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2Hkb1tCQAAGeih.jpg:large)
Notes from the 2012 Salzburg Festival ( 13 )
George Frideric Handel • Giulio Cesare in Egitto


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-13.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/notes-from-2012-salzburg-festival-13.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 07, 2012, 09:19:31 AM

(http://www.seenandheard-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Munich_Phil_520_inversion.png)
Maazel's Inauguration Concert in Munich v.1
Mahler 9


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/ionarts-at-large-maazels-inauguration.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/09/ionarts-at-large-maazels-inauguration.html)

In an hour the same thing, but with Wagner & Bruckner 3
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on September 10, 2012, 07:18:05 AM
Don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere, but the ClassicsToday "Insider" content, at least the text, appears to be freely available by simply performing a basic search of the word "reference" (or whatever other key word you may fancy) in the main site search box. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 20, 2012, 08:27:12 AM


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UaX7izz5nfY/UILEoV2mK8I/AAAAAAAAEoY/aEwbrW3cLOE/s400/BRSO_Jansons_Beethoven_Schedrin_Bronfman.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: BRSO in Shchedrin, Shostakovich, Beethoven


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/ionarts-at-large-brso-in-shchedrin.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/ionarts-at-large-brso-in-shchedrin.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 26, 2012, 02:23:39 PM


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cN_3ahtSs4E/UIsNCYkOOJI/AAAAAAAAEqU/73yPZt3XABA/s1600/Concert_Program_Synesthesia_laurson_600.png)

Concert Program Synesthesia


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/concert-program-synesthesia.html
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/concert-program-synesthesia.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 27, 2012, 03:24:20 AM



(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FG4Oto20D5w/UIu4HM1dE5I/AAAAAAAAEsA/WOozYMLGrEA/s400/MPHIL_Dausgaard_Andsnes_Kurtag.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: MPhil and Dausgaard in White, Blue, and Orange


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/ionarts-at-large-mphil-and-dausgaard-in.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/10/ionarts-at-large-mphil-and-dausgaard-in.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 06, 2012, 06:58:47 AM
A 'budget' re-release that discusses parts of the score in the notes -- and in more than one language!!!

https://outhere-music.com/store-REW_504/Joseph_Haydn-Trios_for_Nicolaus_Esterhazy-Rincontro.html (scroll down a little to find the fancy online booklet viewer)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 12, 2012, 06:36:48 AM
Together with the BBC and New York Philharmonic, the [Royal Philharmonic Society] has also co-commissioned a major work in response to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to be premiered at the BBC Proms. (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/royal-philharmonic-society-celebrates-200th-anniversary-in-2013)

Ambitious? Quixotic? Meaningless?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 12, 2012, 10:12:22 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on November 12, 2012, 06:36:48 AM
Ambitious? Quixotic? Meaningless?

Well . . . what could "a major work in response to Beethoven's Ninth" mean?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on November 12, 2012, 10:16:36 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 12, 2012, 10:12:22 AM
Well . . . what could "a major work in response to Beethoven's Ninth" mean?

Precisely. Hence my last question. Does it even have a meaning?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 12, 2012, 10:17:35 AM
For this composer, no. For the people funding the commission . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 12, 2012, 03:40:56 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 12, 2012, 10:17:35 AM
For this composer, no. For the people funding the commission . . . .
It could be like the 1928 Columbia competition to complete Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which resulted in pretty much every composer violating the rules.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: PaulR on November 12, 2012, 03:48:16 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 12, 2012, 10:12:22 AM
Well . . . what could "a major work in response to Beethoven's Ninth" mean?
A symphony that extols the ideas of universal hatred and separation?  (as opposed to universal brotherhood)
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 12, 2012, 03:52:23 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 12, 2012, 03:40:56 PM
It could be like the 1928 Columbia competition to complete Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which resulted in pretty much every composer violating the rules.

And to so little artistic consequence.
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 12, 2012, 03:57:50 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 12, 2012, 03:52:23 PM
And to so little artistic consequence.

Franz Schmidt's Third Symphony, Havergal Brian's Gothic Part I, Atterberg's Sixth, Irgens-Jensen's Passacaglia (not well-known, but considered his finest achievement)... don't sneeze at that competition so readily, sir. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 13, 2012, 03:02:17 AM
Well, I admit, I was thinking on the lines of "completions of the Unfinished" : )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Scarpia on November 13, 2012, 05:00:40 PM
This LP, released in 1951,

(http://www.mediafire.com/conv/0b2030b7ec33271b82c8d27df11751897741b1aa721cb637e2d48b30039d56496g.jpg)

still has the original price sticker on the back.  List price, $4.99.  Taking account inflation between 1951 and 2012, that is $44 in 2012 dollars.

As you can see from the sticker on the front, it's market value has depreciated to $0.75.  On the other hand, I just got this 14 CD set for $23.

[asin]B00006J45S[/asin]

I'm not going to complain that CDs are too expensive.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 14, 2012, 01:57:28 AM
A bit torn, now. I want to keep on with the Shostakovich SQ Gala. But I feel the urge to listen to lots of Schoenberg, too.

Of course, I can really do both . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 14, 2012, 05:09:23 AM
And lo! Brahms' SQs have suddenly begun to make sense.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on December 14, 2012, 09:58:33 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on December 14, 2012, 05:09:23 AM
And lo! Brahms' SQs have suddenly begun to make sense.
Excellent!
They're definitely some of the best Brahms, but took more time to appreciate properly for me, too, compared to most of his other chamber music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 14, 2012, 10:08:27 AM
Go, Nav!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 17, 2012, 05:33:49 AM



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TvLvxzDkfrQ/UM4QFOcZBNI/AAAAAAAAE9c/U4h-THVB_oY/s1600/Ferruccio_Busoni_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts at Large: Marc-André Hamelin at the Herkulessaal
Busoni - Bach - Debussy - Hamelin - Rachmaninoff

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-marc-andre-hamelin-at.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-marc-andre-hamelin-at.html)



(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwyfD-aGbBY/UM5ERZML41I/AAAAAAAAE-c/SqmAmdNoGjk/s1600/Jansons_Beethoven_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts at Large: Mariss Jansons' Beethoven Cycle
Beethoven & World Premiere of Mochizuki's Nirai (Like a friendly giant, happily disoriented, lumbering through the forest.)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 17, 2012, 11:39:45 AM
Cor, but it's a dog's age since I listened to the Hammerklavier. What a beaut'!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on December 17, 2012, 11:43:44 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 17, 2012, 05:33:49 AM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TvLvxzDkfrQ/UM4QFOcZBNI/AAAAAAAAE9c/U4h-THVB_oY/s1600/Ferruccio_Busoni_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts at Large: Marc-André Hamelin at the Herkulessaal
Busoni - Bach - Debussy - Hamelin - Rachmaninoff

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-marc-andre-hamelin-at.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-marc-andre-hamelin-at.html)



(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwyfD-aGbBY/UM5ERZML41I/AAAAAAAAE-c/SqmAmdNoGjk/s1600/Jansons_Beethoven_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts at Large: Mariss Jansons' Beethoven Cycle
Beethoven & World Premiere of Mochizuki's Nirai (Like a friendly giant, happily disoriented, lumbering through the forest.)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html)

Busoni! Ha! An interesting composer no doubt.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 19, 2012, 12:15:07 PM



(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OxjV2BLeMAY/UNIlc6kbZWI/AAAAAAAAE_w/wRJB9wqwic8/s1600/la_mer_Hokusai_laurson_600.png)

Ionarts at Large: Maazel's Warhorses

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-maazels-warhorses.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-maazels-warhorses.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on December 28, 2012, 03:45:14 AM
Da-da-da-daaa gets a cultural biography: http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/019_04/10581
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 28, 2012, 11:53:53 AM
Quote
Quote from: jlaurson on December 25, 2012, 10:13:46 AM
Quote
Quote
Let the "Best Recordings of 2012" begin, spread over the 12 Days of Christmas. Here's #10:



Best Recordings of 2012 (#10)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html)




Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 30, 2012, 02:51:45 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 28, 2012, 11:53:53 AM
Quote
Quote
Quote
Quote

Best Recordings of 2012 (#10)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#5)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html)




29.12.12

Ionarts-at-Large: The Domestication of Pelléas and Mélisande
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AWHphykCnd8/UN36OTPF8nI/AAAAAAAAFGc/xXm850jqEaw/s1600/Pelleas_Melisande_Frankfurt_laurson_600.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-domestication-of.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 31, 2012, 07:47:50 AM
Quote
Quote from: jlaurson on December 28, 2012, 11:53:53 AM


Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#5)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#4)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html)


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3UVLHm8WBbs/UOCV_oTeUHI/AAAAAAAAFL4/CSgxwjKO-gM/s1600/HJ-LIM_laurson_600.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: HJ Lim, Ken Masur, and Hints of Scriabin

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-hj-lim-ken-masur-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/ionarts-at-large-hj-lim-ken-masur-and.html)

HJ Lim is best known for a marketing blast by EMI, eager to promote the young Korean pianist's recording of the (almost*) complete Beethoven sonatas...

...In his attempts to casually shimmy along, Ken Masur looked like the only straight guy at a gay dance party...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 01, 2013, 10:00:13 AM

Quote

Best Recordings of 2012 (#10)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#5)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#4)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#3)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-3.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-3.html)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 02, 2013, 10:11:55 PM
Quote

Best Recordings of 2012 (#10)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-10.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-9.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-8.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-7.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-6.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#5)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-5.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#4)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-recordings-of-2012-4.html)


Best Recordings of 2012 (#3)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-3.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-3.html)



Best Recordings of 2012 (#2)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-2.html)

QuoteImagine a Violin Concerto that has everything it takes to become an
overplayed favorite—yet is virtually unknown? Imagine no more, listen: To...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on January 03, 2013, 12:49:24 PM
Oh my!!!  Another Elgar thread locked!  Good heavens.  :o :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 03, 2013, 02:40:08 PM
The entire list, topped by Purcell & Friends:


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z9n-UMfOjC8/UOX8cvodHvI/AAAAAAAAFaY/eCDDUfEGuvE/s1600/Best_Recordings_of_2012_laurson_600.jpg)

Best Recordings of 2012 (# 1 - 10)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-1-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/best-recordings-of-2012-1-10.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 05, 2013, 09:42:37 AM
Page 14 here (http://issuu.com/londonphilharmonic/docs/14dec12_lpoprognotes?viewMode=presentation&mode=embed) makes for a rather sad reading. LPO is a very famous name, I know, but is it a league below the likes of NY, Berlin and Vienna in terms of finances or is this the case even at those places?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 06, 2013, 12:35:38 PM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 05, 2013, 09:42:37 AM
Page 14 here (http://issuu.com/londonphilharmonic/docs/14dec12_lpoprognotes?viewMode=presentation&mode=embed) makes for a rather sad reading. LPO is a very famous name, I know, but is it a league below the likes of NY, Berlin and Vienna in terms of finances or is this the case even at those places?

You can't really compare European (Continental), American, and UK Orchestras in terms of finance. European orchestras work on the cheap, compared to American ones (where Unions have wreaked greater havoc)... and UK Orchestras somewhere in-between... plus very different financing systems with endowments, pension funds, state subsidies et al. Ultimately every orchestra needs money... and there are many ways of trying to get it. This is just one way... and not the dumbest.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 06, 2013, 09:07:27 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 06, 2013, 12:35:38 PM
Ultimately every orchestra needs money... and there are many ways of trying to get it. This is just one way... and not the dumbest.

It was just a teeny-weeny bit shocking that they couldn't afford a couple of stools for the players!

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 07, 2013, 05:43:37 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 06, 2013, 09:07:27 PM
It was just a teeny-weeny bit shocking that they couldn't afford a couple of stools for the players!

They can... but you want to catch small contributions, as well as large ones. And not just tell the donors of 'piddling' sums that it'll be swallowed up in the big sea of anonymous money down the administrative road... but make them feel that even a small gift makes a tangible difference. In other words: It' more reflecting good marketing than it is actual poverty.  They can't well write: We need L.250,- towards the year-end bonus of our HR Director, can they? :-)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 07, 2013, 05:57:36 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 07, 2013, 05:43:37 AM
They can... but you want to catch small contributions, as well as large ones. And not just tell the donors of 'piddling' sums that it'll be swallowed up in the big sea of anonymous money down the administrative road... but make them feel that even a small gift makes a tangible difference. In other words: It' more reflecting good marketing than it is actual poverty.  They can't well write: We need L.250,- towards the year-end bonus of our HR Director, can they? :-)

Ah. I appreciate the elucidation. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 07, 2013, 06:07:21 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on January 07, 2013, 05:57:36 AM
Ah. I appreciate the elucidation. ;)

I didn't intend to patronize you... hope that's not how it came across.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on January 07, 2013, 06:20:08 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on January 07, 2013, 06:07:21 AM
I didn't intend to patronize you... hope that's not how it came across.

Oh, not at all. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 08, 2013, 02:59:23 AM
All the while I am enjoying the concentration on Dmitri Dmitriyevich, I do feel an ascendant urge for Liszt.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 08, 2013, 11:24:59 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z4sQBbj5UV0/UOxkuOnRIbI/AAAAAAAAFhA/1KRCBjoiBEU/s1600/Brahms_Strauss_Quixote_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts-at-Large: Ageing Maestros and a Youthful Knight-Errant

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-ageing-maestros-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-ageing-maestros-and.html)

Haitink-reviewing by way of Masur-bashing:

...but there's also a point in saying that it is not fair to music; the composers being mistreated. Who would let a decorated but shaky doctor operate on patients, based on past merit?

On the bill: Brahms' First & Strauss' Don Quixote
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 08, 2013, 03:13:13 PM
Weird, a full year after the fact I somehow finally found out that Naxos' house Bach/Haydn conductor Helmut Muller-Bruhl passed away.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 09, 2013, 02:33:45 PM

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1KxAKWSnUU/UEc-h4nmLAI/AAAAAAAAEL8/dXXBSc35eFg/s1600/Munich_Phil_600.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Youthful Bruckner With James Gaffigan

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-youthful-bruckner-with.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-youthful-bruckner-with.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on January 12, 2013, 03:32:17 AM
How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on January 12, 2013, 03:42:29 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on January 12, 2013, 03:32:17 AM
How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger)

That was interesting. I've often thought of doing that: learning at least one piece. In fact, a few decades ago I taught myself about half the "easy" Chopin prelude before circumstances prevented finishing it. We'll eventually, probably, inherit a piano. Maybe it's still in my future.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 12, 2013, 04:48:07 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on January 12, 2013, 03:32:17 AM
How Alan Rusbridger learned to play Chopin's first Ballade

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2013/jan/11/alan-rusbridger-chopin-video)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/12/play-it-again-chopin-ballade-no-1-alan-rusbridger)
Very interesting indeed!
This may be of interst, too (about 0:30 before the end): 'Ax said that he didn't think that he had ever heard a perfect performance of this piece, apart from Pollini'
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 14, 2013, 12:45:28 AM
(http://i.forbesimg.com/assets/img/forbes_logo/forbes_logo_white.svg)


Got a regular column on Forbes.com now... perhaps I'll be able to smuggle classical music into it on a more regular basis.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/the-tower-that-fell/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/the-tower-that-fell/)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/artistic-propaganda-in-ossetia/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/artistic-propaganda-in-ossetia/)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/when-a-concert-isnt-just-a-concert/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2013/01/13/when-a-concert-isnt-just-a-concert/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 14, 2013, 01:16:02 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c-uzjg_5p4I/UPR84Lv9dxI/AAAAAAAAFuY/V0qwjz577SA/s1600/Olivier_Messiaen_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts-at-Large: Mariss Jansons' Birthday Turangalîla

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/ionarts-at-large-mariss-jansons.html)


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aRBqVEFm6bU/UPm2FsFICBI/AAAAAAAAF8M/EMaiDsgkkPE/s1600/Anton_Bruckner_II_laurson_600.jpg)
A Survey of Bruckner Cycles
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-survey-of-bruckner-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-survey-of-bruckner-cycles.html)

(Help with broken links or wrong information or mix-ups always much appreciated.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 29, 2013, 05:54:37 AM
I could scarcely credit my eyes when I read this, this morning:

QuoteFew composers evoke elevated sentiments such as "wow!" and "we get the picture" as powerfully as Locatelli.

I suppose some listeners in our day "wow" easily. (And, is "we get the picture" an elevated sentiment?)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 29, 2013, 05:56:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 29, 2013, 05:54:37 AM
I could scarcely credit my eyes when I read this, this morning:

I suppose some listeners in our day "wow" easily. (And, is "we get the picture" an elevated sentiment?)

YIKES. Was that hacksterdom spilled in actual print?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 29, 2013, 05:59:57 AM
Pixels, but . . . prestige-ly pixels.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on January 30, 2013, 01:23:59 PM
A camera on a trombone (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwip90_gopro-sur-un-trombone_fun?start=20#.UQmdt1Tvh8H)  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 31, 2013, 02:04:48 AM
How old is the youngest composer you regularly listen to?

He's getting older all the time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 03, 2013, 08:24:20 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xjsVNJNpvV4/UQ6PNxllW3I/AAAAAAAAGCM/_lfJwlrYbTg/s1600/Gergiev_laurson_600.jpg)

Valery Gergiev Signs Contract With Munich Philharmonic
Valery Gergiev Signs Contract With Munich Philharmonic. Here's why, and what to expect:

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/valery-gergiev-signs-contract-with.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/valery-gergiev-signs-contract-with.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 05, 2013, 12:43:49 PM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I1KxAKWSnUU/UEc-h4nmLAI/AAAAAAAAEL8/dXXBSc35eFg/s1600/Munich_Phil_600.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Gergiev's First Time
Gergiev's first concert after officially being announced and presented as the incoming Principal Conductor of the MPhil couldn't have been more symbolic...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/ionarts-at-large-gergievs-first-time.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/ionarts-at-large-gergievs-first-time.html)

see also:
Quote from: jlaurson on February 03, 2013, 08:24:20 AM
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xjsVNJNpvV4/UQ6PNxllW3I/AAAAAAAAGCM/_lfJwlrYbTg/s1600/Gergiev_laurson_600.jpg)

Valery Gergiev Signs Contract With Munich Philharmonic
Valery Gergiev Signs Contract With Munich Philharmonic. Here's why, and what to expect:

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/valery-gergiev-signs-contract-with.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/valery-gergiev-signs-contract-with.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 08, 2013, 06:20:51 AM
Conductor James DePreist has died, age 76.

(http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/images/DePreistTribute6_500_Z.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on February 09, 2013, 07:31:19 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2013/feb/08/tortoise-sex-piano-richard-clayderman-video (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2013/feb/08/tortoise-sex-piano-richard-clayderman-video)

>:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 09, 2013, 07:46:23 AM
Well, I've only now learnt that Richard Clayderman was French.

And I certainly understand why the French would try to keep that secret.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 11, 2013, 02:45:56 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NvhjsOtwz2E/URUneREDYYI/AAAAAAAAGFc/QTVVyLIq9-Y/s1600/NSO_European_Tour_laurson_600.jpg)
NSO-at-Large: Nuremberg Pranks

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/nso-at-large-nuremberg-pranks.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/nso-at-large-nuremberg-pranks.html)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NvhjsOtwz2E/URUneREDYYI/AAAAAAAAGFc/QTVVyLIq9-Y/s1600/NSO_European_Tour_laurson_600.jpg)
NSO-at-Large: Frankfurt Hijinks

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/nso-at-large-frankfurt-hijinks.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/nso-at-large-frankfurt-hijinks.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 20, 2013, 05:13:09 AM
Anyone can think of a case of "character assassination" in the fields of science or music?

There must be something... but I'm not having any ideas. I was thinking of Gesualdo, for a while, but that wasn't character assassination, that was just assassination. And not of him, but by him.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 20, 2013, 05:23:48 AM
I'd almost say Golijov, except that that's not character assassination, it's justice ; )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 05:32:07 AM
Robert Oppenheimer (?)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 20, 2013, 05:47:21 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 05:32:07 AM
Robert Oppenheimer (?)

John Adams as the perpetrator, presumably?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 20, 2013, 05:50:30 AM
Johann Georg Faust?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 05:57:17 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 20, 2013, 05:47:21 AM
John Adams as the perpetrator, presumably?

No, silly. It was much later, under Eisenhower, I think. :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 20, 2013, 06:00:35 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on February 20, 2013, 05:58:58 AM
John Cage has suffered some character assassination on this forum.  But I am sure his reputation will survive.

He'd be the first to laugh it off.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 06:02:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 20, 2013, 06:00:35 AM
He'd be the first to laugh it off.

Or may have even called it appreciation. >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 20, 2013, 06:12:56 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 05:57:17 AM
No, silly. It was much later, under Eisenhower, I think. :P


haha. Seriously... I'm not aware if Oppenheimer was defamed in any successful way: Any hinters? 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on February 20, 2013, 06:31:59 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on February 20, 2013, 06:12:56 AM
haha. Seriously... I'm not aware if Oppenheimer was defamed in any successful way: Any hinters? 

I'm obviously referring to all the hearings post the Manhattan Project. If you attribute the cause to a collective paranoia on the part of some government officials and treat the events as nothing more than a sequence of government-led investigations, then I suppose he won't fit your bill. But it's no secret that at least some of that was fuelled by a feud with Edward Teller.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on February 22, 2013, 12:21:24 PM
A condition comment on a used copy of the Chailly Bruckner cycle :

QuoteUsed - Like New - Unfortunately disc 5 is missing. all other discs perfect though

oh that's ok then...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 22, 2013, 12:53:09 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on February 22, 2013, 12:21:24 PM
A condition comment on a used copy of the Chailly Bruckner cycle :

oh that's ok then...  ;D

Don't start being picky. That's like... barely 10%. And the 5th Symphony, really... it's not like you don't have it already. :-)
Anyone who already has the 5th, though, and not the others, might get a bargain...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 22, 2013, 12:54:59 PM

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4ls9SAVgK_I/USenSifFpZI/AAAAAAAAGL4/U65BayABBQo/s1600/MAHLER_02_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts-at-Large: Mahler With Mehta and Angel Blue
Seriously, "Angel Blue" is not a stripper?

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/ionarts-at-large-mahler-with-mehta-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/ionarts-at-large-mahler-with-mehta-and.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on February 24, 2013, 05:21:09 AM
For those who can access the BBC I-player, there's a running documentary series on 20th Century Classical Music on BBC4, called "The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music".

Part 1 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qnp5f/The_Sound_and_the_Fury_A_Century_of_Music_Wrecking_Ball/)

The first episode looks at the shift in the language and sound of music from the beautiful melodies and harmonies of the giants of classical music such as Mozart, Haydn and Brahms into the fragmented, abstract, discordant sound of the most radical composers of the new century - Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and beyond.

It examines how this new music, which can perplex and upset even the most contemporary of audiences, was a response to the huge upheaval in the world at the start of the 20th century - with its developments in technology, science, modern art and the tumult of the First World War.

Featuring specially-shot performances of some of the key works of the period, performed by the London Sinfonietta, members of the Aurora Orchestra and the American composer and pianist Timothy Andres, the story of this radical episode in music history is brought to life through the contributions of some of the biggest names in modern classical music, among them Steve Reich, John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin and Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker.

From the atonal experiments of Vienna to the jazz-infused sounds coming from New York in the 1920s, the film travels the world to place this music in context and to uncover the incredible personalities and lives of the composers whose single-minded visions changed the course of classical music for ever.



Part 2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qsqzc/The_Sound_and_the_Fury_A_Century_of_Music_Free_for_All/)

The second episode looks at how the freewheeling modernism that had shocked, scandalised and titillated audiences in the first two decades of the 20th century comes under state control. Initially, many practitioners thought the totalitarian regimes would be good for music and the arts. What followed in Germany was a ban on music written by Jews, African-Americans and communists, while in the Soviet Union there was a prohibition on music the workers were unable to hum. In the USA, many composers voluntarily embraced music for the masses.

After the cataclysm of the 1940s, a new generation of 20-something composers - Boulez, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Nono, Ligeti - turned their back on what they saw as the discredited music of the past and decided to try and reinvent it from scratch. Or, at least, from serialism, which became, as the 1950s wore on, as much of a straitjacket as the strictures of totalitarianism had been before. But from this period of avant-garde experimentation, which many listeners found baffling and even terrifying, came some of the most influential and radical musical innovations of the century.

The story is told by a musical cast list including Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Peter Maxwell-Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and John Adams.



The 3rd part will focus on the USA with Steve Reich, etc...

Interesting and educational, although excepting Shostakovitch/Stravinsky/Gershwin/Copeland and a bit of Schönberg, the rest of the contents isn't doing much for me (Webern, Berg, Boulez, Ives, Maxwell Davies,  Birtwistle, Stockhausen, Nono, Ligeti, Xenakis...).

there's a concert  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p015319h/The_Sound_and_the_Fury_in_Concert_Messiaen_Ligeti_Xenakis_and_Birtwistle/)as well if that's your thing.

Performances by the London Sinfonietta and cellist Oliver Coates of works by Oliver Messiaen, Gyorg Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis and Harrison Birtwistle recorded in 2012 for BBC Four's The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music. Performances include the 1st and 5th Movements of Oliver Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time', the 1st Movement of Gyorg Ligeti's 'Chamber Concerto', Oliver Coates performing Iannis Xenakis's 'Kottos' plus 'Antistrophe' and 'Strasimon' from Harrison Birtwistle's 'Trageodea'.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 16, 2013, 01:48:41 PM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)

Dip Your Ears, No. 129 (Viols and Organ)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-129-viols-and-organ.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-129-viols-and-organ.html)
"Consorts to the Organ" confusingly means exactly what it says: a consort – of viols – to accompany a – chamber – organ. The consort makes the majority of the merry noise of the musicke of Billy Lawes (1602 – 1645)...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 21, 2013, 02:13:35 PM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wZutZvyUzcw/UUo03FwQnuI/AAAAAAAAGTc/5_o6IIlUv6s/s1600/Dallas_Symphony_Munich_laurson_600.jpg)

Ionarts-at-Large: Dallas SO and @violincase in Munich

...with their second of two programs: Wagner's Prelude & Liebestod, Steven Stucky's Elegy from August 4, 1964,
and Richard Strauss' Suite from Der Rosenkavalier pivoting around the constant of the two programs, Erich Korn-
gold's Violin Concerto...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/ionarts-at-large-dallas-so-and.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/ionarts-at-large-dallas-so-and.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 21, 2013, 03:44:28 PM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxDH-7i4kg4/UUuZn1ZxLOI/AAAAAAAAGTs/ppUd6_lUj4w/s1600/Jakobsplatz_Orchestra_Munich_laurson_600.jpg)

The Shtick, Shpil, and Spheres of Daniel Hope

...Then Philip Glass' Echorus, which is the good man at his Glassian best and better yet: a piece originally written for Menuhin which allows Daniel Hope one of his "did you know I studied with Menuhin?!" plugs. No... really? Tell us more. ...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-shtick-shpil-and-spheres-of-daniel.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-shtick-shpil-and-spheres-of-daniel.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 21, 2013, 06:14:12 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 21, 2013, 03:44:28 PM
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxDH-7i4kg4/UUuZn1ZxLOI/AAAAAAAAGTs/ppUd6_lUj4w/s1600/Jakobsplatz_Orchestra_Munich_laurson_600.jpg)

The Shtick, Shpil, and Spheres of Daniel Hope

...Then Philip Glass' Echorus, which is the good man at his Glassian best and better yet: a piece originally written for Menuhin which allows Daniel Hope one of his "did you know I studied with Menuhin?!" plugs. No... really? Tell us more. ...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-shtick-shpil-and-spheres-of-daniel.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-shtick-shpil-and-spheres-of-daniel.html)


Never thought Louis CK would be mentioned in the same article as Arvo Part.  :D

Thanks for the link, Jens.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 23, 2013, 09:26:33 AM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)

Dip Your Ears, No. 130 (Bach, Fresh Squeezed)

The accordion has a reputation problem in the US, where its esteem ranks somewhere between recorder and kazoo...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-130-bach-fresh-squeezed.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-130-bach-fresh-squeezed.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 25, 2013, 06:54:38 AM
t'is up now:

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GEp8pryRAMU/UU-BUrZ64WI/AAAAAAAAGV0/SbfbpphxIjc/s1600/Antonin_Dvorak_laurson_600.jpg)
A Survey of Dvorák Symphony Cycles (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-survey-of-dvorak-symphony-cycles.html)


OK... inspired myself, of sorts, and put together a "Dvorak Survey", much like the

Bruckner Survey http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-survey-of-bruckner-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-survey-of-bruckner-cycles.html) and the
Sibelius Survey http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/05/survey-of-sibelius-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/05/survey-of-sibelius-cycles.html). (Will go live tomorrow (9AM, EST) here: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Discography (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Discography)) With about 15 3/4 + 1/2 cycles that I found (one of them mix&match), it's only half the size than either Bruckner or Sibelius... not surprising, really... given the popularity-discrepancy between 7-9 and cumbersome (though in their own way very appealing) 1-4. And thanks to awesome Qobuz (http://www.qobuz.com/), I can listen in on several sets I don't have. (Qobuz is a bit like Spotify and iTunes combined (streaming and downloading), but for specifically classical music audiophiles and, for the the time being, only in French. (Not that that keeps me.) Between that, the NML, and Spotify, I can sample pretty much anything that's out there, now.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-survey-of-dvorak-symphony-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-survey-of-dvorak-symphony-cycles.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 27, 2013, 09:19:29 AM
Can you believe this?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zE--RV1qL.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on March 27, 2013, 11:11:32 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 27, 2013, 09:19:29 AM
Can you believe this?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zE--RV1qL.jpg)
Featuring the Shower Scene...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 31, 2013, 04:15:53 AM
Am I seeing double, or do we really have two Norman Norman dello dello Joio Joio threads threads now?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 31, 2013, 04:19:20 AM
Lawd, there's three of him, now!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 31, 2013, 04:35:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 31, 2013, 04:19:20 AM
Lawd, there's three of him, now!

A thread for each one of his names?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 31, 2013, 05:49:34 AM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 131 (Pfitzner Supreme) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-131-pfitzner-supreme.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-131-pfitzner-supreme.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/dip-your-ears-no-131-pfitzner-supreme.html)
Palestrina, Pfitzner's supposed masterpiece, can be dull. Not this one!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 01, 2013, 02:44:12 AM
April is What the heck, listen to anything month....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 01, 2013, 10:10:47 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 01, 2013, 02:44:12 AM
April is What the heck, listen to anything month....
Not going to listen to that hoity-toity French stuff, or 2nd Viennese school, then?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 01, 2013, 10:30:44 AM
Why not? It's all good.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 01, 2013, 10:39:27 AM
Yes, I guess 'anything' covers those, too. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 06, 2013, 09:06:14 AM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 132 (Gál's Marionettes) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-132-gals-marionettes.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-132-gals-marionettes.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-132-gals-marionettes.html)
Don't let the amateurish graphic design of this release (strictly speaking re-release from an earlier Olympia recording), or the performer's shiny turquoise waistcoat fool you: These are quality piano duos...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 08, 2013, 07:46:22 AM
...Christoph Biller, the 16th Thomanercantor since Bach, says that God can't be known (hence faith), but he can be felt—in Bach. Bach—and I agree wholehearted, although "without invisible means of support" myself—is next to Godliness. Part of what makes Bach stand apart is that deep, quasi-spiritual sense one gets from his music... a feeling Romain Rolland might have described as "oceanic": A sense of rightness, universal like a mathematical proof...

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uqyYjeXy_8o/UNlfq2leIiI/AAAAAAAAFB8/L6ShBiPlP9U/s1600/Bach_Stamps_Briefmarken_laurson_600.jpg)
Bach is Next to Godliness, the Flute Not

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/bach-is-next-to-godliness-flute-not_8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/bach-is-next-to-godliness-flute-not_8.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 12, 2013, 12:05:17 AM

(http://images-onepick-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?container=onepick&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*&url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-YEVpDNmCkus%2FUQ1nRixw-UI%2FAAAAAAAAGBc%2FJmJ2d8PdPk4%2Fs1600%2FRichard_Wagner_laurson_600.jpg)
Parsifal and the Tree of Life

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/parsifal-and-tree-of-life.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/parsifal-and-tree-of-life.html)

Konwitschny zooms in on the individual as such and pain—and puts Amfortas front and center of his all-white papier-mâché stage to illustrate this point...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 12, 2013, 03:57:19 AM
First thing in the morning I am apt to misread the odd thread title; mentally, I am morally prepared for that.

Still, got a big chuckle when I caught myself thinking I had read Wagner's Vanilla.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 14, 2013, 05:52:48 AM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 133 (Bach Motets)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-133-bach-motets.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-133-bach-motets.html)

According to Gardiner, the Motets are "the cantor's 'most perfect... most hypnotic... works'. Certainly perfect for a Sunday. (With audio samples from all six, by different performers.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 16, 2013, 03:52:00 AM
If only Souzay were a composer, here at GMG we could have The Souzay Queue.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 20, 2013, 10:14:57 AM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 134 (The Lovely Hill)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-134-lovely-hill.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/dip-your-ears-no-134-lovely-hill.html)

Here's chamber music you didn't know you love: From Australian Alfred Hill (1869-1960), whose string quartets...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 24, 2013, 08:17:29 AM

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mx-5Lh8IsKQ/UXf1YxECZ2I/AAAAAAAAGbU/PzL8DHmloUc/s1600/Hansel&Gretel_Munich_standard_laurson_600.jpg)
Crunch Time for Missing Children

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/crunch-time-for-missing-children.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/crunch-time-for-missing-children.html)
Quote from: jlaurson on April 20, 2013, 10:14:57 AM
The Scoping Report on Missing and Abducted Children 2011 states the following: "Children who go missing are at risk of harm. When a child goes missing, there is something wrong, often quite seriously, in that child's life. The reasons behind missing incidents are varied, where children go missing as a consequence of specific, distinct circumstances. The serious problem of missing and abducted children is a broad, complex and challenging issue. It tends to be poorly defined, lacking in accurate statistics, and is subject to an array of responses at local, national and international levels. At the same time, there is a pressing and urgent concern for improving responses to cases of missing and abducted children. Being missing from home or a place of residence not only entails several inherent risks for children and young people, but is also a cause and consequence of other grave concerns in any child's life."

The FBI cites a 2002 federal study on missing children according to which a heartening 99.8 percent of children reported missing "were located or returned home alive. The remaining 0.2 percent either did not return home or were not found. The study estimated that most of missing children cases involved runaways from juvenile facilities and that only an estimated 0.0068 percent were true kidnappings by a stranger. The primary conclusion of the study was that child abductions perpetrated by strangers rarely occur. However, when they do occur, the results can be tragic."

Tragic, indeed. Which makes the following events all the more dramatic: After a domestic altercation on the evening of April 1st, two underage siblings went missing near Munich...

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Geo Dude on April 24, 2013, 02:38:39 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 08, 2013, 07:46:22 AM
...Christoph Biller, the 16th Thomanercantor since Bach, says that God can't be known (hence faith), but he can be felt—in Bach. Bach—and I agree wholehearted, although "without invisible means of support" myself—is next to Godliness. Part of what makes Bach stand apart is that deep, quasi-spiritual sense one gets from his music... a feeling Romain Rolland might have described as "oceanic": A sense of rightness, universal like a mathematical proof...

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uqyYjeXy_8o/UNlfq2leIiI/AAAAAAAAFB8/L6ShBiPlP9U/s1600/Bach_Stamps_Briefmarken_laurson_600.jpg)
Bach is Next to Godliness, the Flute Not

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/bach-is-next-to-godliness-flute-not_8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/04/bach-is-next-to-godliness-flute-not_8.html)


Thank you for this. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 10, 2013, 02:54:57 AM
Do titles for a musical work come any more pretentious than "Cosmic Pulses"?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 12, 2013, 09:16:40 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on March 27, 2013, 09:19:29 AM
Can you believe this?

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zE--RV1qL.jpg)
Oh, I believe just about anything from recording companies/marketing executives/the corporate monster that governs us all. :laugh: Next, maybe: "Most Joyous Classical Music", "Most Extreme Classical Music"... :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on May 13, 2013, 10:38:16 AM
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/05/valery-gergiev-i-conducted-18-concerts-in-8-days.html

How mad is this, borders on a kind of illness surely?

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 13, 2013, 10:39:56 AM
And you just know he didn't shave in all that period.
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Geo Dude on May 13, 2013, 11:02:21 AM
Having seen pictures of Gergiev with a beard I don't think the lack of shaving is problematic.  I do hope he found time for regular bathing, though.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on May 13, 2013, 11:02:44 AM
Quote from: knight66 on May 13, 2013, 10:38:16 AM
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/05/valery-gergiev-i-conducted-18-concerts-in-8-days.html

How mad is this, borders on a kind of illness surely?

Mike

That's a lot of toothpicks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on May 13, 2013, 12:30:33 PM
I think we are fortunate he is involved in music and not soldiering. No one's borders would be inviolate.

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 14, 2013, 01:11:13 AM
Quote from: knight66 on May 13, 2013, 12:30:33 PM
I think we are fortunate he is involved in music and not soldering. No one's borders would be inviolate.

Mike

For a second I thought: Yes... a lot of loose connections, in that case... (then I saw the "i".)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 25, 2013, 12:20:44 AM

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nP06lu7gRbA/UZ-tRxYzx3I/AAAAAAAAGcs/pNM3dHXul5g/s1600/Les_noces_Stravinsky_laurson_600.png)
Whitsun Salzburg: Stravinsky for Dummies

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/05/whitsun-salzburg-stravinsky-for-dummies.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/05/whitsun-salzburg-stravinsky-for-dummies.html)

The topic this year was "OPFER/SACRIFICE", with thematic and linguistic links which had to
include the two most famous 'sacrifices' in music: Bach's
Musical Offering and of course
Le sacre du printemps. It was the latter I went to see—a Stravinsky triple bill of Les
noces ("The Wedding"), Sacre, and L'oiseau de feu ("The Firebird"), with Gergiev
at the helm of the Mariinsky troupe... both orchestra and ballet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 25, 2013, 01:57:21 AM

Latest issue of LISTEN MAGAZINE is out, including more CD mini-reviews than usual, and a short appreciation of Colin Davis on record...

(http://listenmusicmag.com/_resources/img/covers/05-13-full.jpg) (http://listenmusicmag.com/)

Sublime Lark (BIS) ► Quicksilver Brahms (Ondine) ► Bohemian Ducks (Harmonia Mundi) ► Heavenly Interspersed (LSO Live) ► Auspicious Debut (Mariinsky) ►
Plucky Historicism (Naïve) ► Gold Standard Scarlatti (Piano Classics) ► With Re-Mixed Feelings (DG) ► Incidental Requiem (King's College Choir) ► Spellbinding Goerne (Harmonia Mundi) ► Undiscovered (Supraphon) ► Lutoslawski Touchstone
(BR Klassik) ► A Very Classical Mix (Gramola)

Available digitally here... but really one should hold it in one's hand, with the beautiful paper stock and art design... http://www.listenmagazine-digital.com/listenmagazine/ (http://www.listenmagazine-digital.com/listenmagazine/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 25, 2013, 07:48:04 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 25, 2013, 01:57:21 AM

Latest issue of LISTEN MAGAZINE is out, including more CD mini-reviews than usual, and a short appreciation of Colin Davis on record...

(http://listenmusicmag.com/_resources/img/covers/05-13-full.jpg) (http://listenmusicmag.com/)

Sublime Lark (BIS) ► Quicksilver Brahms (Ondine) ► Bohemian Ducks (Harmonia Mundi) ► Heavenly Interspersed (LSO Live) ► Auspicious Debut (Mariinsky) ►
Plucky Historicism (Naïve) ► Gold Standard Scarlatti (Piano Classics) ► With Re-Mixed Feelings (DG) ► Incidental Requiem (King's College Choir) ► Spellbinding Goerne (Harmonia Mundi) ► Undiscovered (Supraphon) ► Lutoslawski Touchstone
(BR Klassik) ► A Very Classical Mix (Gramola)

Available digitally here... but really one should hold it in one's hand, with the beautiful paper stock and art design... http://www.listenmagazine-digital.com/listenmagazine/ (http://www.listenmagazine-digital.com/listenmagazine/)

One of those reviews, in XL format:
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 139 (Mozart's Many Requiems)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/05/dip-your-ears-no-139-mozarts-many.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/05/dip-your-ears-no-139-mozarts-many.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2013, 05:15:16 AM
Quote from: Arnold Bax. . . I have no interest whatever in sound for its own sake.

That's fine, as a statement of Bax's personal and musical interests. It isn't as if it were binding upon all artists, of course;  nor does his lack of interest in a line of musical pursuit, signify that the pursuit is anything unworthy. I mean, I have no interest in Bax's music, e.g.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2013, 05:35:13 AM
Aye, in A Certain Someone's sig  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on June 14, 2013, 02:02:52 PM
Aldeburgh: £4.7m Benjamin Britten archive building is officially opened by Dame Janet Baker (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/aldeburgh_4_7m_benjamin_britten_archive_building_is_officially_opened_by_dame_janet_baker_1_2237595)

(http://www.eadt.co.uk/polopoly_fs/013_pnp_red_house_5_1_2237594!image/944432940.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/944432940.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 15, 2013, 01:25:54 AM

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MipcPvlcaOM/UbsD2R9vxsI/AAAAAAAAGdw/t6sVDqO9Q8E/s1600/BRSO_Nelsons_Denoke_Wagner_Dvorak.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Grazioso Indeed! Nelsons with the BRSO


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/ionarts-at-large-grazioso-indeed.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/ionarts-at-large-grazioso-indeed.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 17, 2013, 06:38:03 AM

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-_P4hVe1To/Ub8B6od-MZI/AAAAAAAAGfU/Yfbj4RIGNow/s1600/Academy-for-Ancient-Music_Berlin_jens-f-laurson.jpg)

Ionarts-at-Large: AkAMus Rocks Corelli


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/ionarts-at-large-akamus-rocks-corelli.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/ionarts-at-large-akamus-rocks-corelli.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 20, 2013, 10:59:51 AM



Flying Dutchman Sketches & Doodles


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LBOA-F9R8gs/UcNG_p0giHI/AAAAAAAAGgM/nbaQDnSL3ws/s1600/Dutchman_graphic_Laurson_mope+Kopie.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/flying-dutchman-sketches-doodles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/flying-dutchman-sketches-doodles.html)



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YEVpDNmCkus/UQ1nRixw-UI/AAAAAAAAGBc/JmJ2d8PdPk4/s1600/Richard_Wagner_laurson_600.jpg)

Minkowski's Sons of Meyerbeer: Wagner & Dietsch

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/minkowskis-sons-of-meyerbeer-wagner.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/minkowskis-sons-of-meyerbeer-wagner.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 22, 2013, 12:52:53 PM


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WVkZ4AMutAM/UcR3Hrslc6I/AAAAAAAAGg0/B0_asXrjhjE/s320/MPhil_Currentzis_Melnikov_Prokofiev_Laurson.png)

The Currentzis Dances II & Ravel's Wonderful Rubbish

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-currentzis-dances-ii-ravels.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-currentzis-dances-ii-ravels.html)

Quote
...But don't ever, ever tut-tut or pshaw! Pop songs or techno or down-tempo songs (not that the type to do so would be able to distinguish),
while professing a love for Ravel's confessedly music-devoid Bolero. Like it, by all means. We all do. But then don't thumb your nose at the
popularity of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" (featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers, for good measure), which is exactly the same piece of music,
except that Daft Punk have the decency to stop the joke after 4 minutes...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 22, 2013, 02:59:06 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on June 14, 2013, 02:02:52 PM
Aldeburgh: £4.7m Benjamin Britten archive building is officially opened by Dame Janet Baker (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/aldeburgh_4_7m_benjamin_britten_archive_building_is_officially_opened_by_dame_janet_baker_1_2237595)

(http://www.eadt.co.uk/polopoly_fs/013_pnp_red_house_5_1_2237594!image/944432940.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/944432940.jpg)
Great to see a pic of Dame Janet again!  I wonder, does she sing at all now?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on June 24, 2013, 09:56:09 AM
An oasis in Iceland: The best record store in the world? (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the-gramophone-blog/the-best-record-store-in-the-world)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on June 24, 2013, 10:35:05 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on June 24, 2013, 09:56:09 AM
An oasis in Iceland: The best record store in the world? (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the-gramophone-blog/the-best-record-store-in-the-world)

Hey, I've been there! I didn't buy any classical though. The exchange rate to ISK was still tough.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Cato on June 24, 2013, 03:41:23 PM
I just came across this:

QuoteAn empty papal throne is pictured as Archbishop Rino Fisichella (R) reads a message from Pope Francis before a RAI National Symphony Orchestra concert, directed by conductor Juraj Valcuha of Slovakia, in Paul VI hall at the Vatican June 22, 2013....

Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis from attending.

The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he - and perhaps they - had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events....

See:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-pope-concert-idUSBRE95N0S920130624 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/24/us-pope-concert-idUSBRE95N0S920130624)

Was there nothing by Ginastera or Piazzola on the program?   0:)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 28, 2013, 04:04:14 AM
I have an embarrassment of riches to choose from, for First-Listen Friday . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Geo Dude on June 28, 2013, 09:28:09 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 28, 2013, 04:04:14 AM
I have an embarrassment of riches to choose from, for First-Listen Friday . . . .

Why don't you list the recordings and let us help you pick? ;D

(Yeah, I just want to know what new stuff you have in. :))
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on July 10, 2013, 07:01:35 PM
(http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/hanbook_2266_227944432)

Any really big Myung-Whun Chung fans here?  A 33 CD Korean market set is available for under $300.  I do like some of his work, but I think I shall pass.  (Too bad DG didn't finish the Dvorak symphony cycle.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 11, 2013, 06:43:33 AM


The Cello Suites, Bach I (Mischa Maisky - DVD)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-thtV3npwdYY/UdP62-OpysI/AAAAAAAAGk4/s4r7zdpJuxs/s600/BACH_Portrait_original_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-i-mischa-maisky.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-i-mischa-maisky.html)


Dip Your Ears, No. 97

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/02/dip-your-ears-no-97.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/02/dip-your-ears-no-97.html)



Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 8, 2010 Onward


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VYQWtbpDv9Q/UPQjw3NPXEI/AAAAAAAAFro/1OCHnnTJ3H8/s1600/Beethoven_basic_laurson_600.jpg)

INCL: R.BUCHBINDER II • H J LIM • S.GOODYEAR • F.F.GUY • L.LORTIE • P.RÖSEL


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 12, 2013, 01:11:53 PM
Supraphon physical CDs are now being distributed stateside by Naxos. Not sure if an NML appearance will follow (but one can dream).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 14, 2013, 07:50:26 AM


Dip Your Ears, No. 146 (Christine Schäfer Sings SchoenBerg)

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-146-christine-schafer_13.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-146-christine-schafer_13.html)



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l3cZP3kRCEQ/UeLX-8TIfDI/AAAAAAAAGqM/8xGyrpzzS70/s320/MPhil_Mariinsky_Gergiev_M5.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Bavaro-Russian Peace Orchestra with Gergiev

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-at-large-bavaro-russian-peace.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-at-large-bavaro-russian-peace.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on July 15, 2013, 07:31:51 AM
QuoteToday we announce that we will launch our own record label, AAM Records, this autumn. Over the past forty years we have released over 300 CDs, predominantly on the Decca and Harmonia Mundi labels. The establishment of AAM Records will allow us to build on this distinguished legacy, taking full control of our future recording catalogue and producing a range of recordings which match the artistic plans and development of the orchestra...

Source (http://www.aam.co.uk/#/news/2013/aam-records-launch.aspx)

A bit too late for Hogwood to complete the Haydn symphonies set, perhaps? :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on July 15, 2013, 11:42:47 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 22, 2013, 02:59:06 PM
Great to see a pic of Dame Janet again!  I wonder, does she sing at all now?

She teaches. It is many years since she performed.

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 21, 2013, 06:20:18 AM

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)


Dip Your Ears, No. 147 (Rick LaSalle's Sonatas)

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00A2NFDDY.01.L.jpg)
Rick LaSalle, Piano Sonatas, Ragtime
Ingrid Marsoner
Gramola

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-147-rick-lasalles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-147-rick-lasalles.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 23, 2013, 09:25:58 AM
Happy Birthday to self!


Ionarts Turns 10


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TfgITMrvnk4/Ue3Wnbcn3DI/AAAAAAAAEzI/PXwbtK0Msa4/s1600/I+O+N+A+R+T+S++10th+birthday_laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-turns-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-turns-10.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 23, 2013, 09:26:32 AM
Congrats, Jens!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 24, 2013, 08:17:56 AM
Quote from: knight66 on July 15, 2013, 11:42:47 AM
She teaches. It is many years since she performed.

Mike
It would be great to witness one of her master classes!  I can only imagine she's as great a teacher as she was a singer. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 25, 2013, 04:05:10 AM


The Cello Suites, Bach III (Gastinel, Queyras, Lipkind)



(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2VqOm52_jIA/UdQxf89lK6I/AAAAAAAAGl4/5Kar6d1lYnw/s600/BACH_Portrait_abstract_laurson_600.jpg)

ttp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-iii-gastinel.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cello-suites-bach-iii-gastinel.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 25, 2013, 05:39:31 AM
Erratum from here (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/May09/Britten_2175262.htm):

QuoteCD20
Noye's Fludde Op. 59 rec. 1898

Well, I feel certain it was recorded sometime later than 1898 . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 26, 2013, 04:10:00 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on July 23, 2013, 09:25:58 AM
Happy Birthday to self!

Ionarts Turns 10

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TfgITMrvnk4/Ue3Wnbcn3DI/AAAAAAAAEzI/PXwbtK0Msa4/s1600/I+O+N+A+R+T+S++10th+birthday_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-turns-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-turns-10.html)




Mieczysław Weinberg's Idiot
Awe-inspiring Masterpiece Unearthed in Mannheim

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S_jm2ylAgk4/UfE5YvFQCbI/AAAAAAAAGsU/PsL9KAb29uY/s1600/IDIOT_Mannheim_Mysh_Rogo_train_HansJorg-Michel_Laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/mieczysaw-weinbergs-idiot-awe-inspiring.html

(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/mieczysaw-weinbergs-idiot-awe-inspiring.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on July 26, 2013, 10:59:28 AM
A couple of debating articles on Benjamin Britten in today's East Anglian Daily times :

Great debate: Benjamin Britten - a genius or coward? (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/great_debate_benjamin_britten_a_genius_or_coward_1_2301627)

Benjamin Britten failed to share the perils of war with his fellow countrymen, says Michael Cole (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/great_debate_benjamin_britten_failed_to_share_the_perils_of_war_with_his_fellow_countrymen_says_michael_cole_1_2301625)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 26, 2013, 11:04:37 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on July 26, 2013, 10:59:28 AM
A couple of debating articles on Benjamin Britten in today's East Anglian Daily times :

Great debate: Benjamin Britten - a genius or coward? (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/great_debate_benjamin_britten_a_genius_or_coward_1_2301627)

Benjamin Britten failed to share the perils of war with his fellow countrymen, says Michael Cole (http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/great_debate_benjamin_britten_failed_to_share_the_perils_of_war_with_his_fellow_countrymen_says_michael_cole_1_2301625)

Wow... what a false dichotomy... as if being a genius had anything to do with being a coward or not.
Thousands of others were cowards, too, but not geniuses. At least Britten gave back his nations in ways he was obviously more suited to do, than running bayonet-first into mustard gas.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on July 26, 2013, 12:32:03 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on July 26, 2013, 11:04:37 AM
Wow... what a false dichotomy... as if being a genius had anything to do with being a coward or not.
Thousands of others were cowards, too, but not geniuses. At least Britten gave back his nations in ways he was obviously more suited to do, than running bayonet-first into mustard gas.

The article against Britten did seem like a cheap shot indeed. I didn't know about his "escaping" from the UK nor do I know enough of his works to make a judgement on the comments about the operas (i only have a couple of his shorter works)... That said, nor did I know about George Formby that the writer seems to prefer at a push. I had to ask older colleagues at work about that Formby guy and for parity, have checked him out on youtube earlier on... well ok... entertaining maybe but not for long :laugh:... He might not like Britten's music, fair point, but regardless, his legacy for the Snape / Aldeburgh area is a massive argument to ignore like he seems to do.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 27, 2013, 09:13:40 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on July 26, 2013, 04:10:00 AM



Mieczysław Weinberg's Idiot
Awe-inspiring Masterpiece Unearthed in Mannheim

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S_jm2ylAgk4/UfE5YvFQCbI/AAAAAAAAGsU/PsL9KAb29uY/s1600/IDIOT_Mannheim_Mysh_Rogo_train_HansJorg-Michel_Laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/mieczysaw-weinbergs-idiot-awe-inspiring.html
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/mieczysaw-weinbergs-idiot-awe-inspiring.html)


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 148 (Double the Chorales, Double the Joy)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-148-double-chorales.html

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00BI8SEWE.01.L.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/dip-your-ears-no-148-double-chorales.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 29, 2013, 03:50:26 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on July 18, 2013, 11:47:24 PM
Few things on the itinerary:

Diana Damrau Recital (w/Xavier de Maistre)
El Sistema • Youth Orchestra of Caracas, Felsenreitschule, Shostakovich I think...
Birtwistle: Gawain, Felsenreitschule
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra Mahler III, Grosses Festspielhaus
Salzburg contemporary • Klangforum Wien 1,   Kollegienkirche (Birtwistle and stuff)
W. Braunfels, Jeanne d'Arc, Felsenreitschule
Mozart, Lucio Silla, Haus für Mozart, Fischer Adam
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra Mahler VII, Grosses Festspielhaus
Vienna  Phil • Mahler V • Zubin Mehta, Grosses Festspielhaus




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 1 )
El Sistema • Youth Orchestra of Caracas

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/el-sistema-youth-orchestra-of-caracas.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/el-sistema-youth-orchestra-of-caracas.html)




Ionarts-at-Large: A Damrau Liederabend to Harp On

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-meFOZ9UKT0Q/UfP92sFhZ0I/AAAAAAAAGvs/4EyjHf2h56k/s1600/Damrau_Maistre_laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-at-large-damrau-liederabend-to.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/ionarts-at-large-damrau-liederabend-to.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 30, 2013, 08:17:18 AM

Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 2 )
Harrison Birtwistle • Gawain

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-2.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 03, 2013, 07:11:51 AM


Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 4 )
Salzburg Contemporary • Klangforum Wien 1 (Birtwistle)
"Trading Places" and Other Deadly Compositions

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-4.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-4.html)



(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qNdvoe4EdM/T385kcE3K6I/AAAAAAAAB6E/nR1C_9bD0sI/s1600/DIP-YOUR-EARS.png)
Dip Your Ears, No. 149 (Hans Rott Returns)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/dip-your-ears-no-149-hans-rott-returns.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/dip-your-ears-no-149-hans-rott-returns.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 04, 2013, 06:38:30 AM



Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 5 )
Walter Braunfels • Jeanne D'Arc
The Would-Be Future of Opera at Stake

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-5.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-5.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 04, 2013, 12:05:03 PM
The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra


http://www.youtube.com/v/UJrSUHK9Luw#at=170
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 05, 2013, 06:00:31 AM



Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 6 )
Lucio Silla • W.A.Mozart
Pretty to Die for and Deadly Boring

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-6.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-6.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 05, 2013, 07:46:19 PM
Well, humbug. Antoni Wit's career as head of the Warsaw Philharmonic is over, and - like everything else about Antoni Wit's career - it took place with no fanfare whatsoever. He didn't even get a farewell concert - the last concert of the season was presented by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. His farewell was, improbably, Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane.

I now feel even luckier than ever to have seen Mahler's Third with Wit/Warsaw when I did. I've never seen any other orchestra/conductor combo that came close in terms of communication, rapport, oneness of voice and spirit, or luxuriousness of sound. It's not hard for me to imagine that that's what my father remembers about seeing Karajan live in Berlin when he was there in the '70s.

I was thinking of going back to Warsaw this June for a Wit/WPO, as a leg on a planned European jaunt. Guess I'll have to settle for... some other wonderful amazing things!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on August 05, 2013, 08:09:45 PM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yYLgWaxlL.jpg)


Now this is what I call subtle.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2013, 07:19:36 AM
Not particularly considering any recordings at the moment, but it wouldn't feel right to say that on the Recordings you're considering thread.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 06, 2013, 07:38:47 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 05, 2013, 07:46:19 PM
Well, humbug. Antoni Wit's career as head of the Warsaw Philharmonic is over

Where did you hear that, Brian? I can't find anything online. What's he going to do now? I hear Boston is looking for a conductor  8)

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 06, 2013, 07:44:42 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 06, 2013, 07:38:47 AM
I hear Boston is looking for a conductor  8)

Sarge

No, they got Nelsons. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 06, 2013, 07:51:42 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on August 06, 2013, 07:44:42 AM
No, they got Nelsons. :)

Well, I'm late to the party  ;D  I hadn't heard the news. Congratulations, Boston!

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2013, 08:01:20 AM
He's slow out the gate, though, as he seems to have injured himself in Bayreuth.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 06, 2013, 01:00:48 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 06, 2013, 07:38:47 AM
Where did you hear that, Brian? I can't find anything online. What's he going to do now? I hear Boston is looking for a conductor  8)

Sarge
The news is buried here. (http://www.filharmonia.pl/dyrektor_naczelny_i_artystyczny.en.html) Wit has no website, and the WPO didn't do a farewell concert with him, and they also don't have any fanfare about their new director. It's almost like they wanted nobody to know. But:

"Managing and Artistic Director of Warsaw Philharmonic from January 2002 till August 2013.... From the concert season of 2010-11, he held the post of guest conductor with Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra in Pamplona. As of 2013-14, he will take over as that orchestra's artistic director, simultaneously accepting the position of honorary conductor to Cracow Philharmonic."

Makes me wonder if arrangements with Naxos will continue in Warsaw, or in Pamplona. Also makes me wonder if he's semi-retiring to Spanish wine country.

EDIT: Looked at the OS de Navarra's 2013-14 schedule. He's only appearing with them three times, in February-April, and only in the most normal of repertoire (Mozart [inc. Requiem], Haydn, Beethoven, Scheherazade).

EDIT II: Oh I was wrong! Wit/Warsaw's farewell is 23 August... at the BBC Proms. A delicious program of Lutoslawski, Panufnik and Shostakovich with Alexander Melnikov. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/august-23/14666)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 07, 2013, 04:00:30 AM
Resurrecting the WETA Mahler Survey
to go along with coverage of part of the Salzburg Mahler Cycle


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P6H22KDd6dw/UgFGyyJ0t9I/AAAAAAAAG5U/R-igMN9QkJc/s1600/Gustav_Mahler_7_1.png)
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 1)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/gustav-mahler-symphony-no7-part-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/gustav-mahler-symphony-no7-part-1.html)


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BZS1d24Ctts/UgH63jkBZQI/AAAAAAAAG6U/Qu8O4SPCQcE/s1600/Gustav_Mahler_7_2.png)
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 2)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/gustav-mahler-symphony-no7-part-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/gustav-mahler-symphony-no7-part-2.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 07, 2013, 06:59:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 06, 2013, 01:00:48 PM
The news is buried here. (http://www.filharmonia.pl/dyrektor_naczelny_i_artystyczny.en.html) Wit has no website, and the WPO didn't do a farewell concert with him, and they also don't have any fanfare about their new director. It's almost like they wanted nobody to know. But:

"Managing and Artistic Director of Warsaw Philharmonic from January 2002 till August 2013.... From the concert season of 2010-11, he held the post of guest conductor with Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra in Pamplona. As of 2013-14, he will take over as that orchestra's artistic director, simultaneously accepting the position of honorary conductor to Cracow Philharmonic."

Makes me wonder if arrangements with Naxos will continue in Warsaw, or in Pamplona. Also makes me wonder if he's semi-retiring to Spanish wine country.

EDIT: Looked at the OS de Navarra's 2013-14 schedule. He's only appearing with them three times, in February-April, and only in the most normal of repertoire (Mozart [inc. Requiem], Haydn, Beethoven, Scheherazade).

EDIT II: Oh I was wrong! Wit/Warsaw's farewell is 23 August... at the BBC Proms. A delicious program of Lutoslawski, Panufnik and Shostakovich with Alexander Melnikov. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/august-23/14666)

Thanks for digging up all that information. And let's hope his work with Naxos continues. It's been a great run so far.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 09, 2013, 08:35:22 AM
E-mail came in from Naxos today, touting Alsop conducting Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem.

Does anyone who has heard it, speak for it?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 09, 2013, 11:36:52 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 09, 2013, 08:35:22 AM
E-mail came in from Naxos today, touting Alsop conducting Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem.

Does anyone who has heard it, speak for it?
Directly relevant to the previous discussion, Wit said he wanted to record that with Warsaw but Naxos refused and said they wanted to hand it to someone else. They offered him the complete Dvorak chorchestral works as a consolation; that Requiem is coming soon.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 09, 2013, 11:39:36 AM
Sure, that has the look of a purely artistic decision . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on August 09, 2013, 12:00:50 PM
I suppose Alsop noticed that Gardiner finished off his Brahms cycle with the Requiem, and wanted to do the same with hers.

That said,  there are a lot more recordings of the Brahms Requiem, and a lot of them good ones;  Dvorak choral/orchestral not so much, and I'll be much more interested in(meaning, much more likely to buy) these Dvorak recordings than I would be interested in a hypothetical Wit Brahms Requiem.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 10, 2013, 12:55:04 AM


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9tH6rOMBdQ/UgU2_2BCi_I/AAAAAAAAG-o/ls6oxZFNdRo/s1600/Russian_Sixes_laurson_600.png)

Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 10 )

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 1 • Mariss Jansons
A Russian Pair of Sixes

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-10.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 10, 2013, 06:21:30 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 09, 2013, 12:00:50 PM
That said,  there are a lot more recordings of the Brahms Requiem, and a lot of them good ones;  Dvorak choral/orchestral not so much, and I'll be much more interested in(meaning, much more likely to buy) these Dvorak recordings than I would be interested in a hypothetical Wit Brahms Requiem.

Yup. The absence of an acceptable recording of Dv's Te Deum is one of the recorded catalogue's worst omissions; one of the composer's greatest and most individual (that is, most Dvoraky) masterpieces, with somehow no satisfactory performance available.

(Neumann, Rilling = fairly sluggish and needing extra jubilance; Chandos = choir is not good, and blatantly Russian; Macal = New Jersey orchestra not up to snuff. Haven't heard Shaw or the Belohlavek performance, which is on DVD only.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 13, 2013, 07:11:27 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 09, 2013, 08:35:22 AM
E-mail came in from Naxos today, touting Alsop conducting Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem.

Does anyone who has heard it, speak for it?
I've not heard of that recording, but I can certainly speak for Marin Alsop.  She's one of my favorite conductors.  But I'm prejudiced: I've heard her live with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra here in Denver.  I can still remember Maestra Alsop and the CSO doing a flawless Mahler 7 and a very exciting performance of a Roy Harris symphony (#3?).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 14, 2013, 05:06:59 AM
I know she is capable of fine work, indeed;  which is why the rumor of meh Brahms (the symphonies on Naxos) is so disconcerting.  Am hoping the Op.45 may be notably better.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 14, 2013, 11:45:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2013, 05:06:59 AM
I know she is capable of fine work, indeed;  which is why the rumor of meh Brahms (the symphonies on Naxos) is so disconcerting.  Am hoping the Op.45 may be notably better.
My personal version of that rumor is very good Brahms 1 and 3, overall-good but problematic 4, and pretty dull 2.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 16, 2013, 04:21:16 AM
I appreciate the sharper granularity, Brian.  What were the problems in the e minor?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 16, 2013, 05:32:44 PM
My collection only contains Alsop in a disc of Barber, Glass Sym. 2/3 and Weill Symphonies.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on August 16, 2013, 05:46:53 PM
Having listened to that Alsop Mahler 1 I bought and B&N this afternoon--there's certainly nothing wrong with it.  But there's also nothing that shouts out "you must hear this performance".    I might suggest it as a budget-minded choice for someone just getting into Mahler, but you can actually throw a dart at the Amazon listings for this symphony and come up with a choice just as good.

Same general reaction to her Brahms 1, btw.  It's her Barber and John Adams recordings I like best of what I've heard from her.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 17, 2013, 06:49:24 AM
Alsop is scheduled to conduct the OAE in Brahms' German Requiem at the Proms tonight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/august-17/14630
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 17, 2013, 07:16:47 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 16, 2013, 05:46:53 PM
Having listened to that Alsop Mahler 1 I bought and B&N this afternoon--there's certainly nothing wrong with it.  But there's also nothing that shouts out "you must hear this performance".    I might suggest it as a budget-minded choice for someone just getting into Mahler, but you can actually throw a dart at the Amazon listings for this symphony and come up with a choice just as good.

Same general reaction to her Brahms 1, btw.  It's her Barber and John Adams recordings I like best of what I've heard from her.

I like the finale best on that Mahler 1 - really thrilling, to these ears. The rest is just good. I've seen her Mahler 1, Barber, AND John Adams live; the Barber's exciting and really coheres, but when I think of Marin Alsop concerts I've been to, the first thing I'll always think of is the Doctor Atomic Symphony, which she's yet to record.

EDIT: Karl, just did a GMG search and I wrote a long review of Alsop's Brahms here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,3348.msg79956/topicseen.html#msg79956). My superlatives for #1 are something I'd now like to tone down a little/lot. Actually I was a whole lot wordier/rambly back in '07, looks like. But hey, that comment at the end about how her Dvorak Seventh would probably suck was spot-on. Can't think of a worse recording of that symphony.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 17, 2013, 10:07:35 AM



Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 10 )
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 1 • Mariss Jansons

A Russian Pair of Sixes

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9tH6rOMBdQ/UgU2_2BCi_I/AAAAAAAAG-o/ls6oxZFNdRo/s1600/Russian_Sixes_laurson_600.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-10.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-10.html)




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 11 )
Soloist Recital • Till Fellner

Baroque Brawn and Classical Timidity

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wO2d-EL4UI8/Ug-62BDyPdI/AAAAAAAAHAY/eI8isYLE9hk/s1600/Salzburg_Till-Fellner_c_SilviaLelli_600_jens-f-laurson.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-11.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-11.html)




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 12 )
El Sistema • White Hands Choir

The Calligraphy of Song

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxPkgMWYXdk/Ug-uQqVVhJI/AAAAAAAAHAA/pauzlDWfBuY/s1600/White_Hands_Choir_Salzburg_ionarts_600.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-12.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-12.html)




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 13 )
Liederabend • Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber

The Art of Darkness

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WK27Kqn-ifA/Ug-nuBPqolI/AAAAAAAAG_w/9F40QA1DNT8/s1600/Gerhaher_Salzburg_ionarts_600.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-13.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-13.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 18, 2013, 04:39:59 AM
Man, I just had a dream where I kept reading reviews of all these amazing masterpiece symphonies that nobody's ever heard of, that were just coming out on CD, and how the reviewer hoped they would be played in concert halls alongside Beethoven. One was a Mackerras recording just being issued on Supraphon. But of course the moment I woke up I realized none of them were real.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 18, 2013, 05:01:02 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 18, 2013, 04:39:59 AM
Man, I just had a dream where I kept reading reviews of all these amazing masterpiece symphonies that nobody's ever heard of, that were just coming out on CD, and how the reviewer hoped they would be played in concert halls alongside Beethoven. One was a Mackerras recording just being issued on Supraphon. But of course the moment I woke up I realized none of them were real.
Well, the Asrael is relatively recent...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 18, 2013, 06:37:43 AM

A Helping Hand for Hans Gál!

(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-helping-hand-for-hans-gal.html)
QuoteConductor Kenneth Woods and his Orchestra of the Swan are busily raising money (via indigogo) for the last installment of their splendid, admirable, gorgeous-sounding Hans Gál Symphony project. Hans Gál is a composer dear to ionarts, he's been mentioned in the past and bound to get more attention still, in the future. His is music "you didn't know you love"—and you won't, unless more recordings...
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-helping-hand-for-hans-gal.html[/url]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 18, 2013, 07:54:39 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 18, 2013, 05:01:02 AM
Well, the Asrael is relatively recent...
The Mackerras one was a Symphony No. 1 by "Rakostava" played by the "Rakostava Ensemble" and the review explained how it was formed ad-hoc by Mackerras from a bunch of Rakostava enthusiasts.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 19, 2013, 04:31:05 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 17, 2013, 07:16:47 AM
. . . But hey, that comment at the end about how her Dvorak Seventh would probably suck was spot-on. Can't think of a worse recording of that symphony.

You are a man foresighted, Brian!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on August 20, 2013, 09:25:25 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 22, 2013, 02:59:06 PM
Great to see a pic of Dame Janet again!  I wonder, does she sing at all now?

Not much, really.

http://www.youtube.com/v/fGskxHlFEbg
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 20, 2013, 12:46:22 PM
Karl just tweeted this, found it fascinating and sorrowful...

Recording cancelled in Minnesota because 'orchestra is unfit'
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/08/recording-cancelled-in-minnesota-because-orchestra-is-unfit.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 20, 2013, 01:59:02 PM
I don't understand, what is a lockout? ???
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 20, 2013, 02:46:58 PM
Quote from: DavidW on August 20, 2013, 01:59:02 PM
I don't understand, what is a lockout? ???

Contract disputes between the musicians and the organization. Something that many US orchestras have faced because of finacial cutbacks. The one in Minnesota seems to be the worst of the lot, with the exception of the orchestras that have completely folded.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on August 20, 2013, 06:27:47 PM
Thanks, sounds depressing.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 21, 2013, 12:55:35 AM
Quote from: DavidW on August 20, 2013, 06:27:47 PM
Thanks, sounds depressing.

One of the most depressing, and also disgusting, developments in recent American orchestra history... slamming one of the nation's best orchestras, and one with a would-be bright future into the ground. It will not recover from this for decades to come, if ever.

http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/tag/minnesota-orchestra/ (http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/tag/minnesota-orchestra/)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/20/daily-circuit-orchestra-lockout (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/20/daily-circuit-orchestra-lockout)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 21, 2013, 03:29:07 AM
I had a dream that I met this nasty, disgusting guy who was being horrible to women and acting like a giant sleazebag. When he left the room I asked someone, "Who was that?"

"Oh that was Robert von Bahr."

"Darn it...I love BIS."

Can't remember anything else.

I'm told that in real life Robert von Bahr is one of the nicest, most enthusiastic music lovers you'll meet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 21, 2013, 03:35:26 AM
It was your dream slandered him, not you, Brian . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 21, 2013, 03:46:39 AM
Quote from: Brian on August 21, 2013, 03:29:07 AM


I'm told that in real life Robert von Bahr is one of the nicest, most enthusiastic music lovers you'll meet.

He can have a bit of a bite, when he means to, but yes... like many of those who really do it 'for the love of the game', he's full of heart-warming enthusiasm.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 21, 2013, 04:20:48 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 18, 2013, 06:37:43 AM

A Helping Hand for Hans Gál!
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-helping-hand-for-hans-gal.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-helping-hand-for-hans-gal.html)

QuoteHappy news: Goal achieved!!!


Excellent  8)

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 22, 2013, 07:51:04 AM
I'll post here, though what were quite the right thread is questionable.

Béla Fleck has a new recording out which probably I shall investigate, a concerto for banjo and orchestra, and a banjo quintet (i.e., quintet for banjo and quatuor à cordes).

Pretty much learnt of this piece via Twitter . . . seems he recently performed the piece with the Phila Orchestra. (There's worse cross-over slumming a major orchestra can resort to, I reckon.)

Anyone know who actually did the orchestration/scoring?  Much as I admire Fleck as a musician, I don't have any indicators that he is a composer for orchestra . . . and the samples sound passable.  (For the first and second movements;  the third movement sample seems to promise something on the dumbed-down orchestra model of Keith Emerson's "Piano Concerto No 1.")

The Quintet I have undimmed hopes for, recalling his wonderful Sparrow Quartet/Abigail Washburn project.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 26, 2013, 10:08:59 AM
Do you have an interest in symphony music, Gentle Reader?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 26, 2013, 10:38:46 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 26, 2013, 10:08:59 AM
Do you have an interest in symphony music, Gentle Reader?
Not when it's "most relaxing" like this.  But then, I've been known to fall asleep to Mahler. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 26, 2013, 10:49:34 AM
Surely not in the Veni Creator Spiritus, mon cher!  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 26, 2013, 10:52:52 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 26, 2013, 10:49:34 AM
Surely not in the Veni Creator Spiritus, mon cher!  ;)
Yes, even there. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 26, 2013, 11:23:49 AM
Tee-hee!
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 31, 2013, 07:04:14 AM
Stop trying to pressure me, Spotify...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/08/31/yhaharad.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 31, 2013, 01:02:05 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on August 31, 2013, 07:04:14 AM
Stop trying to pressure me, Spotify...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/08/31/yhaharad.jpg)

I totally agree with Spotify on this occasion.  8)
This, on the other hand... :
QuoteCheck out this song by Günter Wand: Bruckner 5th Symphony

And I would think that people who listen to Rzewski have heard of Prokofiev, so there's no need to recommend his music to that demographic.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 31, 2013, 07:12:39 PM
Quote from: North Star on August 31, 2013, 01:02:05 PM
Check out this song by Günter Wand: Bruckner 5th Symphony
Reminds me of the time, many years ago now, when a trombonist coming into an orchestral rehearsal asked humorously, "What song are we doing today?"  The conductor answered, "Prock-a-feef." ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 01, 2013, 06:31:39 AM
Call me anything, just don't call me late to the chess match.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on September 01, 2013, 08:00:33 AM
QuoteBeethoven assigned the publishing rights to Johann Traeg of Vienna. Although the main fair copies are lost, it is recorded that Traeg issued the parts, not publishing a full score, however, until around 1846/7, by which time he had sold his rights to Steiner & Company, also of Vienna. This music therefore could not be examined except through performance for almost forty years.
[Emphasis mine.]

[Source (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDD22069&vw=dc)]

Why couldn't someone with enough knowledge simply have bought the parts separately and then re-created the complete score? Leaving questions of whether it's time-consuming aside, is it not possible to create a full score in such a way?
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 02, 2013, 03:56:24 AM
Cool, got retweeted by the Berlin Philharmonic...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/02/ujyzazur.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Parsifal on September 02, 2013, 04:45:26 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 01, 2013, 08:00:33 AM
[Emphasis mine.]

[Source (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDD22069&vw=dc)]

Why couldn't someone with enough knowledge simply have bought the parts separately and then re-created the complete score? Leaving questions of whether it's time-consuming aside, is it not possible to create a full score in such a way?

It would take rather little knowledge to recreate the score.  But I think there is a point, not that it was impossible to "study" the piece (by doing what you suggest) but that the publisher took for granted that the piece was not worth "studying," and that only performance materials (for domestic entertainment) and not a score would be in demand by the public.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on September 02, 2013, 05:59:42 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 02, 2013, 04:45:26 AM
It would take rather little knowledge to recreate the score.  But I think there is a point, not that it was impossible to "study" the piece (by doing what you suggest) but that the publisher took for granted that the piece was not worth "studying," and that only performance materials (for domestic entertainment) and not a score would be in demand by the public.

Thanks, Scarps. The way it's worded in the notes, I thought that one must have a "secret key" of some sort to complete the score. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Parsifal on September 02, 2013, 06:07:18 AM
Quote from: Opus106 on September 02, 2013, 05:59:42 AM
Thanks, Scarps. The way it's worded in the notes, I thought that one must have a "secret key" of some sort to complete the score. ;D

Just a lot of attention to detail.  Individual parts often have short-hand such as "seven bars of rest" which would have to be made explicit in the score.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on September 02, 2013, 08:35:38 AM
(http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4791304.jpg)


I'm not a fashionista, but that shirt strikes me as just awful, but it may very much be in style. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 02, 2013, 10:13:14 AM
Quote from: Todd on September 02, 2013, 08:35:38 AM
(http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4791304.jpg)


I'm not a fashionista, but that shirt strikes me as just awful, but it may very much be in style.

On the upside, she's wearing something.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Parsifal on September 02, 2013, 10:15:20 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 02, 2013, 10:13:14 AM
On the upside, she's wearing something.

Upside?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 04, 2013, 09:00:18 AM



Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 14 )
El Sistema • Ntl. Children's Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle

Pint-sized Mahler

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nflh0d7ZUak/UhJDKSApnsI/AAAAAAAAHBU/vZysbO3RQK4/s1600/Salzburg_NCOoV_Rattle_600_Laurson.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-14.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-14-el.html)




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 15 )
Shakespeare/Mendelssohn • Ein Sommernachtstraum

Inspiration for Wagner

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DryV6f04PUI/UhNrGmids4I/AAAAAAAAHCU/oOqUDxqaaps/s1600/Salzburg_Sommernachts_Vocalensemble_Titiana_600_Laurson.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-15.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-15.html)




Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 16 )
Salzburg contemporary • Klangforum Wien 2, Heinz Holliger

Japanese Rain, Confused Owls, Nocturnal Guitar Lessons

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zZplIxJ8POY/UhPHADuVQAI/AAAAAAAAHDY/PyjnuSNdLhI/s1600/Salzburg_Klangforum_Holliger_600_Laurson.JPG)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-16.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-16.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 04, 2013, 09:46:30 AM
Quote from: Todd on September 02, 2013, 08:35:38 AM
(http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4791304.jpg)


I'm not a fashionista, but that shirt strikes me as just awful, but it may very much be in style.
I asked a female friend my age. She said: "If it didn't have the flowers all over it I'd like the dress. But as it is... no."

Are they continuing to record with SBYOV because it's cheap? Dudamel has the LAPO, but I imagine they have to get paid like adults...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on September 04, 2013, 11:12:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2013, 09:46:30 AM
Are they continuing to record with SBYOV because it's cheap? Dudamel has the LAPO, but I imagine they have to get paid like adults...

It's been a while since they last referred to themselves as a Youth Orchestra. Still, they aren't yet "top tier" however popular they might be.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on September 04, 2013, 11:26:15 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2013, 09:46:30 AM
I asked a female friend my age. She said: "If it didn't have the flowers all over it I'd like the dress. But as it is... no."

Are they continuing to record with SBYOV because it's cheap? Dudamel has the LAPO, but I imagine they have to get paid like adults...

Tiffany lamps do not make good dresses.   I think we can all agree on that.

As to the SBOV vs. LAPO--I'm not sure I'd call the LAPhil a top tier orchestra, in contrast to the SFO upstate.   I'd put it in the top tier of American orchestras, but no further.   And in terms of international name recognition,  SBOV undoubtedly has more at the present moment.  And there are probably some people who look at the acronym LAPO and think it's a spin off of LAPD.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Parsifal on September 04, 2013, 11:44:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2013, 09:46:30 AM
I asked a female friend my age. She said: "If it didn't have the flowers all over it I'd like the dress. But as it is... no."

I don't think it is fair to judge the dress without seeing the entire thing.  Those appliqué flowers have recently been in fashion, I believe (although I don't find them attractive), but I do like the stained-glass pattern.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 04, 2013, 11:52:30 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2013, 09:46:30 AM
I asked a female friend my age. She said: "If it didn't have the flowers all over it I'd like the dress. But as it is... no."

Are they continuing to record with SBYOV because it's cheap? Dudamel has the LAPO, but I imagine they have to get paid like adults...

Not that cheap, unless they're recording them in Venezuela or on tour where someone else picks up the tab.
And definitely not the SB"Y"OV anymore... Technically the SBO II, anyway (the original toured until about the 90s; the one that Dudamel became famous with (or made famous) is a different orchestra but confusingly by same name... which toured under varying names in the early years, to make it still more confusing.) The Youth Orchestras of El Sistema are now the Teresa Carreño YO and the Youth Orchestra of Caracas and their kids' orchestra is the National Children's SO of Venezuela. The SBO II may not yet be a super sophisticated Orchestra, but their Mahler (not as difficult as, say, Haydn granted) can measure itself with the best in the world. M3 in Salzburg was fantastic w/best last movement I've heard live... and M7 was very good, with a hugely impressive Scherzo.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 06, 2013, 12:22:51 AM



Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 17 )
Die Meistersinger • Richard Wagner

Innocence Regained

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IPkrK-57VLU/UfFuIMEi-QI/AAAAAAAAGt8/hWkrJhEEoRs/s1600/notesfromthesalzburgfestival2013.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--i3oDAHBiyQ/UiisfmT1yUI/AAAAAAAAHE8/smZoclgun9Q/s1600/Salzburg_Meistersinger_Krokodil_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-17.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-salzburg-festival-17.html)
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 06, 2013, 07:35:04 PM
Spotify is trying so hard  :D

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/07/ty7usuba.jpg)(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/07/2uquhu7a.jpg)(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/07/ure2u6yg.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 08, 2013, 06:17:11 AM



Notes from the 2013 Schubertiade ( 1 )

Schubert and Rarely Beyond

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1TL3iL_g20/Uix0e86lteI/AAAAAAAAHG8/e3u7LrTrvE0/s1600/Schubertiade_Schwarzenberg_Vista_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-1.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-1.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 09, 2013, 05:27:43 AM



Notes from the 2013 Schubertiade ( 2 ) • Prégardien Père et Fils

A Father & Son Duo of Tenors

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Im5NvBxpoQo/Ui3MMwcao1I/AAAAAAAAHHc/mCkxLgUg_S0/s1600/Schubertiade_Pregardien_father-son_laurson_600.jp)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-2.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-2.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 11, 2013, 12:27:55 PM



>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 3 ) • BELCEA QUARTET & THOMAS QUASTHOFF

A Father & Son Duo of Tenors

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KLbLv20VYG8/Ui3RGZRkr4I/AAAAAAAAHHw/UMUIYLwD9VI/s1600/Schubertiade_Belcea_Quasthoff_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-3-belcea.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-3-belcea.html)

Reciting poems like a High School valedictorian at his commencement speech...



>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 4 ) • BELCEA QUARTET & TILL FELLNER

A Father & Son Duo of Tenors

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S298oYXN7Jc/Ui3l3bV0OWI/AAAAAAAAHII/jObPIhhPCV0/s1600/Schubertiade_Belcea_Fellner_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-4-belcea.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-4-belcea.html)

The Belcea Quartet makes a wonderful Trio...




>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 5 ) • DIANA DAMRAU & XAVIER DE MAISTRE

And tears are heard within the harp I touch.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ryYduf70hAg/Ui7ZiSWLVxI/AAAAAAAAHIo/KgDNpbRFcQ8/s1600/Schubertiade_Damrau_Maistre_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-5-diana.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-5-diana.html)

The harp remains the singularly most tedious instrument, all the same...




>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 6 ) • LEMONY BOSTRIDGE & LASCIVIOUS RÖSCHMANN

St. Anthony and his Funny Fishes

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M735Pcfmwkc/UjDHpRwcI_I/AAAAAAAAHJA/t7RGXZR7r7U/s1600/Schubertiade_Bostridge_Roeschmann_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-5-diana.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-5-diana.html)

With a face that looks like a lemon, squeezed against its will...


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 12, 2013, 11:54:43 PM



>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 6 ) • LEMONY BOSTRIDGE & LASCIVIOUS RÖSCHMANN

St. Anthony and his Funny Fishes

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M735Pcfmwkc/UjDHpRwcI_I/AAAAAAAAHJA/t7RGXZR7r7U/s1600/Schubertiade_Bostridge_Roeschmann_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-6-lemony.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-6-lemony.html)

With a face that looks like a lemon, squeezed against its will... [link corrected]



>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 7 ) • HAGEN QUARTETT I

Of Serious and Harp-playing Beethoven Cows

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IJly2fsISvM/UjIsVHRO3aI/AAAAAAAAHKk/TQs8-0dYQSA/s1600/Schubertiade_Hagen_Quartett_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-7-hagen.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-7-hagen.html)

As hard as it is to trade the countryside, the sun, and the smell of grass and herbs  (essential experiences for anyone attending the Schubertiade) in for a concert hall, it has to be done: Duty calls...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 20, 2013, 05:31:31 AM
I like my Bach Cantatas red in tooth and claw.

(That's a joke, son.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on September 20, 2013, 05:37:35 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 12, 2013, 11:54:43 PM



>NOTES FROM THE 2013 SCHUBERTIADE ( 7 ) • HAGEN QUARTETT I
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-7-hagen.htmll)

Link doesn't work, Jens.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 20, 2013, 05:38:45 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 20, 2013, 05:37:35 AM
Link doesn't work, Jens.
Sarge

One too many "l". Fixed now.



>Notes from the 2013 Schubertiade ( 8 ) • Andreas Scholl & Tamar Halperin

A Silver Voice in a Golden Age of Countertenors

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XtOXfcCYk2I/UjcW3TQwxhI/AAAAAAAAHLM/9yUXuh_wunY/s1600/Schubertiade_Scholl_Halperin_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-8-andreas.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-8-andreas.html)

It can't be easy...to know he's now... been passed and surpassed by a new purpose-built crop of countertenors that have raised the bar again, leaving Scholl behind, a bygone great.



>Notes from the 2013 Schubertiade ( 9 ) • Angelika Kirchschlager & Philharmonia Schrammeln

Darling Salzburg-Earnestness

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJHmn1ZpT4s/Uix2vLW20sI/AAAAAAAAHHI/V_37dxqH76I/s1600/Schubertiade_Notes_singlelayer.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vZ97xUYRyyk/UjomeH66IRI/AAAAAAAAHNg/T1CK08FYNZo/s1600/Schubertiade_Kirchschlager_Schrammeln_laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-9-angelika.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/notes-from-2013-schubertiade-9-angelika.html)

Those dances set the mood for when Angelika Kirchschlager waltzed on stage, strutting a Dirndl as befits her Salzburg-native self and the occasion...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 20, 2013, 09:39:53 AM
In case you didn't realize that Orff was a 20th-c. composer. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22240.0/topicseen.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on October 01, 2013, 04:22:37 AM
BBC Music Magazine just tweeted...

@MusicMagazine: Osmo Vänskä resigns from Minnesota Symph Orch: 'It is a very sad day for me', he says in his statement
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 01, 2013, 04:33:21 AM
Will be very interesting to see what Vänskä will do. Perhaps more Aho with the Lahti...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 01, 2013, 05:53:46 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 01, 2013, 04:33:21 AM
Will be very interesting to see what Vänskä will do. Perhaps more Aho with the Lahti...

Think LONDON!  ;) http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/10/osmo-vanska-quits-minnesota.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/10/osmo-vanska-quits-minnesota.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 01, 2013, 06:24:15 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on October 01, 2013, 05:53:46 AM
Think LONDON!  ;) http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/10/osmo-vanska-quits-minnesota.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/10/osmo-vanska-quits-minnesota.html)
Would be cool, with Oramo & Salonen already there. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Opus106 on October 01, 2013, 06:44:11 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 01, 2013, 06:24:15 AM
Would be cool, with Oramo & Salonen already there. 8)

Little Finland, London.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: John Copeland on October 01, 2013, 10:35:28 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 01, 2013, 04:33:21 AM
Will be very interesting to see what Vänskä will do. Perhaps more Aho with the Lahti...

What do you think of his Aho cycle with the Lahti?  It is bloody brilliant!   :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 01, 2013, 01:29:11 PM
Quote from: Scots John on October 01, 2013, 10:35:28 AM
What do you think of his Aho cycle with the Lahti?  It is bloody brilliant!   :)
I think I should save a good deal of money and get the recordings! I have heard some from Spotify and Youtube, and 'bloody brilliant' is a good way to put it.
(Disclaimer: I do not mean that absolutely everyone should listen to Aho's music, nor do I suggest that it belongs to the pantheon of the absolutely greatest and Beethoven should move aside)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 07, 2013, 08:48:27 AM
My eye tends to simplify the subject header as Yearlong Noise Festival.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 15, 2013, 04:12:32 AM
Halloween theme: Top 11 Scared Works
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on October 15, 2013, 04:22:17 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 15, 2013, 04:12:32 AM
Halloween theme: Top 11 Scared Works

Good one!  We should do that starting now, since we are in October!  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 17, 2013, 08:25:54 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on October 15, 2013, 04:22:17 AM
Good one!  We should do that starting now, since we are in October!  :)
Luciano Berio: Sequenza for Oboe. -- At least it's scary to play! :o :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 23, 2013, 08:08:40 AM
GUESSING GAME: what is this a Google Street View of and why is it in the Classical Chat Thread?
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on October 24, 2013, 06:50:02 AM
I love Amazon.com's honesty...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/24/papuqy9u.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on October 27, 2013, 02:13:08 PM
I've just discovered that The Sixteen Harry Christophers are not, in fact, a vocal group consisting entirely of people named Harry Christopher, but a vocal group called The Sixteen conducted by a person named Harry Christophers.

In retrospect, that seems the only logical conclusion, yet nonetheless I feel my world is slightly poorer for having learned this fact.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on October 27, 2013, 07:48:46 PM
Quote from: amw on October 27, 2013, 02:13:08 PM
I've just discovered that The Sixteen Harry Christophers are not, in fact, a vocal group consisting entirely of people named Harry Christopher, but a vocal group called The Sixteen conducted by a person named Harry Christophers.

In retrospect, that seems the only logical conclusion, yet nonetheless I feel my world is slightly poorer for having learned this fact.

And to add to confusion,  the number of vocalists is not always sixteen.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 28, 2013, 04:07:35 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 27, 2013, 07:48:46 PM
And to add to confusion,  the number of vocalists is not always sixteen.

Well, probably shouldn't be.

(Of course, one might add that if you have sixteen singers, they probably shouldn't all be named Harry Christopher, either . . . .)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 29, 2013, 10:32:07 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 27, 2013, 07:48:46 PM
And to add to confusion,  the number of vocalists is not always sixteen.
Sounds like The BareNaked Ladies, who neither are ladies nor perform in the nude... ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 29, 2013, 10:40:04 AM
False advertising, dadgummit!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 29, 2013, 10:46:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 29, 2013, 10:40:04 AM
False advertising, dadgummit!
I know.  Someone should sue... :laugh:
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on October 30, 2013, 04:40:58 PM
Damn you, Satie...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/31/aru3y5um.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 06, 2013, 05:23:32 PM
Interesting to me that Maurizio Pollini, according to ArkivMusic, has only recorded music by 18 composers in a nearly 50-year career. He's been unusually adventurous in 20th century repertoire, but 18 seems scant, and before 1900 there are some amazing omissions. Never a single solo work by Mozart, Haydn, Brahms; just one by J.S. Bach. Nothing from Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninov.

For context: Yevgeny Sudbin, who I think is around age 30, has already recorded music by 17 different composers. Herbert Schuch has done 14.

I wonder if this reflects more on Pollini, or on the variety and learn-everything-ness that we expect of virtuosos in the 21st century, which wasn't necessarily the case when Pollini was young?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on November 06, 2013, 06:35:31 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 06, 2013, 05:23:32 PM
Interesting to me that Maurizio Pollini, according to ArkivMusic, has only recorded music by 18 composers in a nearly 50-year career. He's been unusually adventurous in 20th century repertoire, but 18 seems scant, and before 1900 there are some amazing omissions. Never a single solo work by Mozart, Haydn, Brahms; just one by J.S. Bach. Nothing from Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninov.

For context: Yevgeny Sudbin, who I think is around age 30, has already recorded music by 17 different composers. Herbert Schuch has done 14.

I wonder if this reflects more on Pollini, or on the variety and learn-everything-ness that we expect of virtuosos in the 21st century, which wasn't necessarily the case when Pollini was young?

Possibly he never felt attracted to the late Romantic repetoire?  At any rate,  I'd say his advocacy of modern, living, composers more than balances out the lack of standard warhorses.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on November 06, 2013, 06:47:06 PM
Quote from: Brian on November 06, 2013, 05:23:32 PMInteresting to me that Maurizio Pollini, according to ArkivMusic, has only recorded music by 18 composers in a nearly 50-year career.



Keep in mind that he has played more music in recital, and he has conducted occasionally, too (see below).  Maybe more live recordings will pop up in coming years.  I'd rather an artist focus on works that interest him or her than try to master everything.  Incidentally, Pollini did state in an interview that he wants to record Gaspard, but who knows if he will.


(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/143/MI0001143897.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 09, 2013, 05:23:30 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on November 06, 2013, 06:35:31 PM
Possibly he never felt attracted to the late Romantic repetoire?

And I have known more than one, let us say, advanced student of the piano who, on considering the huge herd of pianists ready to play All the Usual Suspects, find Other Music more attractive. (Particularly, but not exclusively, new music.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 12, 2013, 05:15:48 AM
Well, I do like them, but I couldn't say that I love (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,17785.0/topicseen.html) them . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on November 12, 2013, 06:08:58 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 29, 2013, 10:32:07 AM
Sounds like The BareNaked Ladies, who neither are ladies nor perform in the nude... ;)

Hey, that woman is no lady.... >:(

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mandryka on November 12, 2013, 10:04:08 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 06, 2013, 05:23:32 PM
Interesting to me that Maurizio Pollini, according to ArkivMusic, has only recorded music by 18 composers in a nearly 50-year career. He's been unusually adventurous in 20th century repertoire, but 18 seems scant, and before 1900 there are some amazing omissions. Never a single solo work by Mozart, Haydn, Brahms; just one by J.S. Bach. Nothing from Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninov.

For context: Yevgeny Sudbin, who I think is around age 30, has already recorded music by 17 different composers. Herbert Schuch has done 14.

I wonder if this reflects more on Pollini, or on the variety and learn-everything-ness that we expect of virtuosos in the 21st century, which wasn't necessarily the case when Pollini was young?

I have recordings of music solo music by Brahms and Mozart. His commercial recordings aren't all on DG.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mandryka on November 12, 2013, 10:13:17 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 29, 2013, 10:32:07 AM
Sounds like The BareNaked Ladies, who neither are ladies nor perform in the nude... ;)

Or a  peanut,which is neither a pea nor a nut.

Not to mention the Holy Roman Empire.
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 24, 2013, 06:19:25 AM
A few pics from my visit to the Civic Opera House in Chicago. A view from my seat for Parsifal and a few from inside the pit. The second one featuring a photobomb from an orchestra member  ;D

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/24/eparery9.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/24/ga2eguby.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/24/e6use7y7.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on November 24, 2013, 10:12:55 AM
It appears to that I develop a preference of opera (Rossini, Cimarosa, Handel, Mozart, Bizet) and some postmodern music (Parra, de Raaff, Aperghis, Ferneyhough, Pécou, Birtwistle, Donatoni). And I know why.

Beethoven and Stravinsky are other composers who remain my favorites, because I like their music so much.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2013, 06:04:30 AM
G Major
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 25, 2013, 08:11:36 AM
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_-LAuQYaovA/UpODeyol33I/AAAAAAAAHU4/FvRiutVN9lg/s1600/LISTEN_600_Winter2013.png)
http://www.listenmusicmag.com/composer/wagner-the-revolutionary.php

Wagner the Revolutionary

REBELLION, MA NON TROPPO!
(http://www.listenmusicmag.com/composer/wagner-the-revolutionary.php)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 27, 2013, 10:52:22 AM
It's time my fine-feathered friends!


(http://gregscottmoeller.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/shostakovichsanta.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 27, 2013, 11:54:06 AM
If you're doing these for others, Greg, and taking requests, I'll have Britten Santa. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 27, 2013, 12:03:05 PM
Quote from: North Star on November 27, 2013, 11:54:06 AM
If you're doing these for others, Greg, and taking requests, I'll have Britten Santa. :)

I did a bunch last year, I'll get you a Britten Santa!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 27, 2013, 12:04:48 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 27, 2013, 12:03:05 PM
I did a bunch last year, I'll get you a Britten Santa!
Thanks!
Yes, I remember, I had Sibelius then. And apparently I didn't save it on my PC.  :-[
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 27, 2013, 12:32:38 PM
Yippee!

Quote from: guess whoIt is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on November 27, 2013, 03:54:08 PM
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Claus?  Love it!  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 28, 2013, 12:47:02 AM
100 € / kg (http://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/nl/winkel/The-Radio-Legacy/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 71 dB on November 28, 2013, 02:34:40 AM
I think I have lost all my interest to discuss and argue about classical music.   :P I want to listen to classical music (and all other music for that matter) on my own terms.

-----------

Finally I finished the "deluxe" headphone adapter I have been planning to construct for months. Headphone adapters are connected to the speaker output terminals of an audio amplifier to attenuate the signal about 30-40 dB for headphones. Headphone adapters are passive headphone amplifiers Benefits:

- Low output impedance meaning high damping factor (the headphone outputs of audio amplifiers have too high impedance).
- Possibility to shape the signal more suitable for headphone listening (e.g. crossfeeding)
- inexpensive to make if you have the skills.

The effective output impedance of my new headphone adapter is 1 ohm. That's comparable to quality headphone amplifiers.  With Sennheiser HD 598 headphones the damping factor is 60, much higher than the recommendation of 8 or more. Higher damping factor means tighter and cleaner distortion free sound.

Almost all stereophonic recordings are produced for loudspeakers. They have wide "superstereo" sound because of acoustical crossfeeding that happens because both ears hear sound from both loudspeakers. Room acoustics futher blends the audio channel information. When listening with headphones this stereo image narrowing doesn't happen and the resulting sound is tiresome and unnatural. Sounds are located near ears on the left and right side of the head rather that in front of the listener where they usually belong. Stereo image is also tangled because  psycoacoustic cues of the sound are too strong. This is called spatial distortion. How to get rid of it? Well, (electrical) crossfeeding is the obvious answer since lack of it gave us this problem in the first place!

My new headphone adapter has no less than 6 crossfeed levels to accommodate with different kind of recordings from mild -9.9 dB up to pretty strong -1.1 dB. Frequencies below 800 Hz are crossfeeded to the other channel at these levels delayed by about 250 µs to simulate the longer distance to the ear. Most headphone amplifiers on the market do not have crossfeeding and those models that have it give only one or two options for the level. Crossfeeding is extremely important because spatial distortion is nowadays the biggest problem of headphone listening, people just don't realise that and are happy with the unreal and tiresome superstereo sound optimized for loudspeakers.

My new headphone adapter has also mono and "blurred mono" options for problematic soundtracks. Works well with Youtube where stereophonic sound is often f*cked up. When people upload videos of themselves speaking about something, they should acquiesce to mono sound. "Blurred mono" is near-mono. It preserves a small part of channel separation. 

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 28, 2013, 03:46:31 AM
Quote from: 71 dB on November 28, 2013, 02:34:40 AM
I think I have lost all my interest to discuss and argue about classical music.

What use is a forum to you, or you to a forum, then? ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 71 dB on November 28, 2013, 01:02:30 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 28, 2013, 03:46:31 AM
What use is a forum to you, or you to a forum, then? ;)

95 % of my message was about my new headphone adapter. This forum provided a place to post it. I don't know if anyone gets anything out of it.

Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on December 07, 2013, 04:43:53 PM
The Hurwitzer naming a few CDs that he collected while in hell...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/08/uteju8um.jpg). (http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/08/apa9uvyz.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on December 07, 2013, 05:03:19 PM
I'm not sure the performance is worthy of eternal perdition,  but I tend to agree with him about that Bruckner recording....agree enough, at least, that I haven't thought it worth listening to for several years now....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 31, 2013, 05:30:25 AM
A big chuckle to close out the year, I am lovin' this:

Quote
"Give up on Beethoven .. You've got Stockhausen now." -Miles Davis
STOCKHAUSEN PERFORMANCES
(will be updated regularly)
*rolls eyes* - Metal Dave
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mn dave on December 31, 2013, 08:43:00 AM
I bought that honkin' huge Rubinstein box and have barely touched its millions of CDs.  :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 31, 2013, 09:16:05 AM
Quote from: mn dave on December 31, 2013, 08:43:00 AM
I bought that honkin' huge Rubinstein box and have barely touched its millions of CDs.  :(

I nose a resolution for 2014! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mn dave on December 31, 2013, 09:16:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 31, 2013, 09:16:05 AM
I nose a resolution for 2014! :)

Yeah, man. There are a couple Haydn boxes I've barely touched as well.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 14, 2014, 03:57:17 AM
I have taken a couple of breaks - one has to eat, too..
Quote from: Amazon customer reviewer37 hours or so of Britten at one sitting could be a challenge for some.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 17, 2014, 09:30:41 AM
I clicked (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,6860.msg771734.html#msg771734). And I'm glad, I tell you.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 27, 2014, 06:47:39 AM
I just got notified that Jose Serebrier is following me on Twitter. I feel really weird now.
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on February 11, 2014, 04:03:08 AM
Mega Media knows how to bargain...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/11/yquhatyq.jpg)(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/11/hyju9uqy.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 11, 2014, 11:09:03 AM
Daniele Gatti has canceled two months of work for health reasons.


@Greg - that's hilarious.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 11, 2014, 11:27:52 AM
To thine own name be true . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on February 14, 2014, 08:43:59 AM
NOAH BENDIX-BALGLEY WINS BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER CONCERTMASTER AUDITION

(http://static1.berliner-philharmoniker.de/uploads/tx_news/Bendix-Balgley.jpg)

http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/news/detail/noah-bendix-balgley-wins-berliner-philharmoniker-concertmaster-audition/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 14, 2014, 08:48:45 AM
Noah Balgley, Jr?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on February 14, 2014, 08:54:10 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on February 14, 2014, 08:48:45 AM
Noah Balgley, Jr?


(http://splitsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ad-6-640x360.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 16, 2014, 03:59:29 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 11, 2014, 11:09:03 AM
Daniele Gatti has canceled two months of work for health reasons.



Inflammation of the shoulder tendons in both shoulders. Sounds uncomfortable.

If you speak German (or are in Vienna today or tomorrow), this might be of interest:


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Yt6bfhfAB8/UwC1fJ09K_I/AAAAAAAAHcI/iur4c_N7fjo/s1600/WienerKonzerthaus_Magazin_Graphik.png)


Musikalisches Armbrustschießen: Wiener Symphoniker und Schostakowitsch

(http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Portals/0/blog_data/Shostakovich_old3_laurson_600.jpg)
http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/337/Default.aspx (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/337/Default.aspx)

QuoteNach seinen Vokal-Symphonien Nr. 13 und 14 kehrte der todkranke (und sich dessen bewusste) Dmitri Schostakowitsch in seiner 15. und letzten Symphonie zu einer relativ klassischen Form mit vier klar strukturierten Sätzen zurück. Schostakowitsch beschrieb den ersten Satz, das Adagietto, als ,,Spielzeugwarenladen mit vielem Krimskrams und Plunder – durch und durch heiter." Der Hörer wird nach diesem ersten Satz nicht umhinkommen, die Worte des Komponisten anzuzweifeln. Wenn dies ein Spielzeugwarenladen ist, dann einer der kleine Panzer, Spielzeuggewehre und Juniors erstes Folterset verkauft...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 16, 2014, 04:51:17 AM


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUHSjHlV2Ro/UqB_A8bgCxI/AAAAAAAAHWQ/1tFdkiDMHEo/s1600/KonzerthausMozartSaal.png)

Ionarts-at-Large: Michael Schade, Trumpeteering Song

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2014/02/ionarts-at-large-michael-schade.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2014/02/ionarts-at-large-michael-schade.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on March 03, 2014, 12:01:29 PM
Arkivmusic has a Naxos sale on right now.  Don't know if it interests anyone but I thought it was cool.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 04, 2014, 09:56:34 PM
(http://www.weespring.com/uploads/forbes-logo.png)


(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/laursonpieler/files/2014/02/Abbado_Beethoven_Salzburg_BPh_Sony.png)
In Memoriam Claudio Abbado: A Discography
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2014/03/02/in-memoriam_claudio_abbado_discography/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/laursonpieler/2014/03/02/in-memoriam_claudio_abbado_discography/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 05, 2014, 11:05:05 AM
QuoteSome people chase tornados; others go after black holes. Either activity affords more aural pleasure than Stockhausen, jeh-jeh-jeh-jeh.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 07, 2014, 09:36:21 AM
Where's that confounded Bridge? (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22957.msg781839.html#msg781839)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 08, 2014, 03:45:07 AM

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Yt6bfhfAB8/UwC1fJ09K_I/AAAAAAAAHcI/iur4c_N7fjo/s1600/WienerKonzerthaus_Magazin_Graphik.png)


Philippe Herreweghe on Haydn and why Making Records Makes Sense 

(http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Portals/0/blog_data/Magazine%202014/Herreweghe_Philippe_14_Feb14_560.jpg)
http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/342/Philippe-Herreweghe-on-Haydn-and-why-Making-Records-Makes-Sense.aspx (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/337/Default.aspx)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mn dave on April 02, 2014, 05:33:59 AM
Whoa, mama! Jan Swafford has a Beethoven book coming out!!!

Much excitement here.

[asin]061805474X[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 06:32:08 AM
I think I'm reaching the conclusion that my favorite eras of music are modern and early romantic. It seems odd that I wouldn't like late romantic so much, since they (not surprisingly) bridge the temporal and stylistic gaps. However, I've been finding that the music of Mahler, (R) Strauss, and even Brahms to be just too long and too heavy. I saw the NSO play Brahms 2nd Symphony last year and I though that it had great writing, but I was bored out of my mind! I don't mean to offend any lovers of this music. It is great. However, my mind just can't handle it. There are some exceptions as always, but this is a trend I've noticed recently.

I've loved Mendelssohn for a long time. His string symphonies and the octet are my favorites of his. His octet, as I'm sure most people here know, was written when he was 16-17! The string symphonies (12 of them + an odd 13th one) have memorable Haydn-like melodies (with some added chromaticism anticipating the era to follow) and clearly show an understanding of Bachian counterpoint. The opening of the 7th one even sounds like it could be a transcription of a Bach keyboard work. Note that these were written when Felix was age 10-12. Geez, it makes me feel so worthless :( .

Schumann is someone else I've been exploring recently, though at a very slow rate. I am blown away by the "Konzertstuck" for 4 Horns and the "Manfred" overture. Especially the "Konzertstuck" -- really an amazing piece. It should be programmed with Ligeti's "Hamburg" horn concerto; that would be cool. I've enjoyed other stuff of his, but these are my favorites so far.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on April 05, 2014, 09:24:41 AM
Perhaps you should go for shorter duration works?  For Strauss for example you might try the songs and Metamorphoses.  Granted late Romantic can be a bit self indulgent and harmonically rich to the point of indigestion.  But I usually think of Brahms as mid romantic not Late.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DavidW on April 05, 2014, 05:37:21 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 06:32:08 AM
Especially the "Konzertstuck" -- really an amazing piece. It should be programmed with Ligeti's "Hamburg" horn concerto; that would be cool. I've enjoyed other stuff of his, but these are my favorites so far.

I think I'll have to give that program a try, sounds cool!  In Mahler try his lieder, those shorter forms pack a punch.  Unless I'm mistake, I think that helped Brian or Karl get into Mahler.  I also prefer the shorter forms.  You can find many short works in the romantic era in the form of chamber works, solo piano and concerti.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 07:09:23 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 05, 2014, 09:24:41 AM
Perhaps you should go for shorter duration works?  For Strauss for example you might try the songs and Metamorphoses.  Granted late Romantic can be a bit self indulgent and harmonically rich to the point of indigestion.  But I usually think of Brahms as mid romantic not Late.
Yes, this is definitely the problem -- the music is perfectly good, but it overstays its welcome (for me). The problem that I run into is that I love the big orchestra sound, but also a relatively short duration. I also don't really like songs very much  :-[ .

Quote from: DavidW on April 05, 2014, 05:37:21 PM
I think I'll have to give that program a try, sounds cool!  In Mahler try his lieder, those shorter forms pack a punch.  Unless I'm mistake, I think that helped Brian or Karl get into Mahler.  I also prefer the shorter forms.  You can find many short works in the romantic era in the form of chamber works, solo piano and concerti.
I have enjoyed, for whatever reason, the scherzos to Mahler's 2nd and 7th.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 05, 2014, 07:43:34 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 06:32:08 AM
I think I'm reaching the conclusion that my favorite eras of music are modern and early romantic. It seems odd that I wouldn't like late romantic so much, since they (not surprisingly) bridge the temporal and stylistic gaps. However, I've been finding that the music of Mahler, (R) Strauss, and even Brahms to be just too long and too heavy. I saw the NSO play Brahms 2nd Symphony last year and I though that it had great writing, but I was bored out of my mind! I don't mean to offend any lovers of this music. It is great. However, my mind just can't handle it. There are some exceptions as always, but this is a trend I've noticed recently.

I've loved Mendelssohn for a long time. His string symphonies and the octet are my favorites of his. His octet, as I'm sure most people here know, was written when he was 16-17! The string symphonies (12 of them + an odd 13th one) have memorable Haydn-like melodies (with some added chromaticism anticipating the era to follow) and clearly show an understanding of Bachian counterpoint. The opening of the 7th one even sounds like it could be a transcription of a Bach keyboard work. Note that these were written when Felix was age 10-12. Geez, it makes me feel so worthless :( .

Schumann is someone else I've been exploring recently, though at a very slow rate. I am blown away by the "Konzertstuck" for 4 Horns and the "Manfred" overture. Especially the "Konzertstuck" -- really an amazing piece. It should be programmed with Ligeti's "Hamburg" horn concerto; that would be cool. I've enjoyed other stuff of his, but these are my favorites so far.

I commend to you J N Hummel. Piano concerti and masses on Chandos especially.

Also try the late Brahms piano pieces, opp 116-118, which are short.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on April 06, 2014, 08:07:39 AM
Schumann is hard for me to recommend because his best works are piano music and songs. If you insist on orchestras you could try the 4th symphony, but otherwise the way to explore is more or less to start with Op. 1 (the 'Abegg' variations) and work your way up the opus numbers from there.

For 'bite size' late Romanticism try Franck's Le chausseur maudit?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 06, 2014, 08:21:15 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 07:09:23 PM
Yes, this is definitely the problem -- the music is perfectly good, but it overstays its welcome (for me). The problem that I run into is that I love the big orchestra sound, but also a relatively short duration. I also don't really like songs very much  :-[ .
I have enjoyed, for whatever reason, the scherzos to Mahler's 2nd and 7th.
Hmm, have you tried Schumann's Cello Concerto? Granted, the orchestra isn't huge in that one, but it's also not too long.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2014, 06:15:35 AM
In a blurb for the famous biography of Brahms, I read:

Quote. . . in this masterful book, Jan Swafford, critically acclaimed as both biographer and composer . . .

So is Swafford a critically acclaimed composer, and I never knew? . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2014, 06:16:07 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 06, 2014, 08:21:15 AM
Hmm, have you tried Schumann's Cello Concerto? Granted, the orchestra isn't huge in that one, but it's also not too long.

And a fine suggestion!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on April 29, 2014, 05:08:30 PM
I just watched the Ligeti violin concerto on the BPO digital concert hall with my mom, who seems to hate any classical music past Debussy (save for some Bartok/Stravinsky), and she actually liked it! It's so dissonant, though! I was shocked.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on April 30, 2014, 06:01:52 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on April 05, 2014, 06:32:08 AM
...I've loved Mendelssohn for a long time. His string symphonies and the octet are my favorites of his. His octet, as I'm sure most people here know, was written when he was 16-17! The string symphonies (12 of them + an odd 13th one) have memorable Haydn-like melodies (with some added chromaticism anticipating the era to follow) and clearly show an understanding of Bachian counterpoint. The opening of the 7th one even sounds like it could be a transcription of a Bach keyboard work. Note that these were written when Felix was age 10-12. Geez, it makes me feel so worthless :( ...
There is a lovely and very fun Overture for Concert Band by Felix written about the same time as his Octet.

If you like Felix Mendelssohn, I commend to you his sister Fanny Mendelssohn-Henselt.  Her Piano Trio (Opus 11) is as fine a piece as anything her brother ever wrote, and I suspect (although I don't know them) that her Songs Without Words are just as fine.

You might also try the Clara Schumann Piano Concerto. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 06, 2014, 05:33:36 AM
Never too early in the day for pontification. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,23182.msg798711.html#msg798711)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 06, 2014, 07:58:29 AM
Or counter-pontification: see my later post on the above thread. :-[
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on May 06, 2014, 08:09:29 AM
It is an uncommon thing for this to happen,  but to a certain point (about the need for good recording technique, not about the sonics of harpsichords) I am in agreement with James.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 06, 2014, 08:12:26 AM
Well, on the rare occasion where he manages to talk sense, 'tis no shame to agree with him ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 09, 2014, 12:26:36 PM
Here's an interesting resource for anyone interested in following along with a score while listening.
http://www.eulenburg.de/en_UK/partitur_lesen/partitur_einstieg/index.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on May 12, 2014, 12:26:25 PM
Didn't know where to post this, or if it has already been posted, but the following site has gobs of free 78s transfers.  It hasn't been updated in a few years, but the links I tried still work.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone/028011-9000-e.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 14, 2014, 11:43:43 AM
I went to BestBuy today and saw this next to me in the space I was parking.  ;D ;D ;D

A fellow Ravelian.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hcg67cmguz59jmo/Photo%20May%2014%2C%202%2050%2024%20PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 14, 2014, 01:12:14 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 14, 2014, 11:43:43 AM
I went to BestBuy today and saw this next to me in the space I was parking.  ;D ;D ;D

A fellow Ravelian.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hcg67cmguz59jmo/Photo%20May%2014%2C%202%2050%2024%20PM.jpg)
Be charitable. He might be a Giradoux fan. No need to think the worst.

>:D :-* 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 15, 2014, 07:10:39 AM
Listening to lot of symphonic poems currently.

My favorites from Strauss: Alpine symphony and Heldenleben
from Liszt: ce qu'on entend sur la montagne and heroide funebre
from Sibelius: Pohjola's daughter and Lemminkäinen suite
from Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, you can argue whether or not it's actually a symphonic poem but I consider it one, this pick was easy because Wagner never wrote other "symphonic poems"  8)

Of particular interest is severely underrated symphonic poem from Rachmaninov: The Rock. Reportedly Tchaikovsky heard Rachmaninov play it to him shortly before his death. And I don't know what is my obsession with rocky things in this list: ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, alpine symphony, the rock? I have never been anywhere near actual mountains in my life.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 15, 2014, 07:32:26 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 15, 2014, 07:10:39 AM
Listening to lot of symphonic poems currently.

My favorites from Strauss: Alpine symphony and Heldenleben
from Liszt: ce qu'on entend sur la montagne and heroide funebre
from Sibelius: Pohjola's daughter and Lemminkäinen suite
from Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, you can argue whether or not it's actually a symphonic poem but I consider it one, this pick was easy because Wagner never wrote other "symphonic poems"  8)

Of particular interest is severely underrated symphonic poem from Rachmaninov: The Rock. Reportedly Tchaikovsky heard Rachmaninov play it to him shortly before his death. And I don't know what is my obsession with rocky things in this list: ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, alpine symphony, the rock? I have never been anywhere near actual mountains in my life.
What about Mendelssohn's "Hebrides Overture" (a.k.a. "Fingal's Cave")? Also, Messiaen wrote his "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" (woodwinds, brass, metal percussion) to be performed on a mountain (somewhere in the Alps, I believe, but it wasn't done there until after his death). Sections in the 3rd movement truly sounds like the rock of the earth splitting open!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on May 15, 2014, 08:00:52 AM
Fun fact.  I am now on the Bruckner Expressway.  Sarge will like the fact that traffic is slow.  But nonGothamites might be surprised to learn that it runs through the heart of the Bronx.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 15, 2014, 08:09:33 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 15, 2014, 07:32:26 AM
What about Mendelssohn's "Hebrides Overture" (a.k.a. "Fingal's Cave")? Also, Messiaen wrote his "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" (woodwinds, brass, metal percussion) to be performed on a mountain (somewhere in the Alps, I believe, but it wasn't done there until after his death). Sections in the 3rd movement truly sounds like the rock of the earth splitting open!

Never heard those, actually I have never listened much of Messiaen but I love Mendelssohn. Probably going to listen to hebrides at some point. Thanks for the suggestion!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 15, 2014, 05:10:52 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 15, 2014, 07:32:26 AM
What about Mendelssohn's "Hebrides Overture" (a.k.a. "Fingal's Cave")? Also, Messiaen wrote his "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" (woodwinds, brass, metal percussion) to be performed on a mountain (somewhere in the Alps, I believe, but it wasn't done there until after his death). Sections in the 3rd movement truly sounds like the rock of the earth splitting open!
Playing on a mountain isn't exactly Easy Street for the musicians!  The air is so cool and dry that my oboe reeds have to be dipped in water during every rest.  Instruments go out of tune unless the orchestra is good enough to make them play in tune, the acoustics are usually dreadful outdoors--it's a major undertaking.  At one point I was thinking I'd have to learn to make special high-altitude reeds! :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on May 15, 2014, 05:36:45 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 15, 2014, 08:00:52 AM
Fun fact.  I am now on the Bruckner Expressway.  Sarge will like the fact that traffic is slow. 

I've tried to get the State of New York to rename it to the Celibidache Expressway for years now but they just don't listen...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 15, 2014, 05:48:07 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on May 15, 2014, 05:10:52 PM
Playing on a mountain isn't exactly Easy Street for the musicians!  The air is so cool and dry that my oboe reeds have to be dipped in water during every rest.  Instruments go out of tune unless the orchestra is good enough to make them play in tune, the acoustics are usually dreadful outdoors--it's a major undertaking.  At one point I was thinking I'd have to learn to make special high-altitude reeds! :o
Haha, I never thought of the reed thing. I guess Messiaen didn't, either. I think that he wrote "Et Exspecto..." with effects built in that would accommodate the acoustics of large spaces and outdoors. Lots of loud, slow writing in the low section (i.e. first and last movements), immense crescendos followed by sudden silence (i.e. third movement), lonely wandering simple melodies (i.e. second movement), etc. Somehow, these seem like things that would sound especially good outside.

Now I want to listen to it (preferably on a mountain)! One of my favorite pieces.

And you sound like you've played on a mountain before. I assumed you play flute, though...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 05:29:43 AM
So, I settled on two scores for my birthday:
Ades "Asyla"
Ligeti "Chamber Concerto"

In the next few months I'd like to also get Messiaen's "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" and Stockhausen's "Tierkreis" for orchestra.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 16, 2014, 05:47:48 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 15, 2014, 05:48:07 PM
...And you sound like you've played on a mountain before. I assumed you play flute, though...
I have, and my main instrument is the oboe.  One time back in the 1980s I played with the Boulder (Colorado) Philharmonic at one of the ski resorts, Copper Mountain.  The elevation there is about 9500 feet.  The air wasn't even that cold, but it was so dry that my reed stopped playing right in the middle of Strauss' Emperor Waltz!  :o Fortunately, as always, I had a spare soaking in water and ready to play. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2014, 07:48:31 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 05:29:43 AM
So, I settled on two scores for my birthday:
Ades "Asyla"
Ligeti "Chamber Concerto"

In the next few months I'd like to also get Messiaen's "Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum" and Stockhausen's "Tierkreis" for orchestra.
What a coincidence! When I moved recently I wanted a new painting for over the couch

(http://www.kaliweb.com/jacksonpollock/images/art/painting.jpg)

I really like Pollock.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 07:53:09 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2014, 07:48:31 PM
What a coincidence! When I moved recently I wanted a new painting for over the couch

(http://www.kaliweb.com/jacksonpollock/images/art/painting.jpg)

I really like Pollock.

That went totally over my head... I take it that you don't like Pollack, nor Ligeti, nor Ades, etc.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 08:00:06 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on May 16, 2014, 05:47:48 PM
I have, and my main instrument is the oboe.  One time back in the 1980s I played with the Boulder (Colorado) Philharmonic at one of the ski resorts, Copper Mountain.  The elevation there is about 9500 feet.  The air wasn't even that cold, but it was so dry that my reed stopped playing right in the middle of Strauss' Emperor Waltz!  :o Fortunately, as always, I had a spare soaking in water and ready to play. 8)
Woah, that's pretty cool (I guess literally :laugh:). Precisely why I chose violin. I can play in the mountains all day 8). Not that I ever have -- but it's nice to know that the option is there.

Did you actually play outdoors?

There is a big amphitheater near my house where a lot of big names play (in fact, this summer the NSO is playing music from "2001: A Space Odyssey" including Strauss, Strauss, and Ligeti). I'd really wish they'd perform the Messiaen there, but there would probably be a lot of sissy-eared people bitching about it :-\.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 16, 2014, 08:13:37 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 07:53:09 PM
That went totally over my head... I take it that you don't like Pollack, nor Ligeti, nor Ades, etc.
No, I do like Pollock. My room has two paintings, that Pollock, and a Caravaggio. I meant that we seem to share a taste in visual images, Pollock, and Ligeti scores ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 16, 2014, 08:25:37 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2014, 08:13:37 PM
No, I do like Pollock. My room has two paintings, that Pollock, and a Caravaggio. I meant that we seem to share a taste in visual images, Pollock, and Ligeti scores ...
The opening of the Ligeti ChC looks pretty normal...
(http://d29ci68ykuu27r.cloudfront.net/product/Look-Inside/large/5985350_01.jpg)

...but all hope for normalcy is lost by the middle of the third "mechanical" movement. I wonder if a barcode scanner could read it.
(http://d29ci68ykuu27r.cloudfront.net/product/Look-Inside/large/5985350_03.jpg)

Here's the craziest page from Ades' "Asyla" -- the full-blown cranked-up rave in the third movement "Ecstasio":
(http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/amw-2.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 21, 2014, 10:28:58 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 19, 2014, 05:26:04 AM
Really? Even my favorite composers have works that I don't care for.
e.g. Bartok's SQs
>:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 21, 2014, 11:56:51 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2014, 10:28:58 AM
>:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank: >:( :o ??? :-X :-\ :'( >:D :blank:
I know, I know. I really like the 3rd one, actually, but I just never liked the rest very much.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 21, 2014, 12:07:28 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 21, 2014, 11:56:51 AM
I know, I know. I really like the 3rd one, actually, but I just never liked the rest very much.
That lops off one  :o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 21, 2014, 02:49:21 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 21, 2014, 12:07:28 PM
That lops off one  :o
Look again at my post and see that I anticipated this - there is no need to remove any of the emoticons, as each is repeated four times  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 21, 2014, 02:59:46 PM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2014, 02:49:21 PM
Look again at my post and see that I anticipated this - there is no need to remove any of the emoticons, as each is repeated four times  8)
I'll use the 6th then as my second choice, so now we're good!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 04:58:10 AM
Gurn, you post so much on Haydn (which is awesome -- I love reading enthusiastic posts about composers) that it intrigues me to know who else you listen to and enjoy. Anything modern? Who?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 07:27:28 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 04:58:10 AM
Gurn, you post so much on Haydn (which is awesome -- I love reading enthusiastic posts about composers) that it intrigues me to know who else you listen to and enjoy. Anything modern? Who?
I bet he likes Prokofiev's first symphony!
8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 07:46:36 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 04:58:10 AM
Gurn, you post so much on Haydn (which is awesome -- I love reading enthusiastic posts about composers) that it intrigues me to know who else you listen to and enjoy. Anything modern? Who?

The most modern composer he likes is Dvorak.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2014, 07:51:28 AM
Henning!  Just ask him! 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 22, 2014, 08:02:13 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 16, 2014, 08:13:37 PM
No, I do like Pollock. My room has two paintings, that Pollock, and a Caravaggio. I meant that we seem to share a taste in visual images, Pollock, and Ligeti scores ...

Ken,
Here is a shot of Pollock making one of his pieces...

(http://images.hngn.com/data/images/full/10715/chimpanzee-painting.jpg?w=600)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 08:27:20 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 04:58:10 AM
Gurn, you post so much on Haydn (which is awesome -- I love reading enthusiastic posts about composers) that it intrigues me to know who else you listen to and enjoy. Anything modern? Who?

Depends who you call modern. I have (and listen and like) a lot of Bloch, then Shostakovich and other Russians like Khatchaturian, for example. And earlier Russians in particular like Ippolitov-Ivanov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev etc. I like the Russian folk idiom particularly.

Among the non-Russian Romantics, I am really not comfortable with them with except for Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak.

In the immediate post-Haydn period, I like the early Romantics like Hummel, Spohr, Weber, Schubert, Onslow and Field.

Haydn's contemporaries I like Mozart, Beethoven, Vanhal, Ditters, Myslivecek, Michael Haydn, Ignaz Beck and Mannheimers like Stamitz & sons, and also composers of Austrian sacred music who are fairly obscure, like Reutter, Eberlin, Donberger, Caldara, Tuma, Albrechtsberger, Fux etc.

Baroque, not so much. I like Vivaldi and Biber in particular. Nothing earlier, so far.

There are a host of Italians I like too, like Tartini and Locatelli, mostly because I am a big violin fan and they are top of the heap.

I used to be omnivorous, not as much so as Harry but fairly wide-ranging anyway. Now I have tried to narrow my focus, at least partly based on conversations which took place on this board of "broad vs. deep", and I decided to switch from broad to deep. Never know, I may go broad again after this immersion. But you have to be deep to write a book, as well as broad if you want to give it context. Narrow line to walk. :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 08:36:52 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 08:27:20 AM
Tartini and Locatelli

Yep! Way more sophisticated than Vivaldi.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 08:39:24 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 22, 2014, 08:02:13 AM
Ken,
Here is a shot of Pollock making one of his pieces...

(http://images.hngn.com/data/images/full/10715/chimpanzee-painting.jpg?w=600)
Hey! You can't fool me Moonfish! That is not Pollock. NO WAY. I mean, just look at the technique, the streaks of color. The pastels.

That's a Jasper Johns.

Trying to sneak one past me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 08:49:15 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 08:36:52 AM
Yep! Way more sophisticated than Vivaldi.  ;D

When I want sophistication I listen to The Sex Pistols. :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 08:51:46 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 08:27:20 AM
Depends who you call modern. I have (and listen and like) a lot of Bloch, then Shostakovich and other Russians like Khatchaturian, for example. And earlier Russians in particular like Ippolitov-Ivanov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev etc. I like the Russian folk idiom particularly.

Among the non-Russian Romantics, I am really not comfortable with them with except for Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak.

In the immediate post-Haydn period, I like the early Romantics like Hummel, Spohr, Weber, Schubert, Onslow and Field.

Haydn's contemporaries I like Mozart, Beethoven, Vanhal, Ditters, Myslivecek, Michael Haydn, Ignaz Beck and Mannheimers like Stamitz & sons, and also composers of Austrian sacred music who are fairly obscure, like Reutter, Eberlin, Donberger, Caldara, Tuma, Albrechtsberger, Fux etc.

Baroque, not so much. I like Vivaldi and Biber in particular. Nothing earlier, so far.

There are a host of Italians I like too, like Tartini and Locatelli, mostly because I am a big violin fan and they are top of the heap.

I used to be omnivorous, not as much so as Harry but fairly wide-ranging anyway. Now I have tried to narrow my focus, at least partly based on conversations which took place on this board of "broad vs. deep", and I decided to switch from broad to deep. Never know, I may go broad again after this immersion. But you have to be deep to write a book, as well as broad if you want to give it context. Narrow line to walk. :)

8)
Woah, you're working on a Haydn book?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 22, 2014, 08:56:14 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 22, 2014, 08:02:13 AM
Ken,
Here is a shot of Pollock making one of his pieces...

(http://images.hngn.com/data/images/full/10715/chimpanzee-painting.jpg?w=600)
This means WAR!
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7123/13798708393_28ac8ecbb0.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/janacekian/13798708393/)
Hommage à Jackson Pollock (https://www.flickr.com/photos/janacekian/13798708393/) by Janacekian (https://www.flickr.com/people/janacekian/), on Flickr
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 22, 2014, 09:02:05 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 22, 2014, 08:56:14 AM
This means WAR!
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7123/13798708393_28ac8ecbb0.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/janacekian/13798708393/)
Hommage à Jackson Pollock (https://www.flickr.com/photos/janacekian/13798708393/) by Janacekian (https://www.flickr.com/people/janacekian/), on Flickr

Another chimp piece... -  very...err... "pollocky"    >:D >:D >:D

(http://www.chimphaven.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Les-is-more.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 22, 2014, 09:03:37 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 22, 2014, 08:39:24 AM
Hey! You can't fool me Moonfish! That is not Pollock. NO WAY. I mean, just look at the technique, the streaks of color. The pastels.

That's a Jasper Johns.

Trying to sneak one past me.
Hmm, I'd like to see a Johns work that resembles this (I do think you're correct in connecting these artists, but I don't have a particularly similar Johns saved on my PC.. Perhaps in the Pictures I Like thread.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 09:10:26 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 08:49:15 AM
When I want sophistication I listen to The Sex Pistols. :)

Sexphistication....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2014, 09:44:00 AM
Good god, after so long time I heard hunting chorus from Freischütz, I have never listened much to Weber (kind of strange considering how much he influenced my idol, Wagner) but now I really want to listen more of his compositions. I heard that outside of operas Freischütz, Eyryanthe and Oberon for ex. his clarinet concertos are very popular. Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend? But now I can't get that melody from hunting chorus out of my head. It's so damn catchy!

Ta tara ta tara ta tararatararatarara tarara tatta ta taa tatta ta taa tattata tatta taa!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 09:56:00 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 22, 2014, 08:51:46 AM
Woah, you're working on a Haydn book?

Hope so. My blog is just an outline where I'm working out format ideas and collating data. We'll see if I live long enough. :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 09:59:12 AM
Quote from: Alberich on May 22, 2014, 09:44:00 AM
Good god, after so long time I heard hunting chorus from Freischütz, I have never listened much to Weber (kind of strange considering how much he influenced my idol, Wagner) but now I really want to listen more of his compositions. I heard that outside of operas Freischütz, Eyryanthe and Oberon for ex. his clarinet concertos are very popular. Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend? But now I can't get that melody from hunting chorus out of my head. It's so damn catchy!

Ta tara ta tara ta tararatararatarara tarara tatta ta taa tatta ta taa tattata tatta taa!

His clarinet quintet is very fine, while you are on that instrument. I enjoy his piano sonatas too. Geez, he has a huge body of work, much larger than you would suspect.  :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2014, 10:00:25 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 09:59:12 AM
His clarinet quintet is very fine, while you are on that instrument. I enjoy his piano sonatas too. Geez, he has a huge body of work, much larger than you would suspect.  :)

8)

You mean, he has artistic significance beyond being an influence on you-know-whom? 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2014, 10:00:59 AM
Thanks for the suggestions Gurn! I'll make sure to check out those.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 10:24:58 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2014, 10:00:25 AM
You mean, he has artistic significance beyond being an influence on you-know-whom? 8)

He was a monster hit in his day!  :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 22, 2014, 11:53:16 AM
Quote from: snyprrr on May 22, 2014, 10:34:06 AM
Midori?
Now there's an epic snyprrrrian thread resurrection.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2014, 01:03:05 PM
Quote from: Alberich on May 22, 2014, 09:44:00 AM
Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend?

The 2 piano concertos; the 2 clarinet concertos; the 2 symphonies; the clarinet quintet; and if it adds anything of value, he is one of Gurn's betes noires, infamous for getting over and past Haydnian classicism.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 23, 2014, 05:06:28 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 22, 2014, 09:56:00 AM
Hope so. My blog is just an outline where I'm working out format ideas and collating data. We'll see if I live long enough. :)

8)
So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn! Best of luck, of course :). Please don't make it $400 like the one on the Haydn symphonies we discussed $:).

That's kind of like I was with Bartok for the past seven years (music, biographies, scores, etc.) and currently am with Ligeti. Though, you will actually have something to show for it...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 23, 2014, 05:08:36 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 23, 2014, 05:06:28 AM
So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn!

That's the cart before the horse!  Gurn's Haydn immersion came first.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 23, 2014, 05:25:19 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 23, 2014, 05:06:28 AM
So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn! Best of luck, of course :). Please don't make it $400 like the one on the Haydn symphonies we discussed $:).

That's kind of like I was with Bartok for the past seven years (music, biographies, scores, etc.) and currently am with Ligeti. Though, you will actually have something to show for it...

Thanks!

No worries about price, that is the reason I'm writing it, for people like us who are intelligent, curious listeners, not musicologists. When I tried to find out some background info to go with my music collection, simple stuff like 'when was that written?', it turned into an adventure every time. My ambition is to alleviate that so people can find what they are looking for without mortgaging their house!  :)

Quote from: karlhenning on May 23, 2014, 05:08:36 AM
That's the cart before the horse!  Gurn's Haydn immersion came first.

Well, that's true, but I was nearly as immersed in Mozart and then Beethoven before Haydn. Problems arose when I discovered it was entirely too easy to find out anything I wanted to know about them, while it was nearly impossible to discover basic facts about the person who enabled them. Something ain't right!  :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 23, 2014, 05:44:38 AM
Well, so perhaps we need a better model than the cart and horse . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 23, 2014, 05:48:42 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 23, 2014, 05:44:38 AM
Well, so perhaps we need a better model than the cart and horse . . . .
The addiction before the drug?
>:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 23, 2014, 05:57:49 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 23, 2014, 05:48:42 AM
The addiction before the drug?
>:D

Pre-addiction Syndrome. We can write a paper about it!  :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 25, 2014, 02:06:42 PM
Just saw this advertised on GMG in the top header.
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003FQD.01.M.jpg)
I clicked on it and saw the tracks.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HKUyis5EL.jpg)
Lame. Really, totally lame.

A lot of people who don't like classical music have told me that they think it is boring -- I'm sure many of you have heard this, too. Chances are that the pieces listed here are the pieces that are heard and recognized by most people. I'm not saying that I think that this music is boring -- just that out of all pieces heard, these are some of the most common. So, someone who has come to such a conclusion will have likely only heard the ones listed here. What about a movement from "Rite", or the finale of Bartok's CFO, or Ravel's "La Valse", or some classical Gershwin? I can see the third movement of Ades' "Asyla" getting a lot of people to rethink the "boring" opinion. Minimalism also works well here. I have shown many friends Reich's M18M and they loved it. One asked me to find a performance for us to go to (as if it's as simple as finding Beethoven's Egmont :laugh:), another bookmarked the YouTube link immediately, and another asked me for a copy of the CD.

Why did I care so much that more people listen to classical music? Because I want more people to talk about it with! 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 02:16:51 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 25, 2014, 02:06:42 PM
Just saw this advertised on GMG in the top header.
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003FQD.01.M.jpg)
I clicked on it and saw the tracks.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HKUyis5EL.jpg)
Lame. Really, totally lame.

A lot of people who don't like classical music have told me that they think it is boring -- I'm sure many of you have heard this, too. Chances are that the pieces listed here are the pieces that are heard and recognized by most people. I'm not saying that I think that this music is boring -- just that out of all pieces heard, these are some of the most common. So, someone who has come to such a conclusion will have likely only heard the ones listed here. What about a movement from "Rite", or the finale of Bartok's CFO, or Ravel's "La Valse", or some classical Gershwin? I can see the third movement of Ades' "Asyla" getting a lot of people to rethink the "boring" opinion. Minimalism also works well here. I have shown many friends Reich's M18M and they loved it. One asked me to find a performance for us to go to (as if it's as simple as finding Beethoven's Egmont :laugh:), another bookmarked the YouTube link immediately, and another asked me for a copy of the CD.

Why did I care so much that more people listen to classical music? Because I want more people to talk about it with! 8)

Hmm, I never really liked classical "anthologies". They seem so disrupted. It is similar to a smorgasbord with puny pieces of very different kinds of food - an almost alien landscape of disrupted gastronomy.  I subscribe to the concept that classical music needs to be listened to "wholesale" to be fully appreciated. Granted it takes a bit of patience and it will be the standard warhorses, but wouldn't the full Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Beethoven's 9th be a better platform that a platter filled with chopped up pieces of music? However, I presume that people approach music very differently (i.e. there must be a reason why labels keep cranking out these types of anthologies).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on May 25, 2014, 02:26:12 PM
I sometimes have fantasies of recording a brutal, noisy black metal album and releasing it under the title "The Most Relaxing Classical Album Ever" with ponies and fluffy clouds on the cover.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 02:40:50 PM
Quote from: Philo on May 25, 2014, 02:21:55 PM
And this sort of disc, I think, is made for folks who already have some sort of appreciation for classical music.

Hmm, I disagree. Why would anybody that likes classical music want to listen to an array of track like on this cd? Wouldn't they just pick up a Vivaldi compilation etc?  I think these cds are for people that just want something playing in the background... generic classical music in bottles.   ???
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 02:47:27 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 02:40:50 PM
Hmm, I disagree. Why would anybody that likes classical music want to listen to an array of track like on this cd? Wouldn't they just pick up a Vivaldi compilation etc?  I think these cds are for people that just want something playing in the background... generic classical music in bottles.   ???

Yes, that is what I was thinking too. That. And how in hell did they manage to wedge the last movement of the 9th into 4 minutes??  :D  Of course, as veteran listeners, we look at this play list as all the shit we outgrew after the first 3 weeks of listening. As I like to point out, there is a reason why some pieces have been played enough to become cliches. FWIW, I still haven't heard Pachelbel's Canon in D, AFAIK....    0:)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 25, 2014, 02:50:52 PM
Quote from: Philo on May 25, 2014, 02:45:01 PM
What I mean, is that the classical era of music, tends toward people who have some basic appreciation of classical music, in general. For people coming from the pop world, I think they would be more drawn in by the romantic era into post-romanticism.

Perhaps... a tricky one. I bet that lots of PR people have battled that question for decades without any major resolution.  I have not mined any surveys lately that looks at how classical music fares in different age groups.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 02:51:19 PM
Quote from: Philo on May 25, 2014, 02:45:01 PM
What I mean, is that the classical era of music, tends toward people who have some basic appreciation of classical music, in general. For people coming from the pop world, I think they would be more drawn in by the romantic era into post-romanticism.

You have a fair representation of Romantic there, but I agree, some post-Romantic might be more to the point. Of course, you want to remember that part of the all-important audience share for a disk like this is guys looking to get laid, and what better than that Bach, and the 'Elvira Madigan' ::)  Andante?  :D

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on May 25, 2014, 02:56:55 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 02:47:27 PMFWIW, I still haven't heard Pachelbel's Canon in D, AFAIK....    0:)

You probably have, it's the one that sounds like this
[audio]http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/tl0831_001_full_064.mp3[/audio]

(though considerably more tastefully done here than it usually is, lol)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 02:58:34 PM
Quote from: amw on May 25, 2014, 02:56:55 PM
You probably have, it's the one that sounds like this
[audio]http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/tl0831_001_full_064.mp3[/audio]

(though considerably more tastefully done here than it usually is, lol)

I'm scared to push the button....  :-[

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on May 25, 2014, 03:01:30 PM
Don't be such a big baby! It's from Harmonia Mundi! A grown-up label!

;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 03:04:58 PM
Quote from: amw on May 25, 2014, 03:01:30 PM
Don't be such a big baby! It's from Harmonia Mundi! A grown-up label!

;)

:D

OK, dammit, I did it. Well, I really don't think I have heard it before. I must have lived a better life than I thought!  It isn't anything particularly special, neither to be overplayed nor to be reviled. Interesting. I like canon though. :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 25, 2014, 03:34:28 PM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 25, 2014, 02:47:27 PM
Yes, that is what I was thinking too. That. And how in hell did they manage to wedge the last movement of the 9th into 4 minutes??
Haha, I didn't even notice that! Reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Springfield got a new concert hall. They start playing Beethoven's 5th, and after the famous first few measures the audience starts to get up and leave, seemingly satisfied. Marge yells "Wait, it's not over", and a townie replies "Well that's the important part, right?" :laugh: As they continue to leave Marge yells "Don't go! Next we have a medley by Philip Glass!" Suddenly, the audience members run out frantically. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: . One of my favorite scenes from that show.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 25, 2014, 03:47:08 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 25, 2014, 03:34:28 PM
Haha, I didn't even notice that! Reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Springfield got a new concert hall. They start playing Beethoven's 5th, and after the famous first few measures the audience starts to get up and leave, seemingly satisfied. Marge yells "Wait, it's not over", and a townie replies "Well that's the important part, right?" :laugh: As they continue to leave Marge yells "Don't go! Next we have a medley by Philip Glass!" Suddenly, the audience members run out frantically. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: . One of my favorite scenes from that show.
:P

BUT, and here is the remarkable part, they expect people to know who Philip Glass is. And most of the audience probably do.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on May 25, 2014, 10:27:30 PM
Quote from: Philo on May 25, 2014, 02:21:55 PM
And this sort of disc, I think, is made for folks who already have some sort of appreciation for classical music. I don't think this disc is designed to draw in those who come from the pop world, and if it is, this is a shit track list.

I think it's for people who like the idea of classical music, but who can't identify more than a couple, if any, of the included pieces. I believe there are a lot of those people out there. They buy something like this, and they recognize all the tunes, but it's not very compelling listening, just as 2 hours of explosions cobbled together from various action flicks would not be very compelling viewing. They probably listen to it once or twice, then file it away and forget about it. In this particular case, the album title specifically discourages them from even trying again.

How do you reach these people?

Recently I got the Bernstein Omnibus DVDs. This was a TV program that aired (on major-network TV!) in the 1950s in the USA. Obviously the TV industry has changed significantly since then, but even aside from the issue of air time, I wonder who in the current classical world has the charisma to pull something like that off. I saw an online video of Riccardo Muti visiting a prison recently. It's a wonderful and touching idea, but you need somebody who can actually connect with whoever is in the audience. There's a lot of talk about "outreach" but I have my doubts about the effectiveness of what they're doing now.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 26, 2014, 04:53:11 AM
On Schoeck and Finzi:


Christopher Maltman: Truly, truly, truly a Masterpiece.


(http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Portals/0/blog_data/Magazine%202014/Maltman_Christopher_10sw_Jaen13_(c)Pia-Clodi_560.jpg) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/352/Christopher-Maltman-Truly-truly-truly-a-Masterpiece.aspx)

QuoteMonday, April 7th, Christopher Maltman took a couple minutes just hours before his recital at the Mozart-Saal to chat about the great, elusive, «Notturno» by Othmar Schoeck:

C.M.:   How do you know the Schoeck «Notturno»?

jfl:       I know it from Klaus Mertens' recording which was one of the... well, it wasn't the first recording. The first one, I think, was Fischer-Dieskau with the Cherubini Quartet, and I'm not sure if it ever made it unto CD. [It had, actually, and copies are hard, but not impossible, to find]

So it was it recorded for vinyl and was never digitally mastered or came back out again? I looked for it, because I was certain that Fischer-Dieskau would have recorded it. But I couldn't find it anywhere and then I looked on some websites and godknowswhat and I saw that he had recorded it but couldn't find a copy to listen to. Which is a bit sad.

But there is of course the Mertens recording, a gorgeous new one with Stephan Genz and the Leipziger Streichquartett and the Gerhaher recording...

That's the one I listened to, actually. Which is beautiful.

It's great... except the Rosamunde Quartet lets him down a bit.But it was him that I first talked about the «Notturno» with at length, well before he knew he'd get a chance of recording it...

Yes, it's not easy to do the piece. It was only when this opportunity at the Konzerthaus was presented to me, where they as much as said: "Look, what would you like to do." And I said: "I would like to do the Schoeck «Notturno»." And they looked at me and said: "OK – what's that?" So I said: "Well, it's a fantastic song cycle for low voice and string quartet." But fortunately they gave me sort of carte blanche to decide what I wanted to do. And it's so hard to get opportunities like that. It's so hard to get concerts like this. They come up, for me, once every two or three years. And I really am so pleased that I had got the opportunity to do this piece. Because the more I worked on it and the more looked at it and the more I got inside it, I think it's absolutely Schoeck's best composition. It's a towering piece of music.

[The backstage dummy alarm rings]
Oh my Lord, what noise is that?...

Full interview here: http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/352/Christopher-Maltman-Truly-truly-truly-a-Masterpiece.aspx (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/352/Christopher-Maltman-Truly-truly-truly-a-Masterpiece.aspx)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 26, 2014, 11:34:03 AM
Quote from: Philo on May 26, 2014, 05:36:01 AM
Agreed with you here. I agree with Gurn, or my interpretation of his post, that it the pieces should be full, and should be drawn from the romantic to post-romantic period. Chopping it up in the manner that they did doesn't make any sense, and selecting a piece like Beethoven's 9th on an introductory disc seems foolhardy.
So do you think a potential listener would like the full 9th rather than the tiny piece on an anthology?  Btw it seems like many people pick up classical music in movies - a haunting theme of some type - that then becomes an item to search for....   
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 26, 2014, 11:41:57 AM
Quote from: Philo on May 26, 2014, 11:39:21 AM
I wouldn't include the Ninth at all, but if you're going to include it, include at least the whole of the final movement.

I bet Kubrick's film made people go looking for Beethoven's 9th!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on May 26, 2014, 12:34:39 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 26, 2014, 11:41:57 AM
I bet Kubrick's film made people go looking for Beethoven's 9th!

IIRC he used the scherzo, which probably works better as an excerpt than the finale.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 26, 2014, 03:53:07 PM
Quote from: Pat B on May 26, 2014, 12:34:39 PM
IIRC he used the scherzo, which probably works better as an excerpt than the finale.
He used the scherzo too, but the most memorable use was of the "Alla marcia" from the finale...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on May 26, 2014, 04:55:13 PM
Was it not the Huntley Brinkley Report that used the scherzo?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 27, 2014, 07:13:59 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 26, 2014, 04:55:13 PM
Was it not the Huntley Brinkley Report that used the scherzo?
That sounds right!  I knew I remembered a news program from my growing-up days that used the B9 scherzo! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on May 27, 2014, 07:23:13 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 26, 2014, 11:41:57 AM
I bet Kubrick's film made people go looking for Beethoven's 9th!

It did for me.  Was the first seed planted in my curiosity and intrigue in classical music.

Purchased the soundtrack, then bought a full Beethoven 9th, then a full Beethoven symphony set.  The rest is history!  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 27, 2014, 08:19:03 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on May 26, 2014, 04:55:13 PM
Was it not the Huntley Brinkley Report that used the scherzo?

Yes, and IIRC, it was the Chicago/Reiner version they used. I grew up watching that news program every night before dinner, and always dug the theme, even back then! :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 27, 2014, 10:16:27 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on May 27, 2014, 07:23:13 AM
It did for me.  Was the first seed planted in my curiosity and intrigue in classical music.

Purchased the soundtrack, then bought a full Beethoven 9th, then a full Beethoven symphony set.  The rest is history!  :)

That makes a lot of sense. The film is shaped so well around music. My kids (Hobbit fans) have spent a lot of time listening to the two sound tracks from the movies. I know that Howard Shore (seemingly) is not well regarded here on GMG, but it is definitely catchy symphonic music that they just keep listening to.  I wonder if his compositions could be a gateway to classical music?   I cannot really know for sure since my house obviously is filled with numerous auditory landscapes (esp Baroque), but Shore may have done classical music fans a favor by his numerous compositions? Will some of the audience be lured to the stacks of symphonies awaiting them?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 27, 2014, 11:31:13 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 27, 2014, 10:16:27 AM
That makes a lot of sense. The film is shaped so well around music. My kids (Hobbit fans) have spent a lot of time listening to the two sound tracks from the movies. I know that Howard Shore (seemingly) is not well regarded here on GMG, but it is definitely catchy symphonic music that they just keep listening to.  I wonder if his compositions could be a gateway to classical music?   I cannot really know for sure since my house obviously is filled with numerous auditory landscapes (esp Baroque), but Shore may have done classical music fans a favor by his numerous compositions? Will some of the audience be lured to the stacks of symphonies awaiting them?
Why not? John Williams did I think.

For me it was weirder. I was 17, never listened to any classical, just in movies etc. Then waiting for a late night B&W movie I tried Carson, delayed due to football, and clicked around before settling on Merv Griffin. Yep, good ole Merv Griffin. Anyway he sat down at a piano and played a little Tchaikovsky. I liked it, so next day I went to the public library and through clunky heaphones listened to this on scratchy vinyl (same cover):
[asin]B000001G7C[/asin]

Within seconds my life changed forever.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 27, 2014, 11:46:37 AM
There you go.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 04, 2014, 01:37:59 PM
Twerking to Dvořák: Getting hooked on classical (http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140603-twerking-to-dvorak)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 06, 2014, 01:13:27 PM
I finally organized my music. I have quite a bit more, but this is what I go to the most. The yellow scores toward the left are all the Ligeti :P.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5iota412b13jupr/Photo%20Jun%2006%2C%204%2056%2016%20PM.jpg)

It's funny. My parents and I complain that we have too many scores/textbooks. Since I graduated this past January, my math/engineering texts have been in huge stacks on the floor -- one of them must have been four feet. Some of it was really useless stuff, too, like homework that I graded that students never collected. The scores were lying around my desk in stacks as well. We also complain that we have too much furniture. I was sitting in the living room yesterday where there was an empty bookcase (no longer needed after a recent renovation to the family room) and I had the brilliant idea: "I know! We can put the books in the bookcase!" Reminded me of the Simpsons episode when Homer and Marge were at parenting class. Marge was really embarrassed to be seen there, but Homer was intrigued and taking copious notes and said to himself "The trash goes in the trash can! That makes sense!"

Having the furniture is nice, though, because it is more than enough to furnish an apartment for when I start grad school in the Fall.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 06, 2014, 06:00:55 PM
That's quite a trick, EigenUser, to get them to adhere to the shelf above them! 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 07, 2014, 12:18:22 PM
My mom finally convinced my dad and I to clean out the garage today. A friend of my dad's moved away about five years ago, at which time he gave my dad a few boxes of stuff he didn't care about and didn't want to have to deal with. Well, it turns out that one of the boxes contained what must have been 75-90 CDs (didn't count yet, I could be way off as I am a horrible estimator), most of which were still in the wrapper unopened. We just discovered this.

The majority were classical (say, 80%). Among other things there are two different recordings of Debussy "La Mer", the Ravel SQ, some Haydn symphonies, some Schumann, Bruckner, even Messiaen's "Oiseaux Exotiques"!! How could we have Messiaen in our house without my knowing? That's ludicrous! Even weirder is knowing that it was there well before I know who Messiaen was.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 07, 2014, 12:40:53 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 07, 2014, 12:18:22 PM
My mom finally convinced my dad and I to clean out the garage today. A friend of my dad's moved away about five years ago, at which time he gave my dad a few boxes of stuff he didn't care about and didn't want to have to deal with. Well, it turns out that one of the boxes contained what must have been 75-90 CDs (didn't count yet, I could be way off as I am a horrible estimator), most of which were still in the wrapper unopened. We just discovered this.

The majority were classical (say, 80%). Among other things there are two different recordings of Debussy "La Mer", the Ravel SQ, some Haydn symphonies, some Schumann, Bruckner, even Messiaen's "Oiseaux Exotiques"!! How could we have Messiaen in our house without my knowing? That's ludicrous! Even weirder is knowing that it was there well before I know who Messiaen was.
Very cool indeed!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 08, 2014, 09:17:38 AM
Richard Strauss said about Sibelius:  "I have more skill, but he is greater." what does that exactly mean? That Strauss has more skill in handling orchestra etc. but Sibelius is overall greater? And do you agree with Strauss? Just curious.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 08, 2014, 09:31:23 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 08, 2014, 09:17:38 AM
Richard Strauss said about Sibelius:  "I have more skill, but he is greater." what does that exactly mean? That Strauss has more skill in handling orchestra etc. but Sibelius is overall greater? And do you agree with Strauss? Just curious.
Sounds apocryphal but I probably agree with it anyway.

Both are greater than Ravel of course.    >:D >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 08, 2014, 10:00:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 08, 2014, 09:31:23 AM
Sounds apocryphal but I probably agree with it anyway.

Both are greater than Ravel of course.    >:D >:D

Ugh, Ken's on the prowl again with his Ravel-hating ::). Better pull this out (I knew it would come in handy):

Quote from: Ken B on June 06, 2014, 04:02:03 PM
ravel is fine, nice [...]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 08, 2014, 10:21:38 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 08, 2014, 10:00:03 AM
Ugh, Ken's on the prowl again with his Ravel-hating ::). Better pull this out (I knew it would come in handy):
It's not Ravel-hating Nate, it's Ravel-only-moderately-liking.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on June 08, 2014, 11:23:41 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 06, 2014, 06:00:55 PM
That's quite a trick, EigenUser, to get them to adhere to the shelf above them! 8)
He lives somewhere in the southern hemisphere.  >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 08, 2014, 12:02:42 PM
Quote from: Alberich on June 08, 2014, 09:17:38 AMRichard Strauss said about Sibelius:  "I have more skill, but he is greater." what does that exactly mean? That Strauss has more skill in handling orchestra etc. but Sibelius is overall greater? And do you agree with Strauss? Just curious.
Sibelius, infamous for his poor (or even just less than brilliant) orchestral writing? Perhaps not. That's like someone saying that they can paint a wall more skillfully than Monet, while Monet could actually do it in the same time. E: not that I'm comparing Ricky to a wall painter.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 08, 2014, 12:13:42 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on June 08, 2014, 11:23:41 AM
He lives somewhere in the southern hemisphere.  >:D
That's a trick that only collections with large amounts of Ligeti will do.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on June 08, 2014, 12:35:11 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 08, 2014, 12:13:42 PM
That's a trick that only collections with large amounts of Ligeti will do.

:) ::) :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 08, 2014, 03:18:12 PM
Quote from: Alberich on June 08, 2014, 09:17:38 AM
Richard Strauss said about Sibelius:  "I have more skill, but he is greater." what does that exactly mean? That Strauss has more skill in handling orchestra etc. but Sibelius is overall greater? And do you agree with Strauss? Just curious.
Uncommonly modest of R. Strauss, if you ask me! :o And uncommonly perceptive.  Strauss's music may have more obviously colorful orchestration, but Sibelius' work stays with one at the heart level.  Yet I would not call Sibelius' orchestration skills less than Strauss's.  At dynamic marking especially, Sibelius is as specific and sensitive as any composer who ever wrote. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 09, 2014, 06:08:15 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 08, 2014, 03:18:12 PM
Uncommonly modest of R. Strauss, if you ask me! :o And uncommonly perceptive.  Strauss's music may have more obviously colorful orchestration, but Sibelius' work stays with one at the heart level.  Yet I would not call Sibelius' orchestration skills less than Strauss's.  At dynamic marking especially, Sibelius is as specific and sensitive as any composer who ever wrote. 8)
Didn't Strauss say something like "I may be a second-rate composer, but I'm a first-class second-rate composer." :D

Look at this. Here are two pages from the first movement of the Ligeti "Chamber Concerto" -- with all of those ghastly-looking cadenzas. On the left page (next to the "1" I wrote and circled) he tells the harpsichord to play "as fast as possible" ("prestissimo possible"). Then, on the right page (next to the "2"), he tells the violins to play slightly faster than the harpsichord. :laugh:

You might have to right-click "view image" to see it right-side up.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5iy05dnadqam4ax/LigetiChC.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 09, 2014, 06:34:23 PM
Not the first to do that >.>

(http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/ss1.png)
... and a few pages later:
(http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/ss2.png)
(http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/ss3.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 10, 2014, 06:55:00 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 09, 2014, 06:08:15 PM
...Look at this. Here are two pages from the first movement of the Ligeti "Chamber Concerto" -- with all of those ghastly-looking cadenzas. On the left page (next to the "1" I wrote and circled) he tells the harpsichord to play "as fast as possible" ("prestissimo possible"). Then, on the right page (next to the "2"), he tells the violins to play slightly faster than the harpsichord. :laugh:
Depending on the players, the violins might be able to play a little faster than the harpsichord. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 12, 2014, 06:30:41 AM
Coolest thing in the Copenhagen subway/tube/metro

http://www.sweetfunnycool.com/vid/this-ride-with-the-tram-in-copenhagen-became-an-un.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb_sharerphp_desktop&utm_campaign=trafficcheck#.U5m3J2hZRJ8 (http://www.sweetfunnycool.com/vid/this-ride-with-the-tram-in-copenhagen-became-an-un.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb_sharerphp_desktop&utm_campaign=trafficcheck#.U5m3J2hZRJ8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 12, 2014, 10:46:25 AM
haydnhaydnhaydnhaydnhaydnOHANA!

(https://photos-2.dropbox.com/t/0/AACh3oi_iCSL1Gcl1WUKyfJaQRAzJ3V_oO9K2axPGD5pQA/12/155398059/jpeg/1024x768/3/1402603200/0/2/Photo%20Jun%2012%2C%202%2040%2032%20PM.jpg/gigXTWqeWBUJzUfN9ok0xcQZMVSdM0Fo35RzjvmZsv4)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 16, 2014, 03:14:34 PM
Which Brahms symphony are you?

http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_brahms_symphony_are_you (http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_brahms_symphony_are_you)

I'd tell you mine, but we 4s aren't boastful.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 16, 2014, 03:29:55 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 16, 2014, 03:14:34 PM
Which Brahms symphony are you?
Hopefully none of them. :-X

Although I do tend to go on and on and repeat myself, so I'm sure I'd find a match... :-\

Not that I have a huge problem with Brahms -- he wrote some beautiful music, but I find it to greatly overstay its welcome. I'm still bitter about playing the double in my university's symphony. Good thing we also had the Bartok "Dance Suite" and Strauss "Overture to Fledermaus" (yes, I love this piece :-[ ;D ) on the same program to make up for it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 16, 2014, 03:35:16 PM
I'm the Second. Oddly I had 0% match with the Third even though it was the first one I liked.

Also, some of those questions. (Who the hell names their kid "Sonata" or "Tutti"?)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 16, 2014, 05:04:32 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 16, 2014, 03:29:55 PM
Hopefully none of them. :-X

Although I do tend to go on and on and repeat myself, so I'm sure I'd find a match... :-\

Not that I have a huge problem with Brahms -- he wrote some beautiful music, but I find it to greatly overstay its welcome. I'm still bitter about playing the double in my university's symphony. Good thing we also had the Bartok "Dance Suite" and Strauss "Overture to Fledermaus" (yes, I love this piece :-[ ;D ) on the same program to make up for it.

Do I hear the god of irony chuckling?

cough cough ravbussy orchestral schmoo cough cough
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 16, 2014, 06:23:54 PM
0% First Symphony. Maybe that's why I don't like it much!!

(I got Second.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 16, 2014, 07:08:19 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 16, 2014, 06:23:54 PM
0% First Symphony. Maybe that's why I don't like it much!!

(I got Second.)
I was 2% first, then 6, 10, 58% for fourth. I guess the rest is Bruckner  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on June 16, 2014, 07:40:52 PM
Third for me,  yet 0 for the Fourth.   I named my kid Motto.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on June 16, 2014, 10:17:08 PM
The second  (82%) !!!   
[the Third got 74% while the First and Fourth got 0%]. My kid was named Motto as well. The funny thing is that I often tease my son with calling him Moto (Master of the Obvious)....      ::) :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on June 16, 2014, 11:14:06 PM
I got 58% First Symphony, 42% Second and 4% Fourth. 104% of symphonic awesomeness.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 17, 2014, 02:17:46 AM
I got second. Second having 54 % makes sense since it was the first Brahms symphony along with fourth that I immediately loved. Yet 4th 0 %  ??? However my personality is IMO closest to 3rd or 4th.

Moving on to Brahms's other compositions: Why is double concerto less loved than other concertos when the last movement of it is IMO the most badass concerto movement Brahms ever wrote?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: king ubu on June 17, 2014, 02:58:18 AM
82% first, 28% second .... so I'm a whopping 110%, which is kinda kewl ... although I've not heard Brahms' symphonies quite set.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 17, 2014, 03:09:12 AM
46% First  8)
36% Third  :-*
4% Fourth  >:(
0% Second  ???


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 17, 2014, 03:20:10 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on June 17, 2014, 03:09:12 AM
46% First  8)
36% Third  :-*
4% Fourth  >:(
0% Second  ???

What happened to the other 14%?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: king ubu on June 17, 2014, 03:21:38 AM
Quote from: amw on June 17, 2014, 03:20:10 AM
What happened to the other 14%?
Wanderer and me stole 'em!  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 17, 2014, 03:25:18 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 17, 2014, 02:17:46 AM
I got second. Second having 54 % makes sense since it was the first Brahms symphony along with fourth that I immediately loved. Yet 4th 0 %  ??? However my personality is IMO closest to 3rd or 4th.

Moving on to Brahms's other compositions: Why is double concerto less loved than other concertos when the last movement of it is IMO the most badass concerto movement Brahms ever wrote?
I haven't heard much Brahms because I was kind of put off by the double. I also attended a performance of Brahms 2nd symphony which I felt very similarly about (beautiful, but too long), but fortunately Bartok's 2nd PC and Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" were there to save the day.

Quote from: Ken B on June 16, 2014, 05:04:32 PM
Do I hear the god of irony chuckling?

cough cough ravbussy orchestral schmoo cough cough
::)
glassglassglassglassglassglassglass
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 17, 2014, 03:29:21 AM
Quote from: amw on June 17, 2014, 03:20:10 AM
What happened to the other 14%?

I have no clue, but that's what I got. Perhaps the remaining amount is being reserved for another Brahms piece.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on June 17, 2014, 08:46:36 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 17, 2014, 02:17:46 AM
Moving on to Brahms's other compositions: Why is double concerto less loved than other concertos when the last movement of it is IMO the most badass concerto movement Brahms ever wrote?

I like it better than his Violin Concerto.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on June 17, 2014, 06:33:40 PM
Quote from: Alberich on June 17, 2014, 02:17:46 AM

Moving on to Brahms's other compositions: Why is double concerto less loved than other concertos when the last movement of it is IMO the most badass concerto movement Brahms ever wrote?

For me, the Double Concerto was the first Brahms work I truly connected with, in part because of the first movement's main theme, and it still remains my favorite Brahms composition.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 17, 2014, 06:37:53 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on June 17, 2014, 06:33:40 PM
For me, the Double Concerto was the first Brahms work I truly connected with, in part because of the first movement's main theme, and it still remains my favorite Brahms composition.
Is it this one?

DAAAA-da-da. DAAAA-da-da. DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA *enter cello*
;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 17, 2014, 06:46:50 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 17, 2014, 03:25:18 AM
I haven't heard much Brahms because I was kind of put off by the double. I also attended a performance of Brahms 2nd symphony which I felt very similarly about (beautiful, but too long)
Could try some of the piano pieces, which tend to be significantly shorter. Also the variations and overtures. (And get a pianist to read through some of the sonatas with you if you want, they're almost completely sightreadable)

You might also find the orchestra transcriptions entertaining. ASIN B000000AKC has the two "essential" ones.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 18, 2014, 06:07:33 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 17, 2014, 03:25:18 AM
I haven't heard much Brahms because I was kind of put off by the double. I also attended a performance of Brahms 2nd symphony which I felt very similarly about (beautiful, but too long), but fortunately Bartok's 2nd PC and Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" were there to save the day.
::)

Try the c minor piano quartet . . . .

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on June 17, 2014, 06:33:40 PM
For me, the Double Concerto was the first Brahms work I truly connected with, in part because of the first movement's main theme, and it still remains my favorite Brahms composition.

I listened to it again yesterday, one of the recordings in the Oistrakh box (so, though this be heresy, I couldn't say off the top of my head whether the cellist had been Slava or Fournier).  I always enjoy the piece when I am listening to it, to be sure.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:12:25 AM
My biggest beef with Brahms' Double is the lackluster ending, but that doesn't ruin the previous 30 minutes in any way. Still a enjoyable piece. And it does have a blockbuster opening...

Quote from: EigenUser on June 17, 2014, 06:37:53 PM
DAAAA-da-da. DAAAA-da-da. DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA *enter cello*

...what a great way to begin.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 18, 2014, 06:15:08 AM
Brahms channeling Grieg;  that didn't happen all that often!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 06:34:50 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:12:25 AM
My biggest beef with Brahms' Double is the lackluster ending...
I beg to differ!  The ending is as perfect as the rest of the concerto.  However, lots of modern recordings take that last movement too slowly.  The old Nathan Milstein/Gregor Piatigorsky recordings, one with Toscanini and one with Reiner (my personal favorite) get the tempo just right, with a special rhythmic snap that serves it very well indeed.  And there may be some modern recordings with a faster finale.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:39:20 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 06:34:50 AM
I beg to differ!  The ending is as perfect as the rest of the concerto.  However, lots of modern recordings take that last movement too slowly.  The old Nathan Milstein/Gregor Piatigorsky recordings, one with Toscanini and one with Reiner (my personal favorite) get the tempo just right, with a special rhythmic snap that serves it very well indeed.  And there may be some modern recordings with a faster finale.

Do not beg, you'll make me feel guilty.  :D
I'll look for those Recs, they might be on Spotify. I only have two recordings of the work, would love to get my hands on another, a few. Thanks!!  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 06:41:40 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:39:20 AM
Do not beg, you'll make me feel guilty.  :D
I'll look for those Recs, they might be on Spotify. I only have two recordings of the work, would love to get my hands on another, a few. Thanks!!  8)
As I recall, I found the Milstein/Toscanini recording on YouTube. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:42:31 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 06:41:40 AM
As I recall, I found the Milstein/Toscanini recording on YouTube. 8)

Ah, cool. I keep forgetting to look at YouTube. There is some good stuff posted there.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brahmsian on June 18, 2014, 06:57:16 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 18, 2014, 06:07:33 AM
Try the c minor piano quartet . . . .


Re:  Brahms' Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60   sometimes nicknamed "Werther", or as I like to nickname it "Werther's Original", like the candy.  :D

You da man, Karl!!  :)  A great recommendation.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on June 18, 2014, 09:41:03 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on June 18, 2014, 06:12:25 AM
My biggest beef with Brahms' Double is the lackluster ending

???  To me that movement has one of the greatest melodies Brahms has ever created. I can't get it out of my head! Of course melody alone does not make a great piece but I think Brahms handles the movement magnificently.

Duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, da da da da...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on June 18, 2014, 10:40:44 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 06:34:50 AM
The old Nathan Milstein/Gregor Piatigorsky recordings, one with Toscanini and one with Reiner (my personal favorite) get the tempo just right, with a special rhythmic snap that serves it very well indeed.

Oh. That's tempting even though I already own more Brahms doubles (and particularly more vintage recordings) than I probably need. But I always enjoy Milstein's playing. youtube has parts of the Reiner one but not the whole thing.

I like Heifetz and Piatigorsky with Wallenstein. I am not generally a fan of Heifetz's stereo recordings. This is the exception.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 18, 2014, 11:46:33 AM
Quote from: Alberich on June 18, 2014, 09:41:03 AM
???  To me that movement has one of the greatest melodies Brahms has ever created. I can't get it out of my head! Of course melody alone does not make a great piece but I think Brahms handles the movement magnificently.

Duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, duh da da, da da da da...
I will admit that I do love that melody, actually.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 18, 2014, 03:47:24 PM
I got the score to Mahler 7 and "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" today. Too bad I couldn't buy them as individual movements. :( :laugh:

Also, I got a solo piano reduction of the "Sirenes" from Debussy's "Trois Nocturnes". And the scores of Mendelssohn's 8th and 10th string symphonies. And the score/set of parts for Haydn 14, 16, 23, 24, 25, and 26.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 18, 2014, 05:13:34 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 18, 2014, 03:47:24 PM
I got the score to Mahler 7 and "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" today. Too bad I couldn't buy them as individual movements. :( :laugh:

Also, I got a solo piano reduction of the "Sirenes" from Debussy's "Trois Nocturnes". And the scores of Mendelssohn's 8th and 10th string symphonies. And the score/set of parts for Haydn 14, 16, 23, 24, 25, and 26.
Excellent selections!  I can spend hours or days in any Mahler score, especially the later ones! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 19, 2014, 04:06:58 AM
Oh, is Jn Adams taking it hard that his work is not reaching the wide audience which he would like?

My heart bleeds for him, truly.  He has so few opportunities . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 19, 2014, 06:37:57 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2014, 04:06:58 AM
Oh, is Jn Adams taking it hard that his work is not reaching the wide audience which he would like?

My heart bleeds for him, truly.  He has so few opportunities . . . .
Apparently there was pressure from Jewish groups because they deemed it offensive. How much do you want to bet that Saul is involved in this somehow? :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 19, 2014, 07:12:55 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2014, 04:06:58 AM
Oh, is Jn Adams taking it hard that his work is not reaching the wide audience which he would like?

My heart bleeds for him, truly.  He has so few opportunities . . . .
Is this in reference to the recent furor over his dreck opera about Klinghoffer?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 19, 2014, 07:31:36 AM
Aye.

There is a difference of opinion, though.  To you, the opera is dreck.  To another, it is a turd.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 19, 2014, 07:57:24 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2014, 07:31:36 AM
Aye.

There is a difference of opinion, though.  To you, the opera is dreck.  To another, it is a turd.
I'm flexible on the issue.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 03:12:09 AM
I'm proud of myself! I watched all of Mahler's 7th in one sitting on the Berlin DCH. And I liked it! I could have sworn that I had listened to all of the movements, but now I'm thinking that I didn't. I love the Arabian sounding melody in the "Nachtmusic I" and I really loved the finale.

This is an interesting thing I learned from Wikipedia:
http://www.youtube.com/v/384CsvbMGO4
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 06:02:08 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 03:12:09 AM
I'm proud of myself! I watched all of Mahler's 7th in one sitting on the Berlin DCH. And I liked it!
Cool.  Breaking the impatience barrier  :)

Lot's of things now. Have you ever listened to the whole of Mendelssohn's 3, to pick a composer you like? Just don't move on to Mahler 8; that will set you back years.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 08:57:11 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2014, 07:31:36 AM
Aye.

There is a difference of opinion, though.  To you, the opera is dreck.  To another, it is a turd.
More on the Dreck of Turd.
I bought this on vinyl the day it came out. Rarely have I ever regretted a purchase more.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/06/19/the-mets-staging-of-klinghoffer-should-be-scrapped/ (http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/06/19/the-mets-staging-of-klinghoffer-should-be-scrapped/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 20, 2014, 09:43:11 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 08:57:11 AM
More on the Dreck of Turd.
I bought this on vinyl the day it came out. Rarely have I ever regretted a purchase more.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/06/19/the-mets-staging-of-klinghoffer-should-be-scrapped/ (http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/06/19/the-mets-staging-of-klinghoffer-should-be-scrapped/)

Excellent article, thank you.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 02:03:09 PM
I'm definitely in a Mahler phase. Today I watched the 4th which was awesome -- lighter than I expected for him, but still great. I'm going to watch "Das Lied von der Erde" during dinner tonight! I like watching the performances as opposed to just listening. "Pure listening" is hard for me because I feel like I should be doing something.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 02:06:42 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 02:03:09 PM
I'm definitely in a Mahler phase. Today I watched the 4th which was awesome -- lighter than I expected for him, but still great. I'm going to watch "Das Lied von der Erde" during dinner tonight! I like watching the performances as opposed to just listening. "Pure listening" is hard for me because I feel like I should be doing something.
Das Lied seems to split listeners very sharply. Many hate it, others think it one of Mahler's best.
(Some think both those things  :))

I'm in the second group.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 06:01:03 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 06:02:08 AM
Cool.  Breaking the impatience barrier  :)

Lot's of things now. Have you ever listened to the whole of Mendelssohn's 3, to pick a composer you like? Just don't move on to Mahler 8; that will set you back years.
Missed this somehow. I haven't heard the Mendelssohn symphonies in awhile -- I should again soon. I much prefer the string symphonies, some of the finest music for string orchestra ever composed, I think.

I do manage to get "Italian" stuck in my head every now and again.

Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 02:06:42 PM
Das Lied seems to split listeners very sharply. Many hate it, others think it one of Mahler's best.
(Some think both those things  :))

I'm in the second group.
I liked "Das Lied von der Erde". The last song went on way too long (though it was good), but I loved 3, 4, and 5. I think I'll conquer "Titan" tomorrow. The 8th is last on my list. What is it that you don't like about it? I've heard that it is generally considered one of the weaker symphonies of his, despite the enormous forces needed.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on June 20, 2014, 06:13:46 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 06:01:03 PM

I liked "Das Lied von der Erde". The last song went on way too long (though it was good), but I loved 3, 4, and 5. I think I'll conquer "Titan" tomorrow. The 8th is last on my list. What is it that you don't like about it? I've heard that it is generally considered one of the weaker symphonies of his, despite the enormous forces needed.

sticking my finger in....M8 is a work that's very hard to bring off because it's got so many moving parts, so to speak.  I like it very much,  but I'm not sure there's a recording of it which I totally like.   Getting several hundred musicians to get everything right is a true task of conducting and most performances have at least one thing wrong.  For instance, the bass-baritone solo near the beginning of Part II often comes up as a tongue twisting chewed up botch of singing--the main flaw in the MTT/SFO recording, for instance;  and as an example of another famous recording,  the Solti recording, in which Chohn Chirley-Quirk wraps himself up in phonetic knots all the way through that passage.  And if the performers get it right,  the sound engineers get something wrong.....but done right,  and listening to all the transformations Mahler does with the musical material, tying it all together with the great chorale that ends the symphony....

But be warned; it usually tops 80 minutes (or at least comes very close),  with the only musical break coming about twenty minutes in,  at the end of Part I.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 06:47:00 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 06:01:03 PM
Missed this somehow. I haven't heard the Mendelssohn symphonies in awhile -- I should again soon. I much prefer the string symphonies, some of the finest music for string orchestra ever composed, I think.

I do manage to get "Italian" stuck in my head every now and again.
I liked "Das Lied von der Erde". The last song went on way too long (though it was good), but I loved 3, 4, and 5. I think I'll conquer "Titan" tomorrow. The 8th is last on my list. What is it that you don't like about it? I've heard that it is generally considered one of the weaker symphonies of his, despite the enormous forces needed.
It's like liver puree. Hard to explain why it's awful, but most people understand once they try it  :)

It's long, it's bloated, and it's muddy. There are some good melodies, but they get lost in the thickness.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 21, 2014, 03:18:09 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 20, 2014, 06:47:00 PM
It's like liver puree. Hard to explain why it's awful, but most people understand once they try it  :)
I love it! The analogy, that is.

Maybe this should go in the composing/performing section but it isn't worth starting a new thread for this one thing. I recently came across an extremely old and falling-apart copy of a very well-done solo piano arrangement of the 3rd of Debussy's "Trois Nocturnes". The arranger is Gustav Samazeuilh (never heard of him). It appears to be out of print. Is this post-able on a site like IMSLP regarding copyright? It was published in 1923 and I know that this is the cutoff year for PD material in the US. I have really been enjoying playing this beautiful piece and I'd like to share it with others. I tried googling it, but there is almost no information available on this arrangement. What a shame!

If no one here knows, I'll try asking on the IMSLP.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 03:33:05 AM
I watched Mahler's 1st last night, the "Titan". Stirred up images depicting chilly oceans of methane :laugh:.

Seriously, though, I loved it. All of it. The first movement has a very "Haydn-y" sounding melody, but it was late-romanticized.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 22, 2014, 08:58:34 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 03:33:05 AM
I watched Mahler's 1st last night, the "Titan". Stirred up images depicting chilly oceans of methane :laugh:.

Seriously, though, I loved it. All of it. The first movement has a very "Haydn-y" sounding melody, but it was late-romanticized.
:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 02:51:57 PM
This is your nightly Mahler Report:

Saw the fifth. I liked it, but not as much as 1 and 7 -- my favorites. I recognized the famous "Adagietto" as well as the horn call at the opening of the scherzo.

Maybe I'll do 9 tomorrow??
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 22, 2014, 02:54:20 PM
I liked Das Lied long before I much liked any of the symphonies, FWIW.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 02:59:55 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 22, 2014, 02:54:20 PM
I liked Das Lied long before I much liked any of the symphonies, FWIW.
I loved "Das Lied van der Erde", but I thought the last one was wayyy too long. I liked the last song a lot -- very dark music -- but after a while couldn't help but think "ugh, when will it be over?" If it was shorter, I'd say it was my favorite one.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 22, 2014, 03:41:37 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 02:59:55 PM
I loved "Das Lied van der Erde", but I thought the last one was wayyy too long. I liked the last song a lot -- very dark music -- but after a while couldn't help but think "ugh, when will it be over?" If it was shorter, I'd say it was my favorite one.
Ah, the good old days, when record players had a 78 setting.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 22, 2014, 03:56:47 PM
Plumbing new depths of stupidity
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1848385 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1848385)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:17:16 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 22, 2014, 03:41:37 PM
Ah, the good old days, when record players had a 78 setting.

Hey, we can do that with computers now!

[audio]http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/06%20Mahler_%20Das%20Lied%20Von%20Der%20Erde.mp3[/audio]


Way better than the original ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 22, 2014, 06:27:14 PM
Quote from: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:17:16 PM
Hey, we can do that with computers now!

[audio]http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/06%20Mahler_%20Das%20Lied%20Von%20Der%20Erde.mp3[/audio]


Way better than the original ;)
Let the record show: I listened to this entire clip.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:37:54 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 22, 2014, 06:27:14 PM
Let the record show: I listened to this entire clip.
I'll let you know when I've completed my project to fit the complete works of Bruckner on one standard CD.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 22, 2014, 06:39:59 PM
Quote from: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:37:54 PM
I'll let you know when I've completed my project to fit the complete works of Bruckner on one standard CD.
One time I was going for a walk somewhere and got bored and occupied my brain by mentally composing a brass quintet that was just a 15-minute mashup of all the big Bruckner fanfares. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 06:43:07 PM
Quote from: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:17:16 PM
Hey, we can do that with computers now!

[audio]http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32084883/06%20Mahler_%20Das%20Lied%20Von%20Der%20Erde.mp3[/audio]


Way better than the original ;)
Haha :laugh:. The sped-up vibrato sounds like she's singing through a fan, or underwater.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on June 22, 2014, 06:53:50 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 22, 2014, 03:33:05 AM
I watched Mahler's 1st last night, the "Titan". Stirred up images depicting chilly oceans of methane :laugh:.

Seriously, though, I loved it. All of it. The first movement has a very "Haydn-y" sounding melody, but it was late-romanticized.

The opening of Mahler 1 is very reminiscent of the opening of Beethoven 4. It's similar enough that I must assume it was intentional. Then there's another part that reminds me of Appalachian Spring (which was of course written much later, but which I knew before any Mahler). Interesting that you think of Haydn!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 26, 2014, 05:07:25 AM
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra has signed a collaboration deal with Naxos. This will result in
Miguel Harth-Bedoya's mother was, quote, "choral director for the airline Aeroperu." In case you were wondering which airlines have choirs.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 26, 2014, 05:18:52 AM
". . . something contrapuntal in the air . . . ."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on June 26, 2014, 09:11:52 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 26, 2014, 05:07:25 AM
Miguel Harth-Bedoya's mother was, quote, "choral director for the airline Aeroperu." In case you were wondering which airlines have choirs.

https://www.youtube.com/v/v3rhQc666Sg
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 01:34:57 PM
Today:
-Beethoven 4
-Beethoven "Missa Solemnis"
-Tchaikovsky 6
-Mendelssohn 3
-Bach D minor KC
-Haydn 103
-Haydn 1
-Haydn 32
-Volume of Haydn SQs (nice, hardbound critical edition)
-Francaix "Symphony d'Archets" (anyone familiar with this?)
-Faure "Requiem"
-A short biography of Mahler

Total price: $45 even. ;D ;D ;D (The Faure alone is priced at $70).

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/by37qfripflsnwe/Photo%20Jun%2026%2C%205%2020%2024%20PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 26, 2014, 01:37:24 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 01:34:57 PM
Today:
-Beethoven 4
-Beethoven "Missa Solemnis"
-Tchaikovsky 6
-Mendelssohn 3
-Bach D minor KC
-Haydn 103
-Haydn 1
-Haydn 32
-Volume of Haydn SQs (nice, hardbound critical edition)
-Francaix "Symphony d'Archets" (anyone familiar with this?)
-Faure "Requiem"
-A short biography of Mahler

Total price: $45 even. ;D ;D ;D (The Faure alone is priced at $70).

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/by37qfripflsnwe/Photo%20Jun%2026%2C%205%2020%2024%20PM.jpg)

How's the sound?

:D looks like a nice haul actually.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 05:24:40 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 26, 2014, 01:37:24 PM
How's the sound?
I tried shoving a few scores into my car CD player on the way home, but it just made a bunch of scratching/hissing noises. So, perhaps like "Kontakte"? :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 26, 2014, 05:34:34 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 05:24:40 PM
I tried shoving a few scores into my car CD player on the way home, but it just made a bunch of scratching/hissing noises. So, perhaps like "Kontakte"? :D
I downloaded Stimmung today!  :blank:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 05:46:30 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 26, 2014, 05:34:34 PM
I downloaded Stimmung today!  :blank:
Which begs the question, why?

AI-EE-I-O-U-E-A-BA-NA-NA-BA-NA-NA-BA-NA-NANNAAA

Seriously, that piece irritates the hell out of me. I occasionally give "Cosmic Pulses" a listen, though. Have you heard that one? Perhaps it isn't music to me per se, but I like the sounds created in that piece -- especially in the first five minutes or so. It reminds me of a huge supercell thunderstorm forming over the plains. It's a far cry from the electronic-fart-music of the 1950s that resembles dial-up modems.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 26, 2014, 06:12:29 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 26, 2014, 05:46:30 PM
Which begs the question, why?

AI-EE-I-O-U-E-A-BA-NA-NA-BA-NA-NA-BA-NA-NANNAAA

Seriously, that piece irritates the hell out of me. I occasionally give "Cosmic Pulses" a listen, though. Have you heard that one? Perhaps it isn't music to me per se, but I like the sounds created in that piece -- especially in the first five minutes or so. It reminds me of a huge supercell thunderstorm forming over the plains. It's a far cry from the electronic-fart-music of the 1950s that resembles dial-up modems.
It was free. I remember hearing it a few times long ago. Not that I liked it but it had some interest.
Modems were the death of electric music. One no longer needed the composer or performer.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 28, 2014, 02:34:24 AM
I heard the "Kyrie" and "Gloria" of the LvB MS. Alas, much of the Kyrie is starting to fall out of the score. Oh well, it looks ancient, and I got it for $10 so I can't complain. I think that the edition I have goes for well over $100 today.

You guys would make me embarrassed if I told you what Beethoven works I have heard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 28, 2014, 05:18:12 PM
Ken -- here's a good quote for you so that you can get your signature up and running again. 8)
"The audience expected the ocean. Something big, something colossal, but there were served instead with some agitated water in a saucer." -Critic Louis Schneider on Debussy's "La Mer"

My obsession with that piece seems to have temporarily waned, so I won't mind.


On the score I have, I just realized that "Missa Solemnis" is spelt incorrectly as "Missa Solennis". Not once. Not Twice. Thrice.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 28, 2014, 07:16:02 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 28, 2014, 05:18:12 PM
Ken -- here's a good quote for you so that you can get your signature up and running again. 8)
"The audience expected the ocean. Something big, something colossal, but there were served instead with some agitated water in a saucer." -Critic Louis Schneider on Debussy's "La Mer"

My obsession with that piece seems to have temporarily waned, so I won't mind.

Congratulations. The first step to a cure is recognizing you have a problem.

;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 29, 2014, 03:07:23 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 28, 2014, 07:16:02 PM
Congratulations. The first step to a cure is recognizing you have a problem.

;)
::)

I thought I asked you, but I think I may have forgotten. Does that new symphony box of yours include the "Tarangleisle-Symphonie"?

;) ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 29, 2014, 06:43:15 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 29, 2014, 03:07:23 AM
::)

I thought I asked you, but I think I may have forgotten. Does that new symphony box of yours include the "Tarangleisle-Symphonie"?

;) ;)
Alas it does. I think this makes 127 versions I now own. Just like Mahler's 8, which I think I own 5 copies of (seriously).
The box includes a piece you should listen to, Hans Rott's Symphony. Which is not listed in the contents.
You have heard it before. You like it.
All will be explained when you hear it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 29, 2014, 12:56:31 PM
Quote from: Ken B on June 29, 2014, 06:43:15 AM
Alas it does. I think this makes 127 versions I now own. Just like Mahler's 8, which I think I own 5 copies of (seriously).
The box includes a piece you should listen to, Hans Rott's Symphony. Which is not listed in the contents.
You have heard it before. You like it.
All will be explained when you hear it.
I thought that you didn't like the "Tar-angle-isle Symphonie", though. I have to admit that the "Tar-Angle-Isle Symphonie" really grew on me. ;) ;) ;).

Isn't the Rott the one with the virtuosic triangle writing?
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111008025855/simpsons/images/9/91/Mr._Largo%27s_Class.PNG)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 29, 2014, 01:33:01 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 29, 2014, 12:56:31 PM
I thought that you didn't like the "Tar-angle-isle Symphonie", though. I have to admit that the "Tar-Angle-Isle Symphonie" really grew on me. ;) ;) ;).

Isn't the Rott the one with the virtuosic triangle writing?
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111008025855/simpsons/images/9/91/Mr._Largo%27s_Class.PNG)
Hmm. I sense a hint there somewhere.  :)

Do give the Rott a listen ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 30, 2014, 01:48:55 AM
Quote from: Ken B on June 29, 2014, 01:33:01 PM
Hmm. I sense a hint there somewhere.  :)

Do give the Rott a listen ...
I'll keep it on my radar.

The night before last I saw Boulez conduct his "Notations" for orchestra on the Berlin DCH. What great music! It got such a warm applause/reception at the end, right after the loud and exciting raucous ending. Even my dad, who is often wary about post-Bartok music, said "That's pretty good!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 30, 2014, 01:22:23 PM
Sadly, today was the last day that Dale Music in Silver Spring, MD was open. I must have got over $500 worth of scores for $35 (no, I didn't forget a '0' -- I mean $35). The Haydn "The Seasons" alone is $170 for the two volumes.

-Haydn Symphonies 2, 9, and 10 (score and set of parts)
-Bruckner "Mass in E Minor" ($1 -- why not? -- she ended up giving it to me because it was falling apart)
-Ravel "Valses Nobles et Sentimentals" for piano solo
-Haydn "The Seasons" (both volumes)
-Dvorak "Slavonic Dances"
-Schumann "Concertpiece for Four Horns and Piano" (a transcription of the orchestral one)
-Bartok "Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs" for piano solo
-Milhaud "Suite in G" for orchestra
-Schubert "Symphony No. 4"
-Bach orchestral suites 1+4
-Bruckner "Mass No. 3"
-Bruckner "Symphony No. 6"
-Varese "Integrales" (should go well with Boulez's "Derive", plus a constant :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: )

The place has been there for 64 years! There were local news reporters there interviewing people. I guess that isn't posted yet, but I found this video. The lady interviewed at 1:25 is the one who gave me great deals. I will miss going there. Not many places like this exist anymore. There are a few sheet music stores, but I have never seen such a large conductor's score section. Maybe the Julliard Store comes close, but all of that stuff was new (not many "hard to find" things).
http://www.youtube.com/v/VnAejAM1Mz4

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/a7wxifh98uiakoc/Photo%20Jun%2030%2C%204%2058%2055%20PM.jpg)

I didn't realize how many Haydn symphony parts I was collecting until I stacked them up together:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/jin6kyzu54x3olr/Photo%20Jun%2030%2C%205%2000%2012%20PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 02, 2014, 05:59:24 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 19, 2014, 07:31:36 AM
Aye.

There is a difference of opinion, though.  To you, the opera is dreck.  To another, it is a turd.
Do I hear a "Merde"? ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 02, 2014, 06:00:55 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 20, 2014, 03:12:09 AM
I'm proud of myself! I watched all of Mahler's 7th in one sitting on the Berlin DCH. And I liked it! I could have sworn that I had listened to all of the movements, but now I'm thinking that I didn't. I love the Arabian sounding melody in the "Nachtmusic I" and I really loved the finale.
Good for you!  I heard that one live in Denver some years ago with Marin Alsop leading the Colorado Symphony in a flawless performance. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 02, 2014, 06:03:58 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on June 30, 2014, 01:22:23 PM
...-Bruckner "Mass in E Minor" ($1 -- why not? -- she ended up giving it to me because it was falling apart)...
You lucky son of a...!!! >:D I've been trying to get a glance at that one for years!  It really is some of the most beautiful music ever; that opening makes me shiver every time! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on July 03, 2014, 06:59:06 AM
You're free to add new discussions in this thread, yes?

What are the worst character names ever in opera? My choice is clear: Ping, Pang and Pong from Turandot. How could Puccini, who was very strict about quality of his libretti (even if results were not perfect, Tosca's libretto being referred to as "a shabby little shocker") let something like this happen? I think even back in 1920s those names (together) would have been considered a failure. I am not calling a race card because there certainly were far worse names or nicknames for chinese back in the day. And no offense to anyone actually named Ping etc. it's just that together those three names... just why? Table tennis, anyone? Not very innovative, to say the least.

And yes, I know Alberich is a very bad name ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on July 03, 2014, 07:20:19 AM
I thought the P. trio names were taken from the source material?  At any rate they suggest the commedia dell'arte origins of the characters.

Not necessarily worst, but certainly confused, are the names on the dramatis personae in I Puritani.  Story in England, so one expects English names either in English spelling or Italian transcription,  but not a mixture of both (Gualtier Walton?),  although checking on Wikipedia that may be the fault of the track listings of my recordings, not an error of Pepoli, the librettist.
Title: Matthew Aucoin: American Mozart at 24?
Post by: Cato on July 18, 2014, 03:43:27 AM
The Wall Street Journal has a 3-page (!!!) "Portrait of a Prodigy" today (July 18th) about Matthew Aucoin, the youngest (24) assistant conductor in the history of the Metropolitan Opera:

QuoteMr. Aucoin recently made his conducting debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Opera's orchestra and the Juilliard Opera. He is the youngest member of the Met's team of assistant conductors and has conducted rehearsals for luminaries such as the Chicago Symphony's Riccardo Muti and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Gustavo Dudamel. In those sessions, he meets with the maestros to discuss complex sections of the music and later debriefs them about the practice. His orchestral and chamber compositions are performed in the U.S. and Europe. The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., made him its first composer-in-residence...

....he was diving back into classical music, which he felt was his artistic home. After a series of composing feats at Harvard, including creating a string-orchestra piece in three days, word about his talents began to spread. "There was a buzz on the campus here that he was the next Leonard Bernstein," says Diane Paulus, the Tony award-winning director who teaches at the university.

In the spring of his senior year, he debuted "Hart Crane." Ms. Paulus, who had been in the audience, approached him some time later about writing a Civil War opera for the American Repertory Theater, where she is artistic director. Within a few months, he gave her song studies for an opera with Walt Whitman in a Civil War hospital turned into Purgatory. He got the job.

Not long ago, Ms. Paulus watched as he performed the entire score for her, flying through scribbled notes on composition paper at the piano and scrolling through music written so recently on his laptop he hadn't yet printed it. "It was the classic mad composer," she says.

"Hart Crane" also caught the attention of Ms. (Renee) Fleming, whose daughter, a student at Harvard at the time, performed in the piece. Ms. Fleming eventually introduced Mr. Aucoin to Anthony Freud, general director of the Lyric Opera, which commissioned him to write a children's opera to be performed at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago next year. Mr. Aucoin says he is writing a story set in a dystopian future where a monkey hands two children a piece of real fruit, forbidden in their synthetic world.

The link below offers excerpts of some of his compositions.

See:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/is-matthew-aucoin-the-next-leonard-bernstein-1405626210?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304668604580029493659456952.html (http://online.wsj.com/articles/is-matthew-aucoin-the-next-leonard-bernstein-1405626210?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304668604580029493659456952.html)



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 18, 2014, 05:00:36 AM
The Peabody-Essex Museum is close to home, indeed!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on July 18, 2014, 09:30:53 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 18, 2014, 05:00:36 AM
The Peabody-Essex Museum is close to home, indeed!
Indeed.  Although it never occurred to me that it would have a composer in residence.  I thought its collections went in completely different directions.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 18, 2014, 09:32:32 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 18, 2014, 09:30:53 AM
Indeed.  Although it never occurred to me that it would have a composer in residence.

Nor to me.  It is a position which would never have been created for a composer like me.  (Connections, connections, and connections.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on July 18, 2014, 09:33:41 AM
Thread duty insofar as this thread had one
Brit critics seem to have snarled up over soprano size again.  http://standpointmag.co.uk/music-july-august-14-heavy-fall-from-grace-norman-lebrecht-tara-erraught
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 19, 2014, 06:00:57 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 18, 2014, 09:33:41 AM
Thread duty insofar as this thread had one
Brit critics seem to have snarled up over soprano size again.  http://standpointmag.co.uk/music-july-august-14-heavy-fall-from-grace-norman-lebrecht-tara-erraught
Well, they have the right to their opinion--just as we have the right to decry it.  And most of our criticisms of the critics are much less sharp than, say, Sir Tommy Beecham's "If there is a chair for critics, it had better be an electric chair." :o

Still: "Frumpy"?  The Octavian in the photo looks absolutely appropriately boyish.  8) Of course I can't comment on her singing or acting skills--which, in the end, are all that matter in an opera performance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on July 23, 2014, 03:08:05 PM
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/arts/music/met-opera-prepares-to-lock-out-workers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=2&referrer=

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 24, 2014, 05:44:08 AM
Nice long interview with Riccardo Chailly. (http://seenandheard-international.com/2014/07/riccardo-chailly-in-conversation-with-michael-cookson-leipzig-june-2014/?doing_wp_cron=1406209172.2764549255371093750000)

MC: Not like Valery Gergiev jetting all over the world giving an astonishing number of concerts and operas?
RC: No, no, no. That type of life is not for me. I'm completely opposite to that....now I am taking over at La Scala, Milan which in combination here with the Gewandhaus means that I have filled a complete season.

also:

"My father was hoping that I would [become a musician]. But when he knew that I wanted to be a conductor he was completely against it. because (he said) at his age he had seen too many flops in the music world; especially sons of musicians. You see my father was a celebrated composer in Italy in the fifties, sixties and seventies. So he assumed that I would be one of those flops [Laughing] in the best tradition of musical families. He was very much against me becoming a conductor. So I had to prove with all my guts and all my energy that I wouldn't be so bad. Then when he was almost persuaded that I should continue my conducting studies he became my first teacher of composition for one year which was a nightmare for me owing to the father/teacher relationship. But thanks to this almost traumatic period I then went to the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, in Milan on my fourth year of composition because my father had made me do three years in one. [Laughing] He taught me that a conductor should know how to compose to be able to interpret someone else's compositions."

and most interestingly:

MC:Do you need less rehearsal time with the finest orchestras?
RC: Well that depends on the country. The fastest orchestras in the world are the British followed by the European orchestras, such as in Germany, the French, the Italians and the Spanish orchestras they are good orchestras but are not as trained for such fast first sight reading. The London orchestras are amongst the fastest in the world; they are unbelievable at this.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2014, 04:38:56 AM
Just a stray Sunday-morning thought . . . I don't suppose Lenny (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21492.msg818926.html#msg818926) would ever appear in the Composers you don't get thread.  The man was human and a communicator.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 27, 2014, 07:44:33 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2014, 04:38:56 AM
Just a stray Sunday-morning thought . . . I don't suppose Lenny (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21492.msg818926.html#msg818926) would ever appear in the Composers you don't get thread.  The man was human and a communicator.
Well, on the other hand I don't get how one could write Mass and not die of shame. So there's that.
;)
Title: Re: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 27, 2014, 08:18:07 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 27, 2014, 07:44:33 AM
Well, on the other hand I don't get how one could write Mass and not die of shame. So there's that.
;)

I could not well refute you....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 30, 2014, 10:55:48 AM
BIS CEO Robert von Bahr's daily write-ups on eClassical.com (http://www.eclassical.com/pages/daily-deal.html?cache=purge) are absolutely mandatory reading.

"The percussionist simply didn't turn up, and we had to have some drumbeat in one of the pieces, and there wasn't anything at all to use in the church, not even a waste paper basket. Sooo, we built up a scaffold of one chair on top of 3 others on top of a table, and I had to start the tape recorder, then climb up this rickety thing, stand on top of the one chair to get near enough to the microphones, beating my breast like a gorilla while keeping the balance. For some reason (I think more or less sadistic ones), Solveig made sure to make a lot of takes on this one song, and I ended up with a totally black and blue bruised chest afterwards. Talk about dedication as a recording producer."

If you want to hear him beating his chest, it's track 27 and you can listen to the whole thing via the sample (http://www.eclassical.com/labels/bis/almqvist-songs-lyrics-prose-piano-choral-pieces.html).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 30, 2014, 11:00:44 AM
"I want to beat my breast like a ape-man!"

http://www.youtube.com/v/pj-UqKjOwwo
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on July 30, 2014, 03:47:40 PM
I had a good idea today. I have a digital piano that I take with me to college, but since I'm home now it we have that piano plus the regular upright at our house. A friend of mine who is quite good (far better than I am) often comes over and we move the digital piano into the living room so we can play stuff for two pianos. We forgot to move it back last time (takes two people to lift), so now it is just sitting there because I haven't yet asked my dad to help (and my mom hasn't complained yet about the living room being a mess with two pianos -- that will come soon enough though :D).

So, I recorded the orchestra part of the beginning of the Ravel G major PC on the digital piano (it has a record/memory/playback feature). Then, I played the solo part on the acoustic piano at the same time! It was amusing. I made it through the fast opening, but I stopped around the slow solo piano blues section. I need to try this with more pieces.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 03:55:30 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on July 30, 2014, 03:47:40 PM
I had a good idea today. I have a digital piano that I take with me to college, but since I'm home now it we have that piano plus the regular upright at our house. A friend of mine who is quite good (far better than I am) often comes over and we move the digital piano into the living room so we can play stuff for two pianos. We forgot to move it back last time (takes two people to lift), so now it is just sitting there because I haven't yet asked my dad to help (and my mom hasn't complained yet about the living room being a mess with two pianos -- that will come soon enough though :D).

So, I recorded the orchestra part of the beginning of the Ravel G major PC on the digital piano (it has a record/memory/playback feature). Then, I played the solo part on the acoustic piano at the same time! It was amusing. I made it through the fast opening, but I stopped around the slow solo piano blues section. I need to try this with more pieces.
Very cool. You ever see the old music minus discs? They always struck me as brutally unforgiving. Your timing has to be faultless. Anyone who can play that accurately doesn't need music minus one!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on July 30, 2014, 05:35:58 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 03:55:30 PM
Very cool. You ever see the old music minus discs? They always struck me as brutally unforgiving. Your timing has to be faultless. Anyone who can play that accurately doesn't need music minus one!
Oh, I remember Music Minus One!  Yeah, they were good for making you listen and adjust to your "accompaniment."  But I soon came to prefer "live" accompaniment because you could adjust to each other.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 06:23:20 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on July 30, 2014, 05:35:58 PM
Oh, I remember Music Minus One!  Yeah, they were good for making you listen and adjust to your "accompaniment."  But I soon came to prefer "live" accompaniment because you could adjust to each other.
That has to be a large part of the fun of chamber music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on July 30, 2014, 06:27:01 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 03:55:30 PM
Very cool. You ever see the old music minus discs? They always struck me as brutally unforgiving. Your timing has to be faultless. Anyone who can play that accurately doesn't need music minus one!
Yeah, it is tricky. Especially entering after a cadenza, which almost always take a variable amount of time (when I was learning the Mendelssohn VC with MMO that was annoying). I have a record (LP) of Schubert "Trout" quintet MMO that my former violin teacher gave me (missing the violin part).

Reminds me of a viola joke. What is the most popular recording of the Berlioz Harold in Italy? Music Minus One.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 06:31:09 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on July 30, 2014, 06:27:01 PM
Yeah, it is tricky. Especially entering after a cadenza, which almost always take a variable amount of time (when I was learning the Mendelssohn VC with MMO that was annoying). I have a record (LP) of Schubert "Trout" quintet MMO that my former violin teacher gave me (missing the violin part).

Reminds me of a viola joke. What is the most popular recording of the Berlioz Harold in Italy? Music Minus One.
Ha! So viola jokes : violinists as engineer jokes : mathematicians!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on July 30, 2014, 06:41:18 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 30, 2014, 06:31:09 PM
Ha! So viola jokes : violinists as engineer jokes : mathematicians!
Not quite... Viola jokes : everyone as engineer jokes : mathematicians. You've never heard of viola jokes?? They're all over the place!
http://web.mit.edu/jcb/www/viola-jokes.html

Some favorites:
Why do violists stand for long periods outside people's houses?
They can't find the key and they don't know when to come in.

How was the canon invented?
Two violists were trying to play the same passage together.

What is the definition of a cluster chord?
A viola section playing on the C string.

What's the difference between the first and last desk of a viola section?
-half a measure
-a semi-tone

A violist and a 'cellist were standing on a sinking ship. "Help!" cried the 'cellist, "I can't swim!"
"Don't worry," said the violist, "just fake it."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 01, 2014, 02:06:18 AM
Recent score purchases from various music stores and eBay (not all, but the ones that could fit in one picture). Especially happy to have Stravinsky's Agon, Mahler 1, and Debussy's Jeux.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2qzgxvfwzi4z2xa/Photo%20Jul%2030%2C%202%2022%2026%20PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 01, 2014, 02:24:39 AM
Very cool, Nate!
Some are a bit hard to read (what is the Schumann?), apart from the picture appearing upside down, but I guess that Symphony No. 94 is Haydn.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 01, 2014, 02:31:59 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 01, 2014, 02:24:39 AM
Very cool, Nate!
Some are a bit hard to read (what is the Schumann?), apart from the picture appearing upside down, but I guess that Symphony No. 94 is Haydn.  8)
Yeah, the pictures sometimes appear upside-down and I can't figure out how to fix it. I even edited the image so that it was upside-down to begin with and it still shows upside-down on GMG! If I right-click "view image" then it shows correctly, but you said that doesn't work for you.

-Haydn 94, 101, 104 (who else?)
-Beethoven 9
-Schumann PC
-Mahler 1
-Debussy Images, Jeux, and The Martyrdom of Saint-Sebastian
-Mendelssohn Hebrides
-Ravel L'heure Espagnole
-Stravinsky Agon and Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 01, 2014, 07:49:03 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 01, 2014, 02:31:59 AM
Yeah, the pictures sometimes appear upside-down and I can't figure out how to fix it.

Not a structural engineer I hope.

>:D :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 06:01:30 AM
My cousin and his wife are having a baby this coming October. Since I go to visit them often I figured I would get a baby gift. There are a lot of classical albums for babies, but many of them are synthesized! Why would they do this?? Perhaps to save money on performance royalties/rights, I guess.

By the way, I don't buy the "Mozart effect" thing, but I do remember really enjoying music (in particular, classical music -- mostly what I'd later discover to be baroque) when I was very young.

One series with real performances that got good reviews was this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lxqQ3VBRL.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nSWX3G%2BOL._SS300_.jpg)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/alz41s7mlq8utri/BabyNeedsBerg.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s05Vq0irL._SY300_.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on August 03, 2014, 06:32:32 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 06:01:30 AM
My cousin and his wife are having a baby this coming October. Since I go to visit them often I figured I would get a baby gift. There are a lot of classical albums for babies, but many of them are synthesized! Why would they do this?? Perhaps to save money on performance royalties/rights, I guess.

By the way, I don't buy the "Mozart effect" thing, but I do remember really enjoying music (in particular, classical music -- mostly what I'd later discover to be baroque) when I was very young.

One series with real performances that got good reviews was this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lxqQ3VBRL.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nSWX3G%2BOL._SS300_.jpg)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/alz41s7mlq8utri/BabyNeedsBerg.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s05Vq0irL._SY300_.jpg)

Baby needs love.

(I am the father of a 1-year-4-month son.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2014, 06:35:53 AM
Does your cousin and/or his wife like classical music? If they don't, it's probably not a good idea. Except 'Baby needs Berg', that's too hilarious. You should burn them a compilation, and include the ending of Lulu, the Chamber Concerto, and other choice material.
You should add Baby needs Xenakis, Baby needs Varèse, Baby needs Leifs, Baby needs Webern, Baby needs Bartók, and Baby needs Ligeti to the series, though.
8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on August 03, 2014, 07:43:57 AM
That's a good one, Nate! The photo is perfect.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 03, 2014, 07:53:30 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 06:01:30 AM
My cousin and his wife are having a baby this coming October. Since I go to visit them often I figured I would get a baby gift. There are a lot of classical albums for babies, but many of them are synthesized! Why would they do this?? Perhaps to save money on performance royalties/rights, I guess.

By the way, I don't buy the "Mozart effect" thing, but I do remember really enjoying music (in particular, classical music -- mostly what I'd later discover to be baroque) when I was very young.

One series with real performances that got good reviews was this:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lxqQ3VBRL.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nSWX3G%2BOL._SS300_.jpg)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/alz41s7mlq8utri/BabyNeedsBerg.jpg)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51s05Vq0irL._SY300_.jpg)
Greg has met his match.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 08:30:52 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2014, 06:35:53 AM
Does your cousin and/or his wife like classical music? If they don't, it's probably not a good idea. Except 'Baby needs Berg', that's too hilarious. You should burn them a compilation, and include the ending of Lulu, the Chamber Concerto, and other choice material.
You should add Baby needs Xenakis, Baby needs Varèse, Baby needs Leifs, Baby needs Webern, Baby needs Bartók, and Baby needs Ligeti to the series, though.
8)

Berg's Op. 1 might work. Might. That's all I can think of. The ChC? Really?? Maybe parts of the VC.

Let's see, Baby Needs Ligeti. Which works of his output would be most suitable for infants? Yes, I know, probably none, but comparatively speaking? (Okay, I know, still none, but let's pretend we have to make a list):
-1st movement of Concert Romanesc -- but that's cheating!
-Lux Aeterna comes to mind
-So does Clocks and Clouds, but that might be a bit too profound
-An excerpt from the opening of the 2nd movement of the Violin Concerto
-The piano etudes Arc-en-ciel (sounds like a music box) and En Suspens, also the 7th piece from Musica Ricercata (the latter might seriously work)
-Melodien is a nicely flowing work with very few surprises -- I find it makes great background music, so a baby probably would, too!
-Oh, I know! The beautiful 6th song Kersedes from the cycle Sippal, Dobbal, Nadihegeduvel. Also would likely work.

Webern actually wrote a piece for kids for the piano! I was going to pick Bartok, but he did write several pieces for children (unlike the Webern, they would actually appeal to children).

Baby Needs Stockhausen?? He did write Tierkreis (originally for music box) and Gesang der Junglinge. Baby Needs Gruppen!

The reason I think that it is a good idea (the normal ones, not the joke ones!) is because they do enjoy classical music and have been to the symphony. They even went to see an open rehearsal once -- his wife liked it and found it interesting, but my cousin didn't "because he (conductor) kept stopping them!" (not that he was surprised, though). But, they are certainly not avid listeners. If they were, I wouldn't bother because they'd already have their own albums and it would be pointless. Besides, it is a gift that they would associate with me since they know how much I like music. I like to try to get gifts that people 1) will like, and 2) will look at years later and think "only Nathan would get something like that." When receiving gifts, that is what I like as well (not something generic).

I suppose it's only a matter of time before Paavo makes his appearance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2014, 09:43:57 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 08:30:52 AM
Berg's Op. 1 might work. Might. That's all I can think of. The ChC? Really?? Maybe parts of the VC.
Well, I wasn't entirely serious.  >:D

QuoteLet's see, Baby Needs Ligeti. Which works of his output would be most suitable for infants? Yes, I know, probably none, but comparatively speaking? (Okay, I know, still none, but let's pretend we have to make a list):
-1st movement of Concert Romanesc -- but that's cheating!
-Lux Aeterna comes to mind
-So does Clocks and Clouds, but that might be a bit too profound
-An excerpt from the opening of the 2nd movement of the Violin Concerto
-The piano etudes Arc-en-ciel (sounds like a music box) and En Suspens, also the 7th piece from Musica Ricercata (the latter might seriously work)
-Melodien is a nicely flowing work with very few surprises -- I find it makes great background music, so a baby probably would, too!
-Oh, I know! The beautiful 6th song Kersedes from the cycle Sippal, Dobbal, Nadihegeduvel. Also would likely work.

Webern actually wrote a piece for kids for the piano! I was going to pick Bartok, but he did write several pieces for children (unlike the Webern, they would actually appeal to children).

Baby Needs Stockhausen?? He did write Tierkreis (originally for music box) and Gesang der Junglinge. Baby Needs Gruppen!

The reason I think that it is a good idea (the normal ones, not the joke ones!) is because they do enjoy classical music and have been to the symphony. They even went to see an open rehearsal once -- his wife liked it and found it interesting, but my cousin didn't "because he (conductor) kept stopping them!" (not that he was surprised, though). But, they are certainly not avid listeners. If they were, I wouldn't bother because they'd already have their own albums and it would be pointless. Besides, it is a gift that they would associate with me since they know how much I like music. I like to try to get gifts that people 1) will like, and 2) will look at years later and think "only Nathan would get something like that." When receiving gifts, that is what I like as well (not something generic).

I suppose it's only a matter of time before Paavo makes his appearance.
Really, all the more experimental music might go down very well as the baby / child isn't familiar with any music, and thus doesn't expect it to be tonal, let alone in sonata form.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 10:03:21 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 03, 2014, 09:43:57 AM
Really, all the more experimental music might go down very well as the baby / child isn't familiar with any music, and thus doesn't expect it to be tonal, let alone in sonata form.
True. It's funny, because when I was looking through these I was starting to get irritated like I usually do when I see selections that are too common (you know, Spring, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, etc.) and then it hit me: this is for a baby -- they haven't heard any music before, so it is all new to them.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2014, 10:33:31 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 03, 2014, 10:03:21 AM
True. It's funny, because when I was looking through these I was starting to get irritated like I usually do when I see selections that are too common (you know, Spring, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, etc.) and then it hit me: this is for a baby -- they haven't heard any music before, so it is all new to them.
Some Vivaldi wouldn't hurt, as long as it's not the Four Seasons, as the baby will not need any help to hear that..
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 04, 2014, 01:49:19 PM
I'm going to an open rehearsal (i.e. "open" meaning that we get to play with the orchestra in sight-reading) tonight with a friend. It's a fundraiser for a local community orchestra ($10 each time you attend). Should be fun. I'm sure that there will be a copy of Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony sitting on our music stands when we get there, among other things. I'll let you know what else we play :D .

Or...
https://www.sfcv.org/article/tuning-up-for-san-francisco-polyphony
The image shown is not the actual score which is, in fact, in completely standard notation. It is just a very preliminary "storyboard" for the piece (I've seen it in a bio before).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on August 04, 2014, 02:39:45 PM
Yo, can anyone tell me which recording of Beethoven's Op. 132 it is that has the 22 minute Heiliger Dankgesang? I initially thought it was QI, but they only take 19 1/2 or so along with Busch and Belcea.

(Not that I think the Heiliger Dankgesang should take 22 minutes. But perverse curiosity drives me onwards)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 05, 2014, 02:49:32 AM
Funny thing I noticed about Puccini: I tend to prefer his operas where there is either a strong female character (Tosca, Fanciulla) or both strong and a "weak" one (Turandot) opposed to those where there is more "fragile" female lead (La Boheme, Madama Butterfly). Okay, you might disagree about Cio-cio-san and Liú being weak and I didn't quite mean that. They show amazing endurance in many other respects but to me they are still kind of "fragile" characters. Their amazing selflessness is very strong but I can't imagine Liú killing anyone like Tosca or Cio-cio-san living in Wild West like Minnie. Or either one being a complete bitch like Turandot.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on August 05, 2014, 02:59:10 AM
Btw, I have changed my mind about Turandot's ending being dull. Okay, it's not perfect by any stretch of imagination and is bit of a cut-and paste, especially in the very end but it still made an impression to me when I relistened to it recently, especially the way that Turandot motive explodes at one point. Although it is kind of tragicomic the way we are to think "Yay, a happy ending!" despite innocent girl having just a moment ago been tortured and driven to suicide.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 03:49:41 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 04, 2014, 01:49:19 PM
I'm going to an open rehearsal (i.e. "open" meaning that we get to play with the orchestra in sight-reading) tonight with a friend. It's a fundraiser for a local community orchestra ($10 each time you attend). Should be fun. I'm sure that there will be a copy of Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony sitting on our music stands when we get there, among other things. I'll let you know what else we play :D .

Or...
https://www.sfcv.org/article/tuning-up-for-san-francisco-polyphony
The image shown is not the actual score which is, in fact, in completely standard notation. It is just a very preliminary "storyboard" for the piece (I've seen it in a bio before).
It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on August 05, 2014, 03:53:11 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 03:49:41 AM
It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.

I must have missed it, what instrument do you play?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 03:56:50 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 05, 2014, 03:53:11 AM
I must have missed it, what instrument do you play?
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2112.msg802625.html#msg802625

...And viola and piano.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on August 05, 2014, 04:00:53 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 03:56:50 AM
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2112.msg802625.html#msg802625

...And viola and piano.

Good for you! Not being able to play an instrument is perhaps the biggest frustration of my life. And  I would have just loved to play flute and/or piano...  :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 06:23:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on August 05, 2014, 04:00:53 AM
Good for you! Not being able to play an instrument is perhaps the biggest frustration of my life. And  I would have just loved to play flute and/or piano...  :(
You know, you still can! It doesn't have to be good as long as you enjoy yourself. I read Peter Bartok's biography of his father and he said that his father was wary of recordings/radio. It isn't that he was against technology (not at all -- he said his father liked to listen to jazz on the radio), but he feared that people would substitute listening music for making music and would therefore not discover the joy of making music, no matter how mediocre it may be.

I took violin lessons for many years, but I taught myself piano (aside from a year of lessons in 4th grade, which many people did). Last year I bought the first book of the Ligeti etudes -- wayyyyyyy above my level! Any reasonable piano teacher would laugh at the idea. But, each morning (for a few months, say from July to November), I would get up very early, have breakfast, and walk to the music building (getting something with a lot of caffeine on the way :D). I worked my way through Fanfares (slowly -- hands separately as my piano-virtuoso friend advised). I would often spend a whole hour on four measures (so, probably 5 seconds of music when played up to tempo!). It sounded horrible at first, but it was fun. Then, it started to sound not-so-horrible. I got to the point where I could play the first half of the etude up to tempo. Far from performance quality, but not bad, either.

I've read that the hardest thing adults have to deal with when learning something is that they have an idea how it should sound and judge themselves based on that (and subsequently become discouraged). Kids, on the other hand, just do what they are told and generally have little or no reference point.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 05, 2014, 07:43:32 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 05, 2014, 03:49:41 AM
It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.
I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. :) )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 05, 2014, 07:48:17 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on August 05, 2014, 07:43:32 PM
I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. :) )
I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic?  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 06, 2014, 03:24:55 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on August 05, 2014, 07:43:32 PM
I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. :) )
It is a great piece. The conductor told us how Mendelssohn started it when he was 14 and then said "I don't know what all of you were doing when you were fourteen, but you were not doing this!" :laugh:

Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2014, 07:48:17 PM
I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic?  :)
He plays both, from what I remember. It is possible to play more than one instrument. Just not at the same time if they are wind instruments (I'm sure someone will find a YT video of someone (somehow!) playing flute and oboe at the same time just to prove me wrong).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 06, 2014, 09:47:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on August 05, 2014, 07:48:17 PM
I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic?  :)
I play flute too. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on August 13, 2014, 07:08:19 AM
Time to listen to some music. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 18, 2014, 07:50:56 AM
I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t5mupYU4rDs/S1aaeNl7PVI/AAAAAAAAA9w/6mBdGG-gOeI/l800/punch_2.jpg)


I also came across this one which is pretty good. Ken, recognize the formulae? :D
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UwX1QGC8bDo/UnGza6a1xwI/AAAAAAAAbkY/W8-yE9tsbtU/s1600/new+yorker+4.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 18, 2014, 03:12:27 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 18, 2014, 07:50:56 AM
I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t5mupYU4rDs/S1aaeNl7PVI/AAAAAAAAA9w/6mBdGG-gOeI/l800/punch_2.jpg)


I also came across this one which is pretty good. Ken, recognize the formulae? :D
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UwX1QGC8bDo/UnGza6a1xwI/AAAAAAAAbkY/W8-yE9tsbtU/s1600/new+yorker+4.jpg)
Yup.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 19, 2014, 11:31:27 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 18, 2014, 07:50:56 AM
I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t5mupYU4rDs/S1aaeNl7PVI/AAAAAAAAA9w/6mBdGG-gOeI/l800/punch_2.jpg)

I bet you thought I wouldn't actually do it!
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/eog6grhy6t4s673/Photo%20Aug%2019%2C%202%2056%2017%20PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 19, 2014, 11:40:20 AM
Excellent!

I would do that with this cartoon, but it might send the wrong message. ;)

(http://i.imgur.com/TH0FpDB.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 02:48:37 AM
Good gravy...someone has tweeted (and the Orchestra of St Paul's retweeted) as follows: "John Adams, greatest living composer? Discuss,"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 03:08:52 AM
Not even "greatest living American composer" (and there was ample capacity in the tweet for those characters).  The fellow who originated the tweet is a conductor, BTW.  I want whatever he's drinking.

No, on second thought:  I pass even on the recreational beverage/substance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 25, 2014, 03:31:26 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 02:48:37 AM
Good gravy...someone has tweeted (and the Orchestra of St Paul's retweeted) as follows: "John Adams, greatest living composer? Discuss,"
I can only hope they meant John Luther Adams. . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 03:42:58 AM
Quote from: North Star on August 25, 2014, 03:31:26 AM
I can only hope they meant John Luther Adams. . .

Tangentially . . . I don't know if you saw this blog post (http://www.overgrownpath.com/2014/08/conservatories-have-produced-glut-of.html) to which I posted a link on FB;  the content is not the blogger's own remarks (per the paragraph appended at bottom), but an e-mail msg from a freelance pianist, Benjamin Nacar. "Pliable" notes that he does not necessarily agree with all of Nacar's views.  I had to wince a little at his championing Eric Whitacre (can it be mere coincidence that his initials are EW? . . .) and an eybrow was raised by his scorning the JLA piece as "tediously long."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 03:50:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 02:48:37 AM
Good gravy...someone has tweeted (and the Orchestra of St Paul's retweeted) as follows: "John Adams, greatest living composer? Discuss,"
I'm curious -- why do you seem to hate John (Coolidge) Adams so much?

Not that I care, really. I like some of his stuff, but not nearly enough to get agitated when someone questions his skills as a composer.

Have you heard Gnarly Buttons? I played it in college four years ago in orchestra.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 03:54:08 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 03:50:39 AM
I'm curious -- why do you seem to hate John (Coolidge) Adams so much?

Hang on, friend. Cannot one question the thesis (and even roll one's eyes at a conductor proposing) that he is the greatest living composer, without hating his work?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 03:56:33 AM
(That's the wagnerites' card:  If you don't agree that Wagner is The Supreme Geeeenius, you hate him — and that too confirms his supreme importance in Western culture! Visual cue: The Knights Who Say Ni)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 04:04:30 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 03:54:08 AM
Hang on, friend. Cannot one question the thesis (and even roll one's eyes at a conductor proposing) that he is the greatest living composer, without hating his work?
Of course, but you've made other comments that seem to show that you don't think highly of him. Again, I don't care. Just wondering. Hate was likely too strong of a word for me to use in this instance.

And KARL! For the millionth time, what do you think of his clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons?

(It's cool -- I am just anxious to hear what a clarinetist thinks of it 8)).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 04:08:58 AM
Well, I mean you no discourtesy, did not mean to seem to evade your question!

I listened to it once, but long ago.  It did not make any particular impression on me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 04:12:09 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 04:08:58 AM
Well, I mean you no discourtesy, did not mean to seem to evade your question!

I listened to it once, but long ago.  It did not make any particular impression on me.
No problem. I've asked you two other times in the past, though, and you always missed that part of the post.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 04:16:19 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 04:12:09 AM
No problem. I've asked you two other times in the past, though, and you always missed that part of the post.

On a scale of 5, with 5 representing Adams's best work and 1, his least successful:  in your opinion, where would the Gnarly Buttons lie?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on August 25, 2014, 04:25:19 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 04:16:19 AM
On a scale of 5, with 5 representing Adams's best work and 1, his least successful:  in your opinion, where would the Gnarly Buttons lie?
I'm not familiar with enough of Adams to be accurate. Probably a 3, but I really enjoy the piece. Why don't we say "it is probably not a masterpiece, but I really like it" :D.

I love his Shaker Loops, but that probably stems more from my admiration of Steve Reich.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 25, 2014, 05:13:31 AM
Maybe, maybe not:  of all the Adams I have heard, I think best of Shaker Loops.  Best, by rather a wide margin.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 25, 2014, 07:17:16 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 02:48:37 AM
Good gravy...someone has tweeted (and the Orchestra of St Paul's retweeted) as follows: "John Adams, greatest living composer? Discuss,"
Tweets are short, right? Brevity soul of wit etc?
"Nyman"

Next
8)

(Before Karl has a heart attack, I mean my reply only as a counter example, of a greater living composer, not that Nyman is TGLC. "Sondheim" is longer though, and "Glass" too obvious.) 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 25, 2014, 11:59:35 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 25, 2014, 03:42:58 AM
Tangentially . . . I don't know if you saw this blog post (http://www.overgrownpath.com/2014/08/conservatories-have-produced-glut-of.html) to which I posted a link on FB;  the content is not the blogger's own remarks (per the paragraph appended at bottom), but an e-mail msg from a freelance pianist, Benjamin Nacar. "Pliable" notes that he does not necessarily agree with all of Nacar's views.  I had to wince a little at his championing Eric Whitacre (can it be mere coincidence that his initials are EW? . . .) and an eybrow was raised by his scorning the JLA piece as "tediously long."
I saw the post, but didn't read it then. I did read it now, and there are indeed a good many things that strike a discord, in addition to the ones you mention, he claims that having another  - as if having another job, or even 'observing more of humanity' inevitably make one a better artist. Sure, if one's art is influenced by social interactions & observing people / animals / plants / algae / bacteria / whatever, then observing them helps, whether one does it while working in a mall or a laboratory, or on one's own time. But plenty of artists have managed to do their work (if not make a living out of it. . .) without having another job where they can learn more about humanity. Nacar might think that something like total serialism is the inevitable result of having composers who don't know about life outside the conservatory, but one could easily make a rather long list of composers active in the 20th century that didn't have other jobs (perhaps aside from teaching or conducting/performing their own music), and managed to write fine music nonetheless, without succumbing to serialism (or at least escaping it) or whitacreish romps with costumes and popular culture references. That piece about Godzilla stomping Mae West & al. is really going to last, I'm sure. . .

And making avant-garde music look like kitsch because of the not-too-original student works getting performed once in a concert setting, that are mostly destined to be forgotten afterwards, is rather short-sighted, too, as that's what has always happened - not every composer of the latter half of 18th century was a Haydn, Mozart, or a Beethoven, and the fact that the nth-rate composers' works from the era before computers are mostly destroyed, doesn't mean that the composers then weren't hindered by the Academia, stuffiness & snobbery like the composers of the modern era. Polyphony, Monteverdi's prima prattica, Beethoven, all received scathing criticisms from those who didn't want music to develop outside their own comfort zones.

Of course I agree with his point about forcing audiences to hear one's work. (Every GMG member ought to be obliged to listen to all of your works posted, and to look at my photographs) 8)

E: And Nate, I recall enjoying Shaker Loops, Harmonielehre & The Chairman Dances, but I didn't think the music was particularly original, nor did it affect me strongly in any way.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on September 05, 2014, 01:03:34 PM
I was just looking up the location of a nearby farmers' market. It is right across the street from an "Ascension Drive" ;D (I've been listening a lot to Messiaen's L'Ascension).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 05, 2014, 04:53:57 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on September 05, 2014, 01:03:34 PM
I was just looking up the location of a nearby farmers' market. It is right across the street from an "Ascension Drive" ;D (I've been listening a lot to Messiaen's L'Ascension).
Now you mention, downtown there's a Sleep Shoppe franchise at the corner of Mer and Gaspard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on September 06, 2014, 02:02:26 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 05, 2014, 04:53:57 PM
Now you mention, downtown there's a Sleep Shoppe franchise at the corner of Mer and Gaspard.
I am still unable to understand how you can like Glass and also find Gaspard de la Nuit to be boring.

Now that I've broken some Glass, what of his can you recommend for me to hear that I might actually like? I love Nyman's MGV -- what Glass might be similar (e.g. "driving")? I've heard the VC (didn't like -- boring and predictable), some knee plays from Einstein on the Beach (really hated -- even more boring), and a few other things that I thought were rather forgettable.

BTW, I heard Nyman's Stroking and Synchronizing yesterday. I liked it alright, but not nearly to the extent of MGV. I'll give it another listen sometime soon.

Oh, and the L'Ascension farmers' market was very cool and also very inexpensive, especially for a farmers' market. Most vendors were Amish (not uncommon in northern Delaware). I got fresh Lima beans. When I asked how to cook them, the lady replied "Well, usually you just boil them for a long time. You could probably use a microwave, though." Then she smiled and added "...but we don't have microwaves, so I'm not sure."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 06, 2014, 05:47:32 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on September 06, 2014, 02:02:26 AM
I am still unable to understand how you can like Glass and also find Gaspard de la Nuit to be boring.

Now that I've broken some Glass, what of his can you recommend for me to hear that I might actually like? I love Nyman's MGV -- what Glass might be similar (e.g. "driving")? I've heard the VC (didn't like -- boring and predictable), some knee plays from Einstein on the Beach (really hated -- even more boring), and a few other things that I thought were rather forgettable.

BTW, I heard Nyman's Stroking and Synchronizing yesterday. I liked it alright, but not nearly to the extent of MGV. I'll give it another listen sometime soon.

Oh, and the L'Ascension farmers' market was very cool and also very inexpensive, especially for a farmers' market. Most vendors were Amish (not uncommon in northern Delaware). I got fresh Lima beans. When I asked how to cook them, the lady replied "Well, usually you just boil them for a long time. You could probably use a microwave, though." Then she smiled and added "...but we don't have microwaves, so I'm not sure."
Glass from the 80s mostly. Amongst recent stuff, symph 8 or 9, any of the concertos. Amongst older, Einstein, Satyagraha especially, 12 parts, company, piano music.
Satyagraha if you want 1 piece, company second
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 08, 2014, 07:56:42 AM
The Atlanta Symphony has locked out its musicians, again.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/the-atlanta-symphony-orchestra-locks-out-its-players-again/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on September 11, 2014, 12:06:48 AM
What is it with the obsession for Shostakovich among members?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on September 11, 2014, 12:20:19 AM
Quote from: Henk on September 11, 2014, 12:06:48 AM
What is it with the obsession for Shostakovich among members?
+1

I don't hate Shostakovich by any means, or even dislike him. I really enjoy some works of his (the 9th symphony, yeah!), but many leave me cold. I certainly think he is a great composer, but when I'm in need of something emotional I'd rather listen to Mahler (whom you could probably ask the same question about :D). Just a personal preference. Maybe that will change in a few years -- I don't know. It's impossible for me to predict my tastes down to a tee.

We all have our composers that we are obsessed with. For me it is Bartok, Ravel, Ligeti, and Messiaen (to a lesser extent would be Haydn, Ockeghem, Schumann, and Feldman, among others -- Webern might be coming soon). Who knows why?!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 11, 2014, 02:07:44 AM
Quote from: Henk on September 11, 2014, 12:06:48 AM
What is it with the obsession for Shostakovich among members?

In my case, the reason is the music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 12, 2014, 04:48:01 AM
Norman Lebrecht thinks that Sakari Oramo is the frontrunner to take over the Concertgebouw. I refuse to believe they are so enamored with averageness.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2014, 05:21:36 AM
Hmm.  What's Oramo's best effort, is there a consensus?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on September 12, 2014, 05:35:38 AM
He has recorded some excellent Foulds. His Rachmaninov with Lugansky is also quite good. I have his Sibelius too, but haven't listened to it in quite some time. There's a recent recording of Elgar's First Symphony by him I'd like to sample.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jay F on September 12, 2014, 05:57:20 AM
Quote from: Henk on September 11, 2014, 12:06:48 AM
What is it with the obsession for Shostakovich among members?
The string quartets. They're so wonderful, I can listen to them for days, such that they've all fused into one large body of work, called The String Quartets. You should try them.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 12, 2014, 06:08:19 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 12, 2014, 05:21:36 AM
Hmm.  What's Oramo's best effort, is there a consensus?
The Foulds and the Elgar First, both mentioned by Wanderer. The Elgar First is helped by highest-possible-standard sound. Here is my review of Elgar 1 & 2, plus a second review of #1 by John Quinn. (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Jul14/Elgar_sys_BIS1879.htm) His Sibelius Five I thought was fairly meh.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 12, 2014, 06:25:40 AM
Quote from: Wanderer on September 12, 2014, 05:35:38 AM
He has recorded some excellent Foulds. His Rachmaninov with Lugansky is also quite good. I have his Sibelius too, but haven't listened to it in quite some time. There's a recent recording of Elgar's First Symphony by him I'd like to sample.

Quote from: Brian on September 12, 2014, 06:08:19 AM
The Foulds and the Elgar First, both mentioned by Wanderer. The Elgar First is helped by highest-possible-standard sound. Here is my review of Elgar 1 & 2, plus a second review of #1 by John Quinn. (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Jul14/Elgar_sys_BIS1879.htm) His Sibelius Five I thought was fairly meh.

Thanks, gents.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on September 12, 2014, 09:46:57 AM
While in the car the other day,  listening to what passes for the local classical station (really a feed off the American Public Radio/Minnesota Public Radio system), the (female) emcee introduced a recording by a recently disbanded group which was not very well known, although possibly they were better known in Europe, since they were originally a group of students from the Cologne Conservatory (as she called the institution) organized in the 70s and led by a fellow student named Reinhard Goebel.   Only then did she pronounce the phrase "Musica Antiqua Koln".....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 13, 2014, 02:22:09 PM
any good classical music books I can download onto my Kindle or iPad to read over my week trip? Either a really good bio or a general book on an era or genre? any suggestions?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on September 13, 2014, 02:52:04 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 13, 2014, 02:22:09 PM
any good classical music books I can download onto my Kindle or iPad to read over my week trip? Either a really good bio or a general book on an era or genre? any suggestions?

A Ludwig journey?

[asin] B00E78IB3E[/asin]


Or Brahms....

[asin] B006NKMLAS[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 13, 2014, 02:56:44 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on September 13, 2014, 02:52:04 PM
A Ludwig journey?

[asin] B00E78IB3E[/asin]


Or Brahms....

[asin] B006NKMLAS[/asin]

Nice recs, I would prefer Brahms, will look into it. Thanks, Moonfish!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on September 13, 2014, 02:58:12 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 13, 2014, 02:22:09 PM
any good classical music books I can download onto my Kindle or iPad to read over my week trip? Either a really good bio or a general book on an era or genre? any suggestions?
Predictable :D. I'd recommend Peter Bartok's My Father, but I'm almost positive it isn't on iBooks. The Ligeti is.
[asin]1555535518[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on September 13, 2014, 04:04:27 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 13, 2014, 02:22:09 PM
any good classical music books I can download onto my Kindle or iPad to read over my week trip? Either a really good bio or a general book on an era or genre? any suggestions?

Personally I am tempted by this one....

[asin] B00862F6VC[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2014, 07:09:49 PM
Oh, the subtitle for the LvB has me thinking The Young and the Restless . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 14, 2014, 06:32:13 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 13, 2014, 07:09:49 PM
Oh, the subtitle for the LvB has me thinking The Young and the Restless . . . .
The Bold and the Beethoven
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 22, 2014, 04:06:24 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 08, 2014, 07:56:42 AM
The Atlanta Symphony has locked out its musicians, again.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/the-atlanta-symphony-orchestra-locks-out-its-players-again/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

I just received an email sent to all subscribers of the ASO saying they have postponed all concerts until November 8th. If an agreement is reached before then they will try to resume as soon as possible.
Very sad day, musicians are now looking for money while rich Board members continue their lavish lifestyles.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 23, 2014, 01:52:27 AM
Parasites
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 23, 2014, 08:02:51 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 22, 2014, 04:06:24 PM
I just received an email sent to all subscribers of the ASO saying they have postponed all concerts until November 8th. If an agreement is reached before then they will try to resume as soon as possible.
Very sad day, musicians are now looking for money while rich Board members continue their lavish lifestyles.
Are board members paid, or just rich volunteers?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 24, 2014, 06:35:36 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 23, 2014, 08:02:51 AM
Are board members paid, or just rich volunteers?
Nah, they're just not interested.

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 24, 2014, 06:38:03 AM
If anyone's interested in hosting a blind comparison, Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 might make for an interesting change. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on September 24, 2014, 01:00:50 PM
Quote from: North Star on September 24, 2014, 06:38:03 AM
If anyone's interested in hosting a blind comparison, Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 might make for an interesting change. :)
That would be cool, actually. I'd probably participate, but I don't want to host it.

Edit: Ken, you've been waiting for this! http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,3125.msg833565.html#msg833565
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 26, 2014, 06:29:38 AM
Yesterday, I casually read through all the Christopher Hogwood Martinu album reviews on ClassicsToday.com. Today, they put all of them behind the paywall. Hah! Beat the system!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 26, 2014, 06:40:29 AM
Those steeenkers!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 30, 2014, 04:05:33 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 22, 2014, 04:06:24 PM
I just received an email sent to all subscribers of the ASO saying they have postponed all concerts until November 8th. If an agreement is reached before then they will try to resume as soon as possible.
Very sad day, musicians are now looking for money while rich Board members continue their lavish lifestyles.

The ASO President, Stanley Romanstein, just quit. The bad is getting worse.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on September 30, 2014, 09:10:45 AM
Maybe...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 02, 2014, 05:23:41 AM
Happy Birthday, Ton Koopman!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/By79ZfsIMAAu_5_.png)  (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/By79YVGIgAA6exj.jpg)

(who gets the little hidden message?)

Koopman will conduct the Beethoven 9th (w/VSO) for the New Year Concerts at the Konzerthaus this year.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 03, 2014, 07:35:05 AM
Quote from: WienerKonzerthaus on October 02, 2014, 05:23:41 AM
...(who gets the little hidden message?)...
I do, I do!!! ;D 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 03, 2014, 07:38:21 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 03, 2014, 07:35:05 AM
I do, I do!!! ;D 8)

Bravo! If you haven't read about it in the other thread where the solution has been posted, can you give it to me in no more than six letters/numerals?  ::)


#SpotifyPlaylist (http://instagram.com/wienerkonzerthaus) @WienerKonzerthaus (https://twitter.com/Konzerthauswien?lang=en)

Every month we intend to publish two Playlists: One with all the classical pieces in the concerts we present the following month -- and one with the World & Jazz bits.

Here's the classical list for the Month of October. Where possible, the artists actually playing the works are chosen, but usually that's not the case. What recordings might you have chosen to present a given work from its best side??

Is this thing useful or confusing?

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bys5naOIgAAu2u5.jpg:large) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/369/Spotify-Playlist-October-2014-Classical.aspx)

>>> direct HTML Spotify Link (http://open.spotify.com/user/wienerkonzerthaus/playlist/1fa7KZQH0yOzX4r3oj1K1t)

Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wienerkonzerthaus) | Instagram (http://instagram.com/wienerkonzerthaus) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/Konzerthauswien?lang=en) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/konzerthaus)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 03, 2014, 07:43:06 AM
Quote from: WienerKonzerthaus on October 03, 2014, 07:38:21 AM
Bravo! If you haven't read about it in the other thread where the solution has been posted, can you give it to me in no more than six letters/numerals?  ::)
BWV582 ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 03, 2014, 08:00:33 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 03, 2014, 07:43:06 AM
BWV582 ;D
(http://www.avsforum.com/photopost/data/2099633/a/a6/a62bbe54_thumbsup-thumbs-up-approve-ok-smiley-emoticon-000283-facebook.gif)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 07, 2014, 03:59:17 PM
Robert von Bahr tells his funniest story yet - the time he released a CD on a dare.

"I remember that I participated in a discussion back in the '80s of the long time between a recording and its release. I then, foolishly, said that it could be done in a matter of days, and was immediately challenged to prove the fact. So I decided to take up the glove and planned very carefully with all concerned, booklet author, printer, CD plant, orchestra, soloists etc to see how quickly a regular CD (not a live performance) could be recorded, edited, OKed, printed and pressed from end recording to actual appearance of the disc. Answer: 69 hours, but I can assure you - I didn't sleep a wink in those 75 hours between start of last day's recording until release.

"I won't repeat the process, that I can assure you of. Nevertheless, Bamberger Sinfoniker, Roland Pöntinen, piano and Leif Segerstam, conductor helped us with two of the most played concertos in the repertoire, Tchaikovsky 1 and Grieg, and they do it with all honour preserved. In spite of the speed, nothing has been left to chance (and this was in the time before internet, so we had to go to Salzburg from Bamberg in a car to deliver the master tape, having been edited on the spot in a hired studio). As I said - I won't do it again, but it was fun. RvB"

(http://ecstatic.textalk.se/shop/17115/art15/h5631/4455631-origpic-222a28.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on October 07, 2014, 08:53:04 PM
Chandos has recently withdrawn all of their albums from Qobuz.

They do appear to still be on Spotify and Naxos Music Library for the moment, so it doesn't seem they abandoned streaming altogether. Perhaps they just wanted less competition for The Classical Shop's (more expensive) downloads.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 08, 2014, 02:07:27 AM
What a pity, though. Qobuz is a much more classical music industry-friendly model than Spotify.

We are working with Qobuz to get them to bring out a Konzerthaus Monthly playlist, too, actually.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 08, 2014, 03:25:26 AM
Why does Grieg look like Albert Einstein or Mark Twain?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 10, 2014, 05:25:12 AM
Has anyone else noticed how much the beggining of Chopin's Nocturne op. 9 no. 1 sounds like the beginning of Non piu mesta from Rossini's La Cenerentola? No, I'm not crazy: compare the first four seconds of each.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 10, 2014, 06:53:16 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 07, 2014, 03:59:17 PM
Robert von Bahr tells his funniest story yet - the time he released a CD on a dare.

"I remember that I participated in a discussion back in the '80s of the long time between a recording and its release. I then, foolishly, said that it could be done in a matter of days, and was immediately challenged to prove the fact. So I decided to take up the glove and planned very carefully with all concerned, booklet author, printer, CD plant, orchestra, soloists etc to see how quickly a regular CD (not a live performance) could be recorded, edited, OKed, printed and pressed from end recording to actual appearance of the disc. Answer: 69 hours, but I can assure you - I didn't sleep a wink in those 75 hours between start of last day's recording until release.

"I won't repeat the process, that I can assure you of. Nevertheless, Bamberger Sinfoniker, Roland Pöntinen, piano and Leif Segerstam, conductor helped us with two of the most played concertos in the repertoire, Tchaikovsky 1 and Grieg, and they do it with all honour preserved. In spite of the speed, nothing has been left to chance (and this was in the time before internet, so we had to go to Salzburg from Bamberg in a car to deliver the master tape, having been edited on the spot in a hired studio). As I said - I won't do it again, but it was fun. RvB"

Today he revealed that Roland Pontinen's joke nickname is Orlando de Pontini.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on October 11, 2014, 07:28:01 PM
Rhapsody has Mozart's Don Giovanni listed under a pretty odd sub category category:


Comedy/Spoken Word
Comedy
Stand-Up Comedy

??? ??? ??? ???

Rhapsody really fails at labeling & categorizing their classical music in terms of performers. The track labeling is hopeless. I guess they cater to other groups of music lovers.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: stingo on October 12, 2014, 05:07:07 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on October 11, 2014, 07:28:01 PMRhapsody really fails at labeling & categorizing their classical music in terms of performers. The track labeling is hopeless. I guess they cater to other groups of music lovers.

As much as I like Rhapsody, this is sadly very, very true.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on October 12, 2014, 04:16:38 PM
Jens is a lot older than I thought  ;D

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/may2014/upcomingcalendar.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on October 12, 2014, 05:41:31 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on October 12, 2014, 04:16:38 PM
Jens is a lot older than I thought  ;D

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/may2014/upcomingcalendar.jpg)


Sarge

I thought WK was a particular friend of Jens.
But I confess to being curious as to what equipment a concert hall prefers for its listening.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 15, 2014, 05:45:40 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 12, 2014, 05:41:31 PM
I thought WK was a particular friend of Jens.
But I confess to being curious as to what equipment a concert hall prefers for its listening.

Bricks and mortar!

(http://konzerthaus.at/kh/media_all/konzerthaus/GSvoll2.jpg)

(http://konzerthaus.at/kh/media_all/konzerthaus/MSseitlich2.jpg)

(http://konzerthaus.at/kh/media_all/konzerthaus/SCHSleer.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on October 23, 2014, 12:18:45 AM
I'm thinking of getting my dad a copy of the Messiaen Turangalila-Symphonie (Chung) for Christmas. He enjoys classical music, but only knows about it from me. He is even worse than I am with repetition (i.e. playing the same things over and over again) and he still thinks that the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra is the indisputable height of musical achievement. He seems to have really enjoyed the Messiaen TS when I've played it for him. I put the CFO and the TS in the same category as far as being "symphonic spectaculars" of the 20th-century.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 23, 2014, 03:40:31 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on October 23, 2014, 12:18:45 AM
. . . and he still thinks that the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra is the indisputable height of musical achievement.

Well, thinking any one work to be such a height is erroneous.

Still, thinking that highly of the Sz.116 is not a bad place to be.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 23, 2014, 04:40:49 AM
Another nugget from BIS CEO Robert von Bahr:

"...Leif Ove Andsnes, whom I had met when he was a teenager in Reykjavík, Iceland, and promptly offered an exclusive recording contract, which he and his agent equally promptly accepted. I went ahead and fixed engagement and recording for Prokofiev's 3rd Concerto, and then the Big Silence from his agent started. Finally I could read in the newspaper that Andsnes's agent had double-dealt and finally signed with another company, without telling me a word."

http://www.eclassical.com/pages/daily-deal.html?cache=purge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 23, 2014, 04:44:41 AM
So, it's a blessing that I remain an unknown?  Perhaps that is true, after all   :blank:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on October 23, 2014, 09:31:39 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 23, 2014, 03:40:31 AM
Well, thinking any one work to be such a height is erroneous.

Still, thinking that highly of the Sz.116 is not a bad place to be.
Exactly how I feel (for both things you say here!).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on October 23, 2014, 09:58:56 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on October 23, 2014, 12:18:45 AM
I'm thinking of getting my dad a copy of the Messiaen Turangalila-Symphonie (Chung) for Christmas. He enjoys classical music, but only knows about it from me. He is even worse than I am with repetition (i.e. playing the same things over and over again) and he still thinks that the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra is the indisputable height of musical achievement. He seems to have really enjoyed the Messiaen TS when I've played it for him. I put the CFO and the TS in the same category as far as being "symphonic spectaculars" of the 20th-century.
Good gift. (Better gift than music  >:D) I'm getting mine, who has the good taste -- alone in my family aside from me -- to like Philip Glass the Gorecki Symphony of Sorowful Songs.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on October 23, 2014, 04:27:51 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 23, 2014, 09:58:56 AM
Good gift. (Better gift than music  >:D) I'm getting mine, who has the good taste -- alone in my family aside from me -- to like Philip Glass the Gorecki Symphony of Sorowful Songs.
I like Gorecki's 3rd. I've only heard it once, but I should hear it again. Not hard to see why it was so popular when it came out.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 25, 2014, 11:26:51 AM
Gosh, that last movement of Mendelssohn's D minor piano trio is hauntingly beautiful, especially that one persistently repeating melody.

I may have my found my favorite Mendelssohn chamber work. It's hard to top that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on October 25, 2014, 04:17:03 PM
Quote from: amw on October 07, 2014, 08:53:04 PM
Chandos has recently withdrawn all of their albums from Qobuz.
Hyperion has followed suit.

Their catalogue was available to stream until December of 2012 I think, at which point they made it download-only; now the downloads are gone as well.

(To be fair, the Hyperion website's downloads are a bit cheaper than Qobuz's. Still, I guess this is a sign that whatever 'negotiations' the two companies were involved in have not come to a fruitful conclusion.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 25, 2014, 05:57:12 PM
Could be that the publishers realize that, in the new environment, the need for a middleman is much reduced.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 27, 2014, 10:28:22 AM
Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wienerkonzerthaus) | Instagram (http://instagram.com/wienerkonzerthaus) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/Konzerthauswien?lang=en) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/konzerthaus)

(https://38.media.tumblr.com/156eeacee5c636ee00a5d17cc7e8fbbf/tumblr_ne44b24T0y1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
The #Maestro (@ValeryGergiev) has arrived. Total #Prokofiev w/@Mariinsken at the @KonzerthausWien

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/baee811947e4e2e1333b250c1b5fa67b/tumblr_ne44ntaC3s1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Not a #Ghost, just #Maestro @ValeryGergiev floating through the hall, rehearsing the @Mariinsken. #Prokofiev

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/463dca0eced73418415103c78913e5cb/tumblr_ne45ohuo9f1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Quick little adjustment in #Prokofiev 1st Sy. w/@ValeryGergiev and #Mariinsky.#classicalmusic

(https://38.media.tumblr.com/469e3d758a8ca0ca422b220f24828bbf/tumblr_ne45yqGZxT1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Denis Kozhukhin rehearsing #Prokofiev 2nd #Piano #Concerto with @ValeryGergiev for the total Prokofiev extravaganza at the Wiener Konzerthaus. #classicalmusic #Vienna


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Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 02:01:05 PM
Quote from: WienerKonzerthaus on October 27, 2014, 10:28:22 AM
Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wienerkonzerthaus) | Instagram (http://instagram.com/wienerkonzerthaus) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/Konzerthauswien?lang=en) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/konzerthaus)

(https://38.media.tumblr.com/156eeacee5c636ee00a5d17cc7e8fbbf/tumblr_ne44b24T0y1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
The #Maestro (@ValeryGergiev) has arrived. Total #Prokofiev w/@Mariinsken at the @KonzerthausWien

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/baee811947e4e2e1333b250c1b5fa67b/tumblr_ne44ntaC3s1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Not a #Ghost, just #Maestro @ValeryGergiev floating through the hall, rehearsing the @Mariinsken. #Prokofiev

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/463dca0eced73418415103c78913e5cb/tumblr_ne45ohuo9f1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Quick little adjustment in #Prokofiev 1st Sy. w/@ValeryGergiev and #Mariinsky.#classicalmusic

(https://38.media.tumblr.com/469e3d758a8ca0ca422b220f24828bbf/tumblr_ne45yqGZxT1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
Denis Kozhukhin rehearsing #Prokofiev 2nd #Piano #Concerto with @ValeryGergiev for the total Prokofiev extravaganza at the Wiener Konzerthaus. #classicalmusic #Vienna


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Gergiev is not universally admired here at GMG. I for one got his Prokofiev box out of the house faster than John can change an avatar.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 02:02:13 PM
Which box? Surely not the operas??
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 02:07:01 PM
Quote from: North Star on October 27, 2014, 02:02:13 PM
Which box? Surely not the operas??
No, his alleged symphony cycle.  >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 27, 2014, 02:19:07 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 02:01:05 PM
Gergiev is not universally admired here at GMG. I for one got his Prokofiev box out of the house faster than John can change an avatar.

Which artist is, anyway? How boring that would be.

Certainly on record, I (personally) know only one who should be, and that's Fricsay. Maybe Kleiber Jr.

The concert, however, was smashing. The Piano Concertos... esp. the Second, which needs live performance perhaps more dearly, to come across in all its brawny excellence...

(In his symphony cycle, I rather like the Sixth and Third.)

(https://31.media.tumblr.com/49bb98653550cf3424eb392eed13e520/tumblr_ne4a20LadT1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
#Prokofiev's First went by quickly. Now onto PC #1 with Volodin. And @ValeryGergiev of course. #classicalmusic #Symphony

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/aa2b775944db33a2c745bd90c06de44a/tumblr_ne4b5m2RLe1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
... ditto the First #Prokofiev #Piano #Concerto, really well done by A.Volodin and @Mariinsken and @ValeryGergiev #classicalmusic

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/b8fe89d9e7af688c101e3c754b632731/tumblr_ne4gl3mDqy1tvs6uwo1_500.jpg)
After the smashing 2nd #Piano #Concerto of #Prokofiev's w/Denis Kozhukhin, @ValeryGergiev & @Mariinsken... #classicalmusic
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 27, 2014, 02:41:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on October 27, 2014, 02:07:01 PM
No, his alleged symphony cycle.  >:D
It does not exist.  :blank:  :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on October 28, 2014, 03:18:36 AM
Really don't dig Ligeti anymore.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 28, 2014, 03:46:19 AM
Quote from: Henk on October 28, 2014, 03:18:36 AM
Really don't dig Ligeti anymore.

If you did, again, though... we know just the place where to start (http://www.friedhoefewien.at/eportal/ep/channelView.do/channelId/-26709/pageTypeId/13572)!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on October 29, 2014, 01:31:47 AM
Quote from: WienerKonzerthaus on October 28, 2014, 03:46:19 AM
If you did, again, though... we know just the place where to start (http://www.friedhoefewien.at/eportal/ep/channelView.do/channelId/-26709/pageTypeId/13572)!
:laugh:

Oh my god, that's so morbid, but hilarious. Poor Ligeti...

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Ligeti.jpg/1024px-Ligeti.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on November 02, 2014, 02:59:04 AM
It seems ages ago since I have listened to Henning. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 05, 2014, 03:43:49 AM
Every month we intend to publish two Playlists: One with all the classical pieces in the concerts we present the following month -- and one with the World & Jazz bits.

Here's the classical list for the Month of November. Where possible, the artists actually playing the works are chosen, but usually that's not the case. What recordings might you have chosen to present a given work from its best side??


Spotify Playlist November 2014 (Classical)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bys5naOIgAAu2u5.jpg:large) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/374/Spotify-Playlist-November-2014-Classical.aspx)

>>> direct HTML Spotify Link (http://open.spotify.com/user/wienerkonzerthaus/playlist/3lY7SJb9Q0IiazWCXdLbTT)

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Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on November 05, 2014, 05:30:42 AM
Quote from: WienerKonzerthaus on November 05, 2014, 03:43:49 AM
Every month we intend to publish two Playlists: One with all the classical pieces in the concerts we present the following month -- and one with the World & Jazz bits.

Here's the classical list for the Month of November. Where possible, the artists actually playing the works are chosen, but usually that's not the case. What recordings might you have chosen to present a given work from its best side??


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bys5naOIgAAu2u5.jpg:large) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/374/Spotify-Playlist-November-2014-Classical.aspx)

>>> direct HTML Spotify Link (http://open.spotify.com/user/wienerkonzerthaus/playlist/3lY7SJb9Q0IiazWCXdLbTT)

Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wienerkonzerthaus) | Instagram (http://instagram.com/wienerkonzerthaus) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/Konzerthauswien?lang=en) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/konzerthaus)
What a good idea. Thanks.
Title: Especially for Greg and John
Post by: kishnevi on November 07, 2014, 06:29:11 PM
(https://cmgajcluckovich.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/110714-toon-luckovich-ed.jpg?w=640)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 08, 2014, 01:52:37 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on November 07, 2014, 06:29:11 PM
(https://cmgajcluckovich.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/110714-toon-luckovich-ed.jpg?w=640)

Word (still tentative) is that there is a chance the Thursday concert will go on;  there's not much chance that the RVW Sea Symphony could be anything like ready then, so even if there is a concert, I do not know what the program will be.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 08, 2014, 03:50:31 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 08, 2014, 01:52:37 AM
Word (still tentative) is that there is a chance the Thursday concert will go on;  there's not much chance that the RVW Sea Symphony could be anything like ready then, so even if there is a concert, I do not know what the program will be.

Hasn't been signed yet, but knowing that ASO goes through their own Board and the Woodruff Arts Center Board it could still be a hurdle. But here's hoping for a quick resolution.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 08, 2014, 01:16:53 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 08, 2014, 03:50:31 AM
Hasn't been signed yet, but knowing that ASO goes through their own Board and the Woodruff Arts Center Board it could still be a hurdle. But here's hoping for a quick resolution.

And it's done...

http://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/2014/11/08/atlanta-symphony-musicians-management-agree-to-four-year-deal-concerts-to-start-nov-13/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on November 09, 2014, 02:48:56 AM
Rameau, the perfect background music (imo).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 04:13:38 AM
Quote from: Henk on November 09, 2014, 02:48:56 AM
Rameau, the perfect background music (imo).

Also makes great foreground music.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 09, 2014, 08:47:23 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 04:13:38 AM
Also makes great foreground music.  :)

(* frappant la table *)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 09, 2014, 08:47:49 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 08, 2014, 01:16:53 PM
And it's done...

http://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/2014/11/08/atlanta-symphony-musicians-management-agree-to-four-year-deal-concerts-to-start-nov-13/

Will you go Thursday?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 09:23:28 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 09, 2014, 08:47:49 AM
Will you go Thursday?

Probably Saturday, son has Tae Kwon Do that night. You still around by Saturday? The program is now Beethoven's 9th.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on November 09, 2014, 10:26:14 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 04:13:38 AM
Also makes great foreground music.  :)

Unfamiliar with that term. Can you explain?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 10:46:46 AM
Quote from: Henk on November 09, 2014, 10:26:14 AM
Unfamiliar with that term. Can you explain?

It's the opposite of background.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on November 09, 2014, 11:07:25 AM
Ok, only background for me.
Title: Re: Especially for Greg and John
Post by: jochanaan on November 09, 2014, 07:14:32 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on November 07, 2014, 06:29:11 PM
(https://cmgajcluckovich.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/110714-toon-luckovich-ed.jpg?w=640)
Every orchestra, in my experience, plays in the black--even if they run a deficit.  Colored suits--what orchestra would risk it? :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 10, 2014, 11:26:19 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on November 09, 2014, 09:23:28 AM
Probably Saturday, son has Tae Kwon Do that night. You still around by Saturday? The program is now Beethoven's 9th.

Flying back to Boston Saturday (Lord willin' and the creek don't rise).

See you Wednesday!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 12, 2014, 06:45:54 PM
I don't enjoy Michael Cookson's reviews for MusicWeb (too much summarizing the music's history, not enough reviewing), but man, the guy can absolutely nail an interview. People open up to him. This week Magdalena Kozena confesses that she's annoyed with husband Sir Simon for not bothering to learn Czech. (http://musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Nov14/Kozena_interview.htm)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 02, 2014, 05:50:37 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOLAB_05n64/VHusn5JYv-I/AAAAAAAAHuw/o97Lj9rRwa4/s320/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_600.jpg)

11 Recordings To Remember Lorin Maazel By

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2014/11/Lorin_Maazel_Forbes_Bruckner_3_MPhil_Laurson_S-Lelli.jpg)

"Aren't you afraid I will kick the bucket?" When he was appointed as music director of the Munich Philharmonic
starting in 2012/13—a mildly contentious appointment in the wake of Christian Thielemann being bungled out
of town—Lorin Maazel told the audience at the press conference (to much laughter) that he had posed this
pointed question to the musicians and officials who lured him to town. They weren't, and he didn't seem
particularly worried, either. Fit, energetic, and with good genes—his father, as he often pointed out, lived to
106 and in fact passed on just in 2009—Lorin Maazel struck anyone who met him as having another decade
or more in him. It turned out to be only...
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2014/11/23/11-recordings-to-remember-lorin-maazel-by/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on December 02, 2014, 06:37:51 AM
I approve, what with the Vienna Sibelius & the Ravel operas included. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on December 07, 2014, 05:34:30 AM
James, what is that chord from in your avatar?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: RJR on December 07, 2014, 05:42:53 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 22, 2014, 06:39:59 PM
One time I was going for a walk somewhere and got bored and occupied my brain by mentally composing a brass quintet that was just a 15-minute mashup of all the big Bruckner fanfares. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
You should have written it all down when you got home.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on December 07, 2014, 06:22:31 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 02, 2014, 05:50:37 AM
11 Recordings To Remember Lorin Maazel By

Excellent article and a great list, Jens. When I saw the title of your article, I did a quick mental check, pondering which recordings I'd include. We had a near mind meld: the Munich Bruckner 3, Berlin Bruckner 8, Ravel operas, Porgy and Bess, Respighi, the Vienna Sibelius, Mahler 4. I'd also include the Cleveland Romeo and Juliet and weird Le Sacre, the Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on December 07, 2014, 06:34:46 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on December 07, 2014, 06:22:31 AMI'd also include the Cleveland Romeo and Juliet
Yes!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on December 07, 2014, 07:50:38 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on December 07, 2014, 06:22:31 AM
Excellent article and a great list, Jens. When I saw the title of your article, I did a quick mental check, pondering which recordings I'd include. We had a near mind meld: the Munich Bruckner 3, Berlin Bruckner 8, Ravel operas, Porgy and Bess, Respighi, the Vienna Sibelius, Mahler 4. I'd also include the Cleveland Romeo and Juliet and weird Le Sacre, the Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony.

Sarge
Weird Rites are good! Karajan's is very weird but I think it's great.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 07, 2014, 08:03:54 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on December 07, 2014, 06:22:31 AM
Excellent article and a great list, Jens. When I saw the title of your article, I did a quick mental check, pondering which recordings I'd include. We had a near mind meld: the Munich Bruckner 3, Berlin Bruckner 8, Ravel operas, Porgy and Bess, Respighi, the Vienna Sibelius, Mahler 4. I'd also include the Cleveland Romeo and Juliet and weird Le Sacre, the Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony.

Sarge

Thanks very much... and am glad that once again we show alignment of what we thing is "good beyond subjectivity".
Sortof has the effect, true or not, of confirming one's good taste.  :D


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

On Forbes: The Met's Klinghoffer Brouhaha
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-forbes-mets-klinghoffer-brouhaha.html)

direct link (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2014/12/01/the-mets-klinghoffer-brouhaha/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 09, 2014, 07:11:27 AM

«Excess, but not Excessive» Interview with Marin Alsop

(http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Portals/0/blog_data/WienerKonzerthaus_YouTube_Graphic225.jpg) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/382/%C2%ABExcess-but-not-Excessive%C2%BB-Interview-with-Marin-Alsop.aspx)

https://www.youtube.com/v/38SYNVHefVE


Scriabin: Prélude cis-moll (left hand) with Yuja Wang
live at the Wiener Konzerthaus


(http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Portals/0/blog_data/WienerKonzerthaus_YouTube_Graphic225.jpg) (http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/)

https://www.youtube.com/v/v3uaXw8k8As
Title: Re: All of Bruckner on one CD The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: RJR on December 23, 2014, 01:36:29 PM
Quote from: amw on June 22, 2014, 06:37:54 PM
I'll let you know when I've completed my project to fit the complete works of Bruckner on one standard CD.
Try VQF. You might just succeed.

http://www.coolutils.com/Formats/VQF
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 24, 2014, 12:45:18 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2014 (Reissues)

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2014/12/Best_Recordings_of_2014_laurson_FORBES_640-REISSUE_Melodiya_Goldberg_Sokolov_.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2014/12/22/best_of_2014_classical_reissues/)

QuoteIt's fair to say to say that such "Best-Of" lists are inherently daft if one clings too literally to the idea of "Best." Still, I have been making "Best of the Year" lists for classical music since 2004, when working at Tower Records gave me a splendid oversight (occasionally insight) of the new releases and of the re-releases that hit the classical music market. Since then, I've kept...



(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2014 (New Releases)

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2014/12/Best_Recordings_of_2014_laurson_FORBES_640-250_MDG_Verhulst_Utrecht_SQ4t.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2014/12/23/10-best-classical-recordings-of-2014-new-releases/)

QuoteAll year one wonders what 10 recordings really deserve to be included in such a list, and wonders if any potential inclusions might not be a stretch. Then, in the last few weeks, suddenly a slew of recordings, late discoveries that might have been lying about for months or weeks, force themselves upon the ears and one could easily extend the list to 20. On the ionarts website I just cheated by creating an "Almost List." Here I will ostentatiously lament

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on December 25, 2014, 11:23:50 AM
Perusing the web, I found a recently launched blog run by Rob Cowan (http://robccowan.wordpress.com/).  It is open to comment, and Jed Distler makes frequent appearances.  Don't know if this has been covered before.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 08, 2015, 04:41:05 AM
Okay, maybe everybody else already knew this and I'm a dum-dum, but did you realize that the celebrated baroque lutenist Jakob Lindberg, and the trombonist, composer, and conductor Christian Lindberg, are brothers??
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 08, 2015, 06:22:48 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 08, 2015, 04:41:05 AM
Okay, maybe everybody else already knew this and I'm a dum-dum, but did you realize that the celebrated baroque lutenist Jakob Lindberg, and the trombonist, composer, and conductor Christian Lindberg, are brothers??
And did you know that Magnus Lindberg is their uncle? j/k
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on January 09, 2015, 01:42:14 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 08, 2015, 06:22:48 AM
And did you know that Magnus Lindberg is their uncle? j/k

And did you know that Oskar Lindberg is not their uncle, but Niels Lindberg´s?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:04:18 AM
From time to time I must say this:

I don't understand anything about why people listen to late-romantic stuff. In my opinion it's a disease. Why not listen to the more interesting classical music. Why spoil time with late-romantic?? I really don't get it. Maybe it's addictive or something?

I feel blessed about this. And I avoid listening to it, because maybe it infects me as well. I don't think so, but what if I try too hard? :o A real danger.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 05:05:27 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:04:18 AM
I don't understand anything about why people listen to late-romantic stuff.

Because it's beautiful, chiefly.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:07:35 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 05:05:27 AM
Because it's beautiful, chiefly.
The thought crossed my mind, too, as I was listening to Ein deutsches Requiem last night.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:08:19 AM
Karl: That's the same as to say: "because I dig it." ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 05:08:58 AM
And what is wrong with that, exactly?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:09:28 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:08:19 AM
That's the same as to say: "because I dig it." ;)
You're digging yourself in a hole with your question, Henk.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 05:11:03 AM
Remember what the man said:

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:13:54 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 05:11:03 AMThose who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Precisely.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:16:06 AM
Karlo: :)

Karl, for me it would be a desertion.

http://www.lexido.com/EBOOK_TEXTS/HUMAN_ALL_TOO_HUMAN_BOOK_ONE_.aspx?S=109
(http://www.lexido.com/EBOOK_TEXTS/HUMAN_ALL_TOO_HUMAN_BOOK_ONE_.aspx?S=109)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:17:33 AM
"But assuredly frivolity or melancholy of every degree is better than a romantic retrospection and desertion of the flag, an approach to Christianity in any form; for according to the present condition of knowledge it is absolutely impossible to approach it without hopelessly soiling our intellectual conscience and giving ourselves away to ourselves and others."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 15, 2015, 05:21:04 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:08:19 AM
Karl: That's the same as to say: "because I dig it." ;)
Calling it a disease is the somehow not same as to say "because I don't dig it" ?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:23:44 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 15, 2015, 05:21:04 AM
Calling it a disease is the somehow not same as to say "because I don't dig it" ?

Yes, that's Karlo's point as well as I understand.

But for me it's a matter of existential choice.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:34:20 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:04:18 AM
From time to time I must say this:

I don't understand anything about why people listen to late-romantic stuff. In my opinion it's a disease. Why not listen to the more interesting classical music. Why spoil time with late-romantic?? I really don't get it. Maybe it's addictive or something?

I feel blessed about this. And I avoid listening to it, because maybe it infects me as well. I don't think so, but what if I try too hard? :o A real danger.
I think we shouldn't forget another quotation from the same man Karl quoted before (Wilde)

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
"

And this applies to any art. Well, apart from the visual arts - they usually aren't written.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:45:47 AM
Karlo, see quotation of Nietzsche I just posted.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:55:48 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 05:11:03 AM
Remember what the man said:

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.


This is a moral judgement. I don't like that.

Is it ok, when I just don't (want to) like something? Is it allowed? How many people would be considered as bad when they just don't like some art, others think greatly of.

Do you like Britney Spears? Do you like Aperghis? Why don't you? You are not bad because of it, Karl, I say.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:56:04 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:45:47 AM
Karlo, see quotation of Nietzsche I just posted.
I saw it. Nietzsche is wrong.  hominem unius libri timeo, as Thomas Aquinas reputably said ("I fear the man of a single book")  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:57:56 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:56:04 AM
I saw it. Nietzsche is wrong.  hominem unius libri timeo, as Thomas Aquinas reputably said ("I fear the man of a single book")  :)

Well, Nietzsche wrote more than just one book. And I read much more books than only Nietzsche.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:59:51 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:55:48 AM
This is a moral judgement. I don't like that.
But. . .     It is precisely you who has employed moral judgement on Late Romanticism. You said it was a disease, and that you are afraid that it might infect you as well. Your reasoning is as far as possible from considering the value of the art you are judging.

Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:57:56 AM
Well, Nietzsche wrote more than just one book.
0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 06:08:08 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:55:48 AM
This is a moral judgement. I don't like that.

But you're okay with moral judgements against things you don't like, viz. late-Romantic music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 06:08:34 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:59:51 AM
But. . .     It is precisely you who has employed moral judgement on Late Romanticism. You said it was a disease, and that you are afraid that it might infect you as well. Your reasoning is as far as possible from considering the value of the art you are judging.
0:)

Ah, Karlo got there first   0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 06:14:33 AM
My reasoning is completely consitent. I say you don't need to like anything what's considered as great art by others. That's my view. So when I say I don't like late-romantic stuff, that's a valid judgement, consistent with what I say. Above all I have reasons for that I don't want to like late-romantic stuff (see quotation Nietzsche).

Yours reasoning is the oppossite, moral, and may not be consistent.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 06:15:20 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 06:08:34 AM
Ah, Karlo got there first   0:)

Haha. :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 06:24:11 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 06:14:33 AM
I say you don't need to like anything what's considered as great art by others. That's my view.

Nobody disagrees with this.

But it is intellectually bankrupt to call the stuff you personally don't like "a disease."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 06:26:51 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 06:24:11 AM
Nobody disagrees with this.

But it is intellectually bankrupt to call the stuff you personally don't like "a disease."

OK. Consider it as a hyperbole, I didn't pretent to say anything more with it then "I don't like it". But you're right.

(Nice avatar btw)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 06:53:18 AM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 06:26:51 AM
OK. Consider it as a hyperbole, I didn't pretent to say anything more with it then "I don't like it". But you're right.

Spoken like a gentleman.

Another Nietzsche quote I was introduced to just yesterday was on the lines of: "I have my way;  you have your way.  But as for the Right Way, or the Only Way, there is none such."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 15, 2015, 07:01:01 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 06:24:11 AM
Nobody disagrees with this.

But it is intellectually bankrupt to call the stuff you personally don't like "a disease."

I dunno. We seem to be suffering an outbreak of Elgar Symphony #1 on GMG ...  >:D :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 07:21:17 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 15, 2015, 06:53:18 AM
Spoken like a gentleman.

Another Nietzsche quote I was introduced to just yesterday was on the lines of: "I have my way;  you have your way.  But as for the Right Way, or the Only Way, there is none such."

Nice.

Need to add, that for me, becoming a late-romantic freak ;), would be a disease.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 08:18:10 AM
Or, it might be metamorphosis  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 15, 2015, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: Ken B on January 15, 2015, 07:01:01 AM
I dunno. We seem to be suffering an outbreak of Elgar Symphony #1 on GMG ...  >:D :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Parry flaring  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Fagotterdämmerung on January 15, 2015, 10:37:58 AM
   I love the notion of Romanticism as some diabolical, decadent force. You can almost imagine a massive Brucknerian orchestra, Wagner tubas in hand, storming a classical era chamber concert like a musical shock troop powered by evil chromaticism.

   Practice safe listening, folks, it's extremely contagious.

 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 15, 2015, 10:41:23 AM
Quote from: Fagotterdämmerung on January 15, 2015, 10:37:58 AM
   I love the notion of Romanticism as some diabolical, decadent force. You can almost imagine a massive Brucknerian orchestra, Wagner tubas in hand, storming a classical era chamber concert like a musical shock troop powered by evil chromaticism.

   Practice safe listening, folks, it's extremely contagious.


Perhaps Henk should be wary of Berlioz as well.  8)
(http://expositions.bnf.fr/berlioz/borne/caricature/images/150.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on January 15, 2015, 10:56:23 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 15, 2015, 10:41:23 AM
Perhaps Henk should be wary of Berlioz as well.  8)
(http://expositions.bnf.fr/berlioz/borne/caricature/images/150.jpg)

:D :D ;D
Good one, Karlo!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 15, 2015, 11:02:07 AM
Well, I have considered to build a "music machine". It would be terrible music. And dynamics would be the only driving force in the world. I wisely have put down that excercition.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 16, 2015, 01:08:16 PM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:04:18 AM
Why spoil time with late-romantic??

Because it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 16, 2015, 01:12:06 PM
Quote from: Henk on January 15, 2015, 05:17:33 AM
"But assuredly frivolity or melancholy of every degree is better than a romantic retrospection and desertion of the flag, an approach to Christianity in any form; for according to the present condition of knowledge it is absolutely impossible to approach it without hopelessly soiling our intellectual conscience and giving ourselves away to ourselves and others."

You quote Nietzsche, yet you don't like late romanticism?  ??? Nietzsche was ardent lover of Wagner's music and one of the greatest tone poems ever written was set to Nietzsche's text...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 16, 2015, 01:19:20 PM
Quote from: Alberich on January 16, 2015, 01:08:16 PM
Because it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Technically, it preceded sliced bread.  :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Henk on January 16, 2015, 01:24:21 PM
Quote from: Alberich on January 16, 2015, 01:12:06 PM
You quote Nietzsche, yet you don't like late romanticism?  ??? Nietzsche was ardent lover of Wagner's music and one of the greatest tone poems ever written was set to Nietzsche's text...

Read "The case Wagner".
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 16, 2015, 01:32:07 PM
Quote from: Henk on January 16, 2015, 01:24:21 PM
Read "The case Wagner".

From what I understood, Nietzsche never really stopped admiring Wagner's music, even after renouncing Parsifal's text as immoral but said about the prelude that Wagner probably never wrote anything more beautiful. At worst, I saw it as love-hate relationship.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: starrynight on January 22, 2015, 03:01:43 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 15, 2015, 05:34:20 AM
I think we shouldn't forget another quotation from the same man Karl quoted before (Wilde)

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
"

And this applies to any art. Well, apart from the visual arts - they usually aren't written.  ;)

I can see how some romantic music can be seen as being badly written, for kind of virtuosic effect and and/or some over-trying at emotional expression
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 22, 2015, 03:54:05 AM
To some degree, any style of music must be evaluated on its terms.  Else you find the contrapuntal passages in Haydn, for instance, "inferior" to Bach.  Which is nonsense.

So, it's no good denigrating the Romantics for conceiving of music differently from the Viennese Classics.  The Art expands.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on January 22, 2015, 07:27:19 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 22, 2015, 03:54:05 AM
... The Art expands.
And sometimes contracts. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 22, 2015, 07:36:54 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on January 22, 2015, 07:27:19 AM
And sometimes contracts. :)

Darmstadt as Black Hole! I love it!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 22, 2015, 09:22:06 AM
(* chortle *)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 22, 2015, 09:32:33 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on January 22, 2015, 07:27:19 AM
And sometimes contracts. :)

To the Is a new musical movement needed? thread!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on January 26, 2015, 03:53:21 AM
Late Romanticism is indeed a disease. Its Latin name is margaritas ante porcos.  ;D >:D  :P

(Sorry, Henk, nothing personal, I just couldn´t resist. I mean, it´s okay not to like it, but why denigrate it? Can´t you enjoy Rossini, or do you enjoy him less, unless you trash Wagner? Better leave the Wagnerites to do the other way around ( ;D ) and heed the good-humored Gioacchino himself: [Tannhauser] is too intricate to be judged at a first hearing, but I shall not give it a second.". Much better than equating it with syphylis, don´t you think?   :D)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 26, 2015, 04:11:33 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2015, 03:53:21 AMBetter leave the Wagnerites to do the other way around ( ;D )
They're coming for Henk.  8)
https://www.youtube.com/v/yRaPV1b-KOs
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 26, 2015, 05:50:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2015, 03:53:21 AM
Late Romanticism is indeed a disease. Its Latin name is margaritas ante porcos.  ;D >:D  :P


I like mine with salt on the rim.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on January 26, 2015, 12:58:37 PM
Quote from: Ken B on January 26, 2015, 05:50:10 AM
I like mine with salt on the rim.

[asin] 1500695025[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on January 26, 2015, 03:22:36 PM
Quote from: Florestan on January 26, 2015, 03:53:21 AM
Late Romanticism is indeed a disease. Its Latin name is margaritas ante porcos.  ;D >:D  :P
...and its common name is Mahleria -- carried by mosquitoes, of course!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: king ubu on January 27, 2015, 10:45:39 PM
So, is being in love a disease?

Put another way: that dude Fibich ... anyone knows if there's any (far) relation between him and the Fibich family of Strasbourg? The one that had a daughter called Cleophe, object of amorous whatever (thoughts, dreams, desires, maybe even actions?) first one a dude called JWvG and then the great unsung JMR Lenz?

Probably not, but I just want to know.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on January 27, 2015, 11:50:42 PM
Which Opera Character Are You? (http://www.playbuzz.com/patricke10/which-opera-character-are-you)

::)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on January 28, 2015, 04:43:06 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on January 27, 2015, 11:50:42 PM
Which Opera Character Are You? (http://www.playbuzz.com/patricke10/which-opera-character-are-you)

::)

Figaro

Figaro is here, there, everywhere; he's the man for the job not matter what.
He cuts your hair, fixes your love problems, he creates the perfect schemes and is witty and nonchalant while doing it. Using cunning and creativity to get through life,
he is the prime example of the self-made man of the Age of Enlightenment.
He needs no fortune or titles to be happy, and lets nobody mess around with his right to be a free man. A true revolutionary and idealist!




Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 28, 2015, 05:39:22 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on January 27, 2015, 11:50:42 PM
Which Opera Character Are You? (http://www.playbuzz.com/patricke10/which-opera-character-are-you)

::)

Sarastro. Why is the question underlined?  >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on January 29, 2015, 02:07:31 AM
Azucena. I did not see that coming.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on January 29, 2015, 02:35:57 AM
Quote from: Alberich on January 29, 2015, 02:07:31 AM
Azucena. I did not see that coming.

Dear Madam,

As per Jochanaan´s suggestion, you are hereby officially invited to take part in the Men Right´s Movement debate.  ;D :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 05, 2015, 01:20:16 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007BLB33Y/goodmusicguide-20)


ARTS & LETTERS 2/04/2015
Munich Bungles Concert Hall Plans


(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/02/Concert-Hall_Munich_Finanzgarten_Picture_c_Markus-Krempels1.jpeg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/02/04/munich-bungles-concert-hall-plans/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on February 05, 2015, 02:42:43 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on January 27, 2015, 11:50:42 PM
Which Opera Character Are You? (http://www.playbuzz.com/patricke10/which-opera-character-are-you)

Wotan. Cool.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 05, 2015, 02:14:41 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007BLB33Y/goodmusicguide-20)


ARTS & LETTERS 3/04/2015
Munich Philharmonic Responds To Concert Hall Controversy


(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/03/Gasteig_Philharmonie_14.jpg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/03/04/munich_concert_hall_brso_mphil_rejoinder/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 11, 2015, 06:34:57 AM
I received notice that Gramophone has open voting for it Hall of Fame. (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/vote-for-the-gramophone-hall-of-fame)  I perused the list, saw Annie Fischer's name, and decided to vote.  Good, pointless fun.  (That Ms Fischer is not in the Hall already, and Lang Lang is, sort of tells me all I need to know about entrance standards.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 11, 2015, 06:48:23 AM
This might be of interest to Sarge and other Hobbit-Haydn fans.

The Hobbit is about to be driven out of the Shire!

(Albeit in German)

Heidelberger Sinfoniker sind in ihrer Existenz gefährdet

Heidelberger Orchester muss ohne Chefdirigent Thomas Fey durchs Jahr kommen - Keine Erwähnung im Haushaltsentwurf der Stadt
(http://www.rnz.de/kultur-tipps/kultur-regional_artikel,-Heidelberger-Sinfoniker-sind-in-ihrer-Existenz-gefaehrdet-_arid,76721.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 11, 2015, 06:50:38 AM
Well, not quite. The Hobbit fell and is recovering. The Symphony gets no money... and the Haydn recordings fell through even earlier: http://www.rnz.de/kultur-tipps/kultur-regional_artikel,-Aus-fuer-Haydn-_arid,3263.html (http://www.rnz.de/kultur-tipps/kultur-regional_artikel,-Aus-fuer-Haydn-_arid,3263.html)

Apparently didn't sell well enough, so Hanssler nixed them. Bit short-sighted, it seems... though obviously I was not part of the negotiations. Hard to figure out who was being boneheaded. But wouldn't the label have had incentive to get to the finishing line? How are they going to market an incomplete Haydn Symphony Cycle?

Apparently Frieder Bernius will perform (and record?) some of the remaining symphonies while Fey is recovering from his fall... if it isn't Fey, I find that to be a very good choice, on paper.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on March 11, 2015, 08:19:50 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 11, 2015, 06:34:57 AM
I received notice that Gramophone has open voting for it Hall of Fame. (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/vote-for-the-gramophone-hall-of-fame)  I perused the list, saw Annie Fischer's name, and decided to vote.  Good, pointless fun.  (That Ms Fischer is not in the Hall already, and Lang Lang is, sort of tells me all I need to know about entrance standards.)

Some of those names are surprising. Piatigorsky and Mitropoulus are out? Anyway I voted for Hogwood and Leonhardt and Bylsma, who got so little love on the Bach cello thread.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on March 11, 2015, 08:53:32 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 11, 2015, 06:50:38 AM
Apparently didn't sell well enough, so Hanssler nixed them. Bit short-sighted, it seems... though obviously I was not part of the negotiations. Hard to figure out who was being boneheaded. But wouldn't the label have had incentive to get to the finishing line? How are they going to market an incomplete Haydn Symphony Cycle?

The same way Decca does?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on March 11, 2015, 01:37:51 PM
Quote from: Todd on March 11, 2015, 06:34:57 AM
I received notice that Gramophone has open voting for it Hall of Fame. (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/vote-for-the-gramophone-hall-of-fame)  I perused the list, saw Annie Fischer's name, and decided to vote.  Good, pointless fun.  (That Ms Fischer is not in the Hall already, and Lang Lang is, sort of tells me all I need to know about entrance standards.)

I voted for Leonhardt, Flagstad, and Isaac Stern...one conductor, one singer, one instrumentalist.

But half that list should already be in such a HoF.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 11, 2015, 01:48:56 PM
Quote from: Pat B on March 11, 2015, 08:53:32 AM
The same way Decca does?

You mean: Shortly before Fey dies, 20 years after the fact?  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on March 11, 2015, 02:41:44 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on March 11, 2015, 01:48:56 PM
You mean: Shortly before Fey dies, 20 years after the fact?  ;)

I was just thinking "with general ineptitude." Though most of Decca's ineptitude was in cutting it off where they did (after paying to record 3/4 of the cycle, but leaving out several that didn't yet have PI recordings, and also most of the most popular ones).

Hänssler's timing is less illogical, though I would think they would still want to do 91 and 101.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 01, 2015, 11:38:26 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007BLB33Y/goodmusicguide-20)


ARTS & LETTERS 4/01/2015
The Vienna Symphony's Path Out Of The Shadow


(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/03/WSO_Vienna-Symphony-Orchestra_c_Stefan_OLAH_Forbes_Sound-Advice_jens-f-laurson.jpg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/04/01/the-vienna-symphonys-path-out-of-the-shadow/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 04, 2015, 04:08:30 AM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007BLB33Y/goodmusicguide-20)


ARTS & LETTERS 4/03/2015
Bach & Beyond: Music For The Easter Weekend
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/04/03/bach-beyond-music-for-the-easter-weekend/

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/04/Music-for-Easter_BACH_Stamps_Eggs_sound-advice_jens-f-laurson_1.jpg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/04/03/bach-beyond-music-for-the-easter-weekend/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2015, 06:11:40 PM
Message to classical musicians in Canada: Only express popular opinions publicly. (http://slippedisc.com/2015/04/shocking-toronto-symphony-bans-pro-putin-soloist/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 06, 2015, 06:31:23 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 06, 2015, 06:11:40 PM
Message to classical musicians in Canada: Only express popular opinions publicly. (http://slippedisc.com/2015/04/shocking-toronto-symphony-bans-pro-putin-soloist/)

Know what this reminds me of? In college, I talked to a bassoon performance major who said, "After high school, we don't really take classes on anything except music. So we're great at music. But when it comes to everything but music, we're morons."

I'll always remember that word choice. Morons.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 06, 2015, 06:36:04 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 06, 2015, 06:31:23 PM
Know what this reminds me of? In college, I talked to a bassoon performance major who said, "After high school, we don't really take classes on anything except music. So we're great at music. But when it comes to everything but music, we're morons."

I'll always remember that word choice. Morons.



I guess it's best that morons are censored by those who know better.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 06, 2015, 09:50:55 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 06, 2015, 06:36:04 PM
I guess it's best that morons are censored by those who know better.

I don't consider canceling a piano performance to be "censorship," but this has probably gotten her much more publicity than the concerts would have.

Her statement seems like the writing of a moderately precocious 12-year-old.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 07, 2015, 03:16:44 AM
Here's a link to the story with actual facts, for those who don't want to support the click-whore NL:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/ukrainian-born-soloist-dropped-from-tso-for-her-political-views/article23812295/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/ukrainian-born-soloist-dropped-from-tso-for-her-political-views/article23812295/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 07, 2015, 05:06:51 AM
It's great to know  that when I go to a concert I do not have to worry about being isolated from politics. I used to worry that if I spent a couple hours at a play or concert or reading a book I might miss out on the latest details, might lag in my participation in the struggle. I applaud this and hope soon that when bathing or peeing I will also be politically involved, be part of being a solution not the problem.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 07:19:01 AM
Quote from: Pat B on April 06, 2015, 09:50:55 PMI don't consider canceling a piano performance to be "censorship," but this has probably gotten her much more publicity than the concerts would have.



I call it censorship, though I suppose one can make the circuitous argument that it is not because Ms Lisitsa is not being prevented from saying her piece, and she is being paid.  But it strikes me as punitive to prevent a performing artist from performing merely because of his or her political views, and it seems uncomfortably close to allowing prior restraint.  Surely modern, Western states can do better than that.

The action by TSO management is unambiguously craven.  It buckled to pressure, real or imagined.  Of course, maybe a big donor is a Ukrainian ex-pat, in which case the decision is at least partly financial.  Then it would be more understandable, as well as craven.

It's definitely garnered Lisitsa some publicity, though I find it hard to believe that this will become much of a story in major outlets or materially impact ticket and CD sales.  For instance, I can say with a great deal of confidence that it will not make me any more or less inclined to buy Ms Lisitsa's recordings or those of the TSO.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 07, 2015, 08:06:04 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 07:19:01 AM

It's definitely garnered Lisitsa some publicity, though I find it hard to believe that this will become much of a story in major outlets or materially impact ticket and CD sales.  For instance, I can say with a great deal of confidence that it will not make me any more or less inclined to buy Ms Lisitsa's recordings or those of the TSO.

It will make me (even) less inclined to support subsidies for the TSO. 

"Surely modern, Western states can do better than that."
Like Gurn, I admire your drolleries Todd.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on April 07, 2015, 08:24:22 AM
When Lisitsa expresses her personal opinion, especially one that is a hot-button issue, then, naturally, she could alienate her audience. The TSO did what they had to do in not allowing the performance to go through, but she should be allowed to perform once the dust has settled. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but when these opinions risk possible ticket sales or even offending people, it's best to keep such opinions to yourself.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 08:38:20 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 07, 2015, 08:24:22 AMEveryone is entitled to their opinions, but when these opinions risk possible ticket sales or even offending people, it's best to keep such opinions to yourself.



Ticket sales I can see - for a private institution, not one partly or heavily dependent on public funds. 

As to not offending people: When has that been an even remotely admirable or desirable goal?  Some people are bound to be offended by anything.  What guiding principles, if any, do you suggest in determining what is offensive? 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 09:13:50 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 07:19:01 AM
I call it censorship, though I suppose one can make the circuitous argument that it is not because Ms Lisitsa is not being prevented from saying her piece, and she is being paid.  But it strikes me as punitive to prevent a performing artist from performing merely because of his or her political views, and it seems uncomfortably close to allowing prior restraint.  Surely modern, Western states can do better than that.

I will agree with "punitive," but the fact that they are not preventing her from saying her piece is a pretty big factor in whether it constitutes censorship.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 09:41:43 AM
Quote from: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 09:13:50 AMI will agree with "punitive," but the fact that they are not preventing her from saying her piece is a pretty big factor in whether it constitutes censorship.



The TSO is determining where she may say her piece - were she to say anything during a performance.  (Maybe she could put in a very emotional performance of a nationalist Russian piano encore, which could offend the artistic sensibilities of the audience, who would very clearly see said performance as a rebuke of Ukrainian nationalism.)  That is the very essence of censorship.  It's sort of like the free speech zones the Bush Administration used, though less extreme, of course.  Those protestors could say what they wanted.  They just had to say it where they were told to say it.  It looks increasingly like that is the new standard.  You can say anything you like, just not here, and not if someone, somewhere dislikes it.

Of course, I'm not familiar with Canada's laws on free speech.  This may be pretty standard for them. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 10:24:31 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 09:41:43 AM
The TSO is determining where she may say her piece - were she to say anything during a performance.  (Maybe she could put in a very emotional performance of a nationalist Russian piano encore, which could offend the artistic sensibilities of the audience, who would very clearly see said performance as a rebuke of Ukrainian nationalism.)

She is claiming that the concert was cancelled due to her tweets, not the possibility of a political lecture by her, a provocative encore, Putin driving a tank onto the stage, or anything else she might do at the concert. Not that the Toronto Symphony had any obligation to provide her a venue for any of those things.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 10:28:46 AM
Quote from: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 10:24:31 AM
She is claiming that the concert was cancelled due to her tweets, not the possibility of a political lecture by her, a provocative encore, Putin driving a tank onto the stage, or anything else she might do at the concert. Not that the Toronto Symphony had any obligation to provide her a venue for any of those things.



Of course the TSO can cancel her appearance.  That doesn't mean it should.  It is a craven organization that doesn't want to allow a performance by someone with differing opinions.  That is, it engages in censorship.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 11:26:31 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 10:28:46 AM
Of course the TSO can cancel her appearance.  That doesn't mean it should.  It is a craven organization that doesn't want to allow a performance by someone with differing opinions.  That is, it engages in censorship.

I didn't say the TSO's decision was what they should have done. I think it probably was not, though there is surely more to the story than what we know.

But it was not censorship, because "doesn't want to allow a performance by someone with differing opinions" is not what "censorship" means.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 11:31:03 AM
Quote from: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 11:26:31 AM
I didn't say the TSO's decision was what they should have done. I think it probably was not, though there is surely more to the story than what we know.

But it was not censorship, because "doesn't want to allow a performance by someone with differing opinions" is not what "censorship" means.


There's undoubtedly more to the story.

Okay, I'll adopt a narrow view of the word censorship.  What the TSO is engaged in could be even worse.  It is depriving a person of a public forum for artistic expression in retaliation for voicing unpopular political views.  The TSO is suppressing art on political grounds. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 01:32:30 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 11:31:03 AM
Okay, I'll adopt a narrow view of the word censorship.  What the TSO is engaged in could be even worse.  It is depriving a person of a public forum for artistic expression in retaliation for voicing unpopular political views.  The TSO is suppressing art on political grounds.

Regarding the TSO's action, I basically agree (though I believe true censorship is much worse than "depriving a person of a public forum for artistic expression").

But from her perspective: she made some trollish tweets, the TSO bit on them, and she probably gained a few thousand followers. So I don't feel too sorry for her.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 07, 2015, 03:46:50 PM
Quote from: Pat B on April 07, 2015, 01:32:30 PM
Regarding the TSO's action, I basically agree (though I believe true censorship is much worse than "depriving a person of a public forum for artistic expression").

But from her perspective: she made some trollish tweets, the TSO bit on them, and she probably gained a few thousand followers. So I don't feel too sorry for her.
I don't feel sorry for her at all. But I don't see her as the important issue. It's the politicizing of everything, even piano concerti, that irks me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 07, 2015, 06:51:06 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 07, 2015, 03:46:50 PMIt's the politicizing of everything, even piano concerti, that irks me.



Exactly.  Hopefully, Ms Lisitsa is the only major-ish (classical/serious) artist deprived of a forum to perform for naughty tweets.  She may not be.  That's why this is as bad and possibly worse than narrowly defined censorship.  Someone had to be first, I guess.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on April 07, 2015, 07:29:11 PM
The Jerusalem Quartet suffered in concert heckling a few years ago for the crime of being Israeli...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-jerusalem-quartet-should-classical-music-really-be-a-legitimate-target-for-political-demonstration-1932679.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 07, 2015, 10:56:39 PM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 07, 2015, 07:29:11 PM
The Jerusalem Quartet suffered in concert heckling a few years ago for the crime of being Israeli...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-jerusalem-quartet-should-classical-music-really-be-a-legitimate-target-for-political-demonstration-1932679.html

And it happened in 2007, when I attended: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/04/jerusalem-quartet-at-libr.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/04/jerusalem-quartet-at-libr.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 02:30:09 AM
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 07, 2015, 08:24:22 AM
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but when these opinions risk [...] offending people, it's best to keep such opinions to yourself.

By the same token, Solzhenitsyn should have kept his opinions about Gulag to himself, lest he had offended Lenin, Stalin, Khrushtchev and the KGB.

Quote from: Todd on April 07, 2015, 11:31:03 AM
The TSO is suppressing art on political grounds. 

Exactly.

Quote from: Ken B on April 07, 2015, 03:46:50 PM
It's the politicizing of everything, even piano concerti, that irks me.

Me too.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 02:38:59 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 07, 2015, 07:29:11 PM
The Jerusalem Quartet suffered in concert heckling a few years ago for the crime of being Israeli...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-jerusalem-quartet-should-classical-music-really-be-a-legitimate-target-for-political-demonstration-1932679.html

Quote from: jlaurson on April 07, 2015, 10:56:39 PM
And it happened in 2007, when I attended: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/04/jerusalem-quartet-at-libr.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/04/jerusalem-quartet-at-libr.html)

The world is fullpacked with idiots. Especially useful ones.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 08, 2015, 03:11:59 AM
The real outrage is the apparent (or alleged/official) measuring stick by which the TSO decides whom to exvite. From their own press release, this marvel:

QuoteTSO president Jeff Melanson cited "ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets." And: "As one of Canada's most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world's great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive."

Wow! "Opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive are enough to nix someone? That's free speech? Free speech, but only if we like it, please!

By that measure nothing would ever get done, in any society.

Toronto Star has a very sensible (I happen to think) Editorial about it: https://twitter.com/ClassicalCritic/status/585760678176227328 (https://twitter.com/ClassicalCritic/status/585760678176227328)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 03:28:30 AM
Quote from: Toronto Star
In a particularly weak explanation of why the orchestra was dropping her, TSO president Jeff Melanson said Lisitsa was bounced over "ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets." And, he added: "As one of Canada's most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world's great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive."

This misses the point on at least two counts. First, Lisitsa was not invited to Toronto to discuss her provocative political views. She was scheduled to play the piano. And second, banning a musician for expressing "opinions that some believe to be offensive" shows an utter failure to grasp the concept of free speech.

We don't have freedom of speech to protect only those we agree with, or those whose views are inoffensive. We have it precisely to protect people who have unpopular or even outrageous opinions.

Amen.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AM
I guess I am in total disagreement and late to the party.

The TSO have failed in one area - consistency. They let Gergiev conduct and fire this pianist.

Organizations (public or private) are not required to support artists (or employees) and are free to dismiss them at will. It is kind of stupid for artists to have strong public positions on political issues as they eventually run afoul of someone. This behavior is nothing new in the World (Dixie Chicks anyone), so all of this thrashing about censorship seems overly dramatic.

In any case, shouldn't we also be evaluating her tweets? Here is a link to some of them: http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo (http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo). Can't really say that they are particularly worth supporting or giving her a forum for them.

By the way, they have not infringed on her free speech in any way. She is still free to say whatever she wants.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 04:22:20 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AM
It is kind of stupid for artists to have strong public positions on political issues as they eventually run afoul of someone.

Oh yes, they should just keep their effing mouth shut up and play, play, play!  ;D

You made the Toronto Star case even stronger on both accounts.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:36:00 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 04:22:20 AM
Oh yes, they should just keep their effing mouth shut up and play, play, play!  ;D
They should. I wish more would. You can have Sean Penn while we're at it. They should not be able to say whatever they want and expect no one will respond to them, especially when it seems to be hateful stuff like some of what this pianist was writing. This thread is focused on her treatment by the TSO, but little is being said about her and her posts. We are all assuming that this is why she has been fired (I assume so too for now, but the TSO has not come out and explained).

I really don't understand this opinion that people can say whatever they want without consequences.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 04:48:10 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:36:00 AM
little is being said about her and her posts.

Her posts are utterly idiotic and horribly bad taste, but I fail to see the reason why she should be banned from performing on their account. If political idiocy is a good reason for preventing artists from performing, then all Hollywood studios should be razed to the ground, actors and directors inside.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:12:58 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 08, 2015, 04:48:10 AM
Her posts are utterly idiotic and horribly bad taste, but I fail to see the reason why she should be banned from performing on their account. If political idiocy is a good reason for preventing artists from performing, then all Hollywood studios should be razed to the ground, actors and directors inside.  ;D ;D ;D
I believe that has been suggested more than once...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 06:32:38 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 08, 2015, 03:11:59 AMWow! "Opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive are enough to nix someone? That's free speech? Free speech, but only if we like it, please!


The TSO offered the craven response one would expect.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AMOrganizations (public or private) are not required to support artists (or employees) and are free to dismiss them at will.


That is just factually incorrect.  At-will employment is not even universal in the US, let alone other countries, and even in at-will jurisdictions, it is not that easy except in the context of layoffs.  Were only firing people as easy as you suggest.

I assume Ms Lisitsa executed a well defined contract, and the TSO paid her so as to not breach their obligations and open themselves up to litigation for financial harm.  Any good contract will have out clauses, and the TSO exercised the out clauses.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AMIt is kind of stupid for artists to have strong public positions on political issues as they eventually run afoul of someone.


That's right.  Artists should do what you think they should do.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AMBy the way, they have not infringed on her free speech in any way. She is still free to say whatever she wants.


Sort of.  I love this type of circuitous argument.  She was banned from performing for the TSO.  She can still say what she wants anywhere else.  The problem is that the TSO's behavior creates a chilling effect.  Ms Lisitsa may choose to temper her public remarks at some point (like the Dixie Chicks did), though for now she is talking to RT, but the more important effect is that other artists may decided to clam up.  Best not to say anything.  It is stupid for artists to take a stance on issues.  Unless it is the correct stance.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:36:00 AMI really don't understand this opinion that people can say whatever they want without consequences.


I missed these arguments in this thread.  Who made them?

In the US, with its extensive case law on the subject, there are some defined limits on speech, and some speech can be punished legally by the state.  Private action can be taken against speech far more liberally.  And it is.  Personally, I find the existing limits on speech to be far too onerous, and private limitations are worse still, but I'm unabashedly in favor of more open speech and expression than the US has today.  I don't mind if it is coarse or offensive.  People do not have a right to not be offended.  Some more extreme speech (eg, shouting fire in a theater, slander/libel) should certainly be punished, but barring some type of clear, identifiable, actual risk or harm, punishing people for speech, and purposely trying to silence people now and in the future, which is precisely the result of the TSO action, is unacceptable.  Establishing de facto prior restraint is good for no one.

Who cares what Ms Lisitsa tweeted?  I read a couple, and her jumbled response to the TSO action.  Big deal.  All manner of celebrities, minor and major, say and write gibberish all the time. The idea that they should not be able to practice their craft is absurd. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: stingo on April 08, 2015, 07:31:33 AM
But when I buy my concert ticket, I'm paying to hear music, not politics.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:38:57 AM
Quote from: stingo on April 08, 2015, 07:31:33 AM
But when I buy my concert ticket, I'm paying to hear music, not politics.


Same here.  Likewise, when I buy a movie ticket I expect to see a movie, though they can be political sometimes.  They may even express views I disagree with.  Come to think of it, stage works like opera can do that, too.  Where can one be safe from ideas?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:38:57 AM
Where can one be safe from ideas?

The Internet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 07:49:13 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 06:32:38 AM
I missed these arguments in this thread.  Who made them?

Who cares what Ms Lisitsa tweeted?  I read a couple, and her jumbled response to the TSO action.  Big deal.  All manner of celebrities, minor and major, say and write gibberish all the time. The idea that they should not be able to practice their craft is absurd.
You did! Just above. I highlighted the key part. No one is stopping her or any other artist for practicing their craft. But those of us who pay for the privelege may decide to take our business elsewhere. And I, as a consumer, certainly don't have to support such idiots.

Quote from: stingo on April 08, 2015, 07:31:33 AM
But when I buy my concert ticket, I'm paying to hear music, not politics.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There are many such examples in history.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:54:18 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 07:49:13 AM
You did!


Incorrect.  I explained in pretty simple language what types of limitations there should be on speech and expression.  Ms Lisista's actions do not pose any risk to anyone.  You, it seems, prefer an unprincipled, arbitrary and capricious standard for suppressing freedom of expression.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 07:49:13 AMNo one is stopping her or any other artist for practicing their craft.


The TSO did.  She cannot play the concerto.  She cannot practice her craft.  That's what the article is about, and what the posts have been about. 



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 07:49:13 AMAnd I, as a consumer, certainly don't have to support such idiots.


Good to see you consider art and freedom of speech and/or freedom of expression as things to be viewed from a consumerist standpoint.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on April 08, 2015, 08:45:47 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 07, 2015, 03:16:44 AM
Here's a link to the story with actual facts, for those who don't want to support the click-whore NL:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/ukrainian-born-soloist-dropped-from-tso-for-her-political-views/article23812295/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/ukrainian-born-soloist-dropped-from-tso-for-her-political-views/article23812295/)
*sigh* If every musician who expressed an opinion that offended somebody were forbidden to play, our concert calendars would diminish by at least half and probably more.  I say, let her play; perhaps with the disclaimer that "any opinions expressed are those of the performers alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the board."  But of course, the cancellation is a fait accompli...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on April 08, 2015, 08:52:48 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:36:00 AM
They should. I wish more would. You can have Sean Penn while we're at it. They should not be able to say whatever they want and expect no one will respond to them, especially when it seems to be hateful stuff like some of what this pianist was writing. This thread is focused on her treatment by the TSO, but little is being said about her and her posts. We are all assuming that this is why she has been fired (I assume so too for now, but the TSO has not come out and explained).

I really don't understand this opinion that people can say whatever they want without consequences.
Consequences, yes: but since her tweets have nothing to do with how well she plays, those consequences should not extend to cancelling a concert.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 08:59:29 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:54:18 AM

Incorrect.  I explained in pretty simple language what types of limitations there should be on speech and expression.  Ms Lisista's actions do not pose any risk to anyone.  You, it seems, prefer an unprincipled, arbitrary and capricious standard for suppressing freedom of expression.




The TSO did.  She cannot play the concerto.  She cannot practice her craft.  That's what the article is about, and what the posts have been about. 




Good to see you consider art and freedom of speech and/or freedom of expression as things to be viewed from a consumerist standpoint.
This has always been the conflict - between the artist's vision and the consumer who supports it. There is nothing new in this. This ying and yang has been going on for centuries, but you seem to be caught in an idealist position. Sounds good, but not particularly practical. The TSO has not supressed her freedom of expression, so you seem to be saying a lot of nonsense. She can continue to say whatever she wants on the topic, but not on the TSO's dime. Again, though you deny it, you are basically saying there is no consequences to people's behavior.

And I am not so sure she doesn't pose a risk (depending on your point of view). Ukraine has essentially been at war with Russia the past year. Your view of potential risk could be quite different if you lived there.



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:08:21 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 08:59:29 AMAgain, though you deny it, you are basically saying there is no consequences to people's behavior.


I'm not saying that at all.  There should be harm or risk associated with speech or expression before punishment should be meted out.  Punishing people for harmless behavior is absurd.  What harm have the tweets in question caused?


Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 08:59:29 AMAnd I am not so sure she doesn't pose a risk (depending on your point of view). Ukraine has essentially been at war with Russia the past year. Your view of potential risk could be quite different if you lived there.


Perhaps you can elaborate on what risk Ms Lisista's posts pose to people in Ukraine.  Hinting at something nebulous doesn't suffice.


Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 08:59:29 AMThe TSO has not supressed her freedom of expression


It has.  It is not allowing her to perform because of her opinions.  You wrote that no one is stopping her from performing her craft, whereas the indisputable fact is that her appearance was cancelled.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: chasmaniac on April 08, 2015, 09:10:04 AM
If she is legally regarded as an employee (even on a short-term basis) of the TSO, they have the right to discipline her for actions that bring her employer into disrepute. Like it or don't, all employees face this in Ontario and every other jurisdiction I've ever heard of.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 08, 2015, 09:15:20 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 09:10:36 AM
How is her tweeting an opinion about what is happening in her home country "on the TSO's dime"?  She did not make the comments from the stage or at a TSO press event, but used her personal Twitter account.  The events are unrelated and the TSO overreacted in my opinion.

Well, donors to the TSO threatened to not donate, if she were to appear. That's the story behind the story. OTHER people overreacted ... the then TSO bungled. They could have cancelled it, alright, but would have had to go head-on with the truth to the public: We've had complaints... they might be financially painful for us... VL is not an important enough artist to make a stand about free speech now... so we've paid her, asked her not to play, and will find someone else.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:21:20 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 06:32:38 AM
That is just factually incorrect.  At-will employment is not even universal in the US, let alone other countries, and even in at-will jurisdictions, it is not that easy except in the context of layoffs.  Were only firing people as easy as you suggest. 
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 09:10:36 AM
How is her tweeting an opinion about what is happening in her home country "on the TSO's dime"?  She did not make the comments from the stage or at a TSO press event, but used her personal Twitter account.  The events are unrelated and the TSO overreacted in my opinion.   
Clearly, my argument is for work in a state with at-will employment. That said, a private company can essentially fire you for your politics (note private - not public). Here are some examples:
http://molawyersmedia.com/2012/05/01/commentary-your-political-affiliation-can-get-you-fired/ (http://molawyersmedia.com/2012/05/01/commentary-your-political-affiliation-can-get-you-fired/)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/09/04/talking-politics-at-work-can-get-you-fired/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/09/04/talking-politics-at-work-can-get-you-fired/) (note in this one there is the following quote (which was new to me as well):
QuoteEmployees can also be sanctioned for political speech they put in emails or on social media during the workday
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2002/07/can_your_boss_fire_you_for_your_political_beliefs.html (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2002/07/can_your_boss_fire_you_for_your_political_beliefs.html)

You may not feel this is right, but the employer has the right. Public employers are a different matter.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on April 08, 2015, 09:28:20 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 08:59:29 AM
And I am not so sure she doesn't pose a risk (depending on your point of view). Ukraine has essentially been at war with Russia the past year. Your view of potential risk could be quite different if you lived there.

FTR she is a mixed-heritage Russian-Ukrainian who has lived in the USA for 20+ years and is now an American citizen. I doubt her twitter trolling had much real impact -- though the publicity from the cancellation has gained her a bunch of followers (1000 since yesterday).

What the TSO should have done was quietly allow the concert to happen, and privately assure the relevant donors that they would not invite her back. Instead, they embroiled themselves in controversy, granted her victim status, and still have to pay her fee.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:36:32 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:08:21 AM

I'm not saying that at all.  There should be harm or risk associated with speech or expression before punishment should be meted out.  Punishing people for harmless behavior is absurd.  What harm have the tweets in question caused?
This is a threshold you are creating. I am not saying that. We're talking about a private employer who has the right not to employ someone based on their politics.

QuotePerhaps you can elaborate on what risk Ms Lisista's posts pose to people in Ukraine.  Hinting at something nebulous doesn't suffice.
They are at war. She could be considered a traitor (if she were Ukrainian citizen). Her activities undermine the state of Ukraine. Blah blah blah. Perhaps you should read up on US historial examples, for example, Charles Schenck (spelling?), who was convicted of espionage for distributing leaflets against the draft (WWI). These things are not unheard of (even if you think it a stretch).

QuoteIt has.  It is not allowing her to perform because of her opinions.  You wrote that no one is stopping her from performing her craft, whereas the indisputable fact is that her appearance was cancelled.
The term 'freedom of expression' seems clear to me to mean speech, but I wonder if you mean livlihood. Freedom of speech has not been changed in any way, her rights have not changed. Right to a livlihood is not altered except that she cannot play for TSO. She is free to express her craft/playing where anyone will pay her (or she can set up shop on the street I suppose, but pianos are heavy)...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:37:40 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:21:20 AMClearly, my argument is for work in a state with at-will employment.


I work in an at-will state, and firing people is nowhere near as easy as you argue.  I know this from experience.  And that's at an, at best, mid-size (around 50 people) non-union company.  At large non-union companies it can take months to fire someone, and at union shops it can take years.  For a small shop with maybe ten people, firing people is pretty easy, though the risk of lawsuits is ever-present, so even small companies formulate well documented policies and then follow them.  Only the most egregious behavior (eg, violence at work, yelling at customers, etc) will generally result in immediate termination.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:21:20 AMYou may not feel this is right, but the employer has the right. Public employers are a different matter.


I'm very well aware that private companies are not beholden to the same standards as public employers.  They needn't be.  And if someone is posting opinions, any opinions, using company resources (that is, using the internet instead of working), then termination is acceptable.  There absolutely should be safeguards for behavior during non-work hours, and in some areas there may be at some point, and morals clauses should not be mandatory for non-executive level employees.  Those are battles to be fought.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on April 08, 2015, 09:40:22 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:36:32 AM
...The term 'freedom of expression' seems clear to me to mean speech, but I wonder if you mean livlihood. Freedom of speech has not been changed in any way, her rights have not changed. Right to a livlihood is not altered except that she cannot play for TSO. She is free to express her craft/playing where anyone will pay her (or she can set up shop on the street I suppose, but pianos are heavy)...
Yet by doing as they have done, the Toronto Symphony may well have opened the door for other orchestras to "follow the bandwagon" and listen to the Philistines who demand that only "politically-correct" artists be allowed to play with major orchestras.  The TSO may "have the right," but that does not necessarily make it right.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:48:54 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:37:40 AM

I work in an at-will state, and firing people is nowhere near as easy as you argue.  I know this from experience.  And that's at an, at best, mid-size (around 50 people) non-union company.  At large non-union companies it can take months to fire someone, and at union shops it can take years.  For a small shop with maybe ten people, firing people is pretty easy, though the risk of lawsuits is ever-present, so even small companies formulate well documented policies and then follow them.  Only the most egregious behavior (eg, violence at work, yelling at customers, etc) will generally result in immediate termination.
Union is a different ball of wax. Put them to the side. My experience in at will states has been a bit different than yours, but I know some find it as hard as you describe or even harder. Thing is, it is a piece of cake compared to many European countries (for example).

QuoteI'm very well aware that private companies are not beholden to the same standards as public employers.  They needn't be.  And if someone is posting opinions, any opinions, using company resources (that is, using the internet instead of working), then termination is acceptable.  There absolutely should be safeguards for behavior during non-work hours, and in some areas there may be at some point, and morals clauses should not be mandatory for non-executive level employees.  Those are battles to be fought.
Indeed.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2015, 09:50:53 AM
We refuse to deliver pizza to a TSO concert with a Ukrainian-American soloist!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:52:30 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:36:32 AMWe're talking about a private employer who has the right not to employ someone based on their politics.


Is the TSO private, or is it public-private?  And what are the laws in Canada?  I was quite clear that the existing standards are far too onerous, and far too open to arbitrary standards.  You appear to prefer arbitrary standards. 


Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:36:32 AMThey are at war.


She is not a Ukrainian citizen.  Her tweets pose no risk to Ukraine.  Your argument is not relevant.

Your attempt at a history lesson is amusing, but you see, I am opposed to laws like the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.  Those laws allow the US government to apply arbitrary and capricious standards to speech and other First Amendment protections.  And until the Obama Administration, they were mostly ignored.  They also do not apply to the TSO.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:36:32 AMThe term 'freedom of expression' seems clear to me to mean speech, but I wonder if you mean livlihood. Freedom of speech has not been changed in any way, her rights have not changed. Right to a livlihood is not altered except that she cannot play for TSO. She is free to express her craft/playing where anyone will pay her (or she can set up shop on the street I suppose, but pianos are heavy)...


It is freedom of speech that I am most concerned about.  I use the term "expression" to expand it to other forms of communication - music, dancing, etc.  Ms Lisista was deprived of a forum for political reasons.  The TSO suppressed art on political grounds.  You appear to support that.  I do not.


Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 09:48:54 AMUnion is a different ball of wax. Put them to the side. My experience in at will states has been a bit different than yours, but I know some find it as hard as you describe or even harder. Thing is, it is a piece of cake compared to many European countries (for example).


Shifting the goal posts, I see.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: aquablob on April 08, 2015, 10:11:29 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 08, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
The Internet.

Nice one!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: aquablob on April 08, 2015, 10:24:57 AM
I do think it's important in discussions like this one to be clear about whether we're debating legality or ethics. "Did the TSO have the legal right to do what they did?" is a different question from "Did the TSO do the right thing?" (Of course, in either case I'm right and you're wrong.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:38:09 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 09:52:30 AM

Is the TSO private, or is it public-private?  And what are the laws in Canada?  I was quite clear that the existing standards are far too onerous, and far too open to arbitrary standards.  You appear to prefer arbitrary standards. 
What I prefer is irrelevent. The question is whether they have the right to do it (even if you don't like it).

QuoteShe is not a Ukrainian citizen.  Her tweets pose no risk to Ukraine.  Your argument is not relevant.
You are welcome to think so. 

QuoteYour attempt at a history lesson is amusing, but you see, I am opposed to laws like the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.  Those laws allow the US government to apply arbitrary and capricious standards to speech and other First Amendment protections.  And until the Obama Administration, they were mostly ignored.  They also do not apply to the TSO.
Whether you are opposed or not has no bearing.

QuoteIt is freedom of speech that I am most concerned about.  I use the term "expression" to expand it to other forms of communication - music, dancing, etc.  Ms Lisista was deprived of a forum for political reasons.  The TSO suppressed art on political grounds.  You appear to support that.  I do not.
Well, she has herself to blame and no one else. You sure do like to be dramatic with terms like 'supressed art' and 'deprived of a forum'. It looks like her tweets have added 1000 followers, so I guess her forum has actually expanded.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:40:01 AM
Quote from: aquariuswb on April 08, 2015, 10:24:57 AM
I do think it's important in discussions like this one to be clear about whether we're debating legality or ethics. "Did the TSO have the legal right to do what they did?" is a different question from "Did the TSO do the right thing?" (Of course, in either case I'm right and you're wrong.)
Well said!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 10:46:15 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:14:03 AM
I guess I am in total disagreement and late to the party.

The TSO have failed in one area - consistency. They let Gergiev conduct and fire this pianist.

Organizations (public or private) are not required to support artists (or employees) and are free to dismiss them at will. It is kind of stupid for artists to have strong public positions on political issues as they eventually run afoul of someone. This behavior is nothing new in the World (Dixie Chicks anyone), so all of this thrashing about censorship seems overly dramatic.

In any case, shouldn't we also be evaluating her tweets? Here is a link to some of them: http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo (http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo). Can't really say that they are particularly worth supporting or giving her a forum for them.

By the way, they have not infringed on her free speech in any way. She is still free to say whatever she wants.
If I had a ticket, was I affected in any way?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 10:49:45 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on April 08, 2015, 09:40:22 AM
Yet by doing as they have done, the Toronto Symphony may well have opened the door for other orchestras to "follow the bandwagon" and listen to the Philistines who demand that only "politically-correct" artists be allowed to play with major orchestras.  The TSO may "have the right," but that does not necessarily make it right.

Right. "The personal is political" is the very definition of fascism.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:58:28 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 10:46:15 AM
If I had a ticket, was I affected in any way?

Probably not. Lost time perhaps (assuming you could get refund or something of equal value). Maybe disappointment at not hearing the Rach concerto.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 11:14:22 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:58:28 AM
Probably not. Lost time perhaps (assuming you could get refund or something of equal value). Maybe disappointment at not hearing the Rach concerto.
So no I wasn't affected but I lost time and was disappointed.
Cue Inigo Montoya ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2015, 11:18:32 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 11:14:22 AM
So no I wasn't affected but I lost time and was disappointed.


http://www.youtube.com/v/R97TsVDC1BY
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 11:22:37 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 11:14:22 AM
So no I wasn't affected but I lost time and was disappointed.
Cue Inigo Montoya ...
When you put it that way... It depends on what you mean by affected. Was there any impact whatsoever? Yes. Did it affect your worldview. I don't think so. Would I pesonally have been affected? No. Would others? Maybe.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 11:34:23 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 11:22:37 AM
When you put it that way... It depends on what you mean by affected. Was there any impact whatsoever? Yes. Did it affect your worldview. I don't think so. Would I pesonally have been affected? No. Would others? Maybe.

My point is this. You see it as the TSO standing up for Truth, Justice, and the Kievian Way. I see it as the TSO board grandstanding and inflicting their views on subscribers. I can make up my own damn mind about whether I want to watch a Putinist pianist or not. Not just Putin. I don't want the political invading every space of public, or private, life. I don't want Support the RFRA or Repeal the RFRA protesters taking over concerts, movies, my dining room. Likewise I don't want pro or anti Putinists. Punishing people who don't agree with you, especially over issues where you play no role, is a bad habit.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 11:54:59 AM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 11:34:23 AM
My point is this. You see it as the TSO standing up for Truth, Justice, and the Kievian Way. I see it as the TSO board grandstanding and inflicting their views on subscribers. I can make up my own damn mind about whether I want to watch a Putinist pianist or not. Not just Putin. I don't want the political invading every space of public, or private, life. I don't want Support the RFRA or Repeal the RFRA protesters taking over concerts, movies, my dining room. Likewise I don't want pro or anti Putinists. Punishing people who don't agree with you, especially over issues where you play no role, is a bad habit.
I understand.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:09:51 PM
Quote from: aquariuswb on April 08, 2015, 10:24:57 AMI do think it's important in discussions like this one to be clear about whether we're debating legality or ethics.


Clearly ethics.  The TSO had the legal right to do what it did.  I never argued it did not.  But they should not have done it.  It would be nice if one outcome of this was expanded legal protection for speech and expression.  That will not happen.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:38:09 AMWhat I prefer is irrelevent.  The question is whether they have the right to do it (even if you don't like it).


Then you obviously missed the whole point.  I never stated that the TSO couldn't do what they did, but that they should not have.  I then outlined the types of more liberal guidelines defining limits to freedom of expression I would prefer to see in place.  You have made it clear that you desire "consequences" for tweets and other forms of expression you find objectionable.  Unless actual harm or risk is involved, I do not.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:38:09 AMWell, she has herself to blame and no one else.


No, she can blame the TSO.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 10:38:09 AMIt looks like her tweets have added 1000 followers, so I guess her forum has actually expanded.


I suppose that depends on how much weight you give Twitter followers.  In your case, apparently quite a lot.

This situation is very clearly a case of a few people not wanting a performer to perform because of her political views.  The performer had to be punished for naughty tweets.  No harm was done to anyone, there was no risk of anything other than perhaps dissatisfied sniffs from a few elderly patrons.  But something had to be done to assuage the concerns of a few very righteous people. 

The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that the TSO found a better pianist as a replacement, but he withdrew, and the piece will not be played at all. (http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/shattering-display-of-mob-hysteria-forces-toronto-pianist-to-turn-down-chance-to-replace-ousted-performer)  If I were a ticket holder and found out that Stewart Goodyear got the gig, I would have been thrilled.   
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: aquablob on April 08, 2015, 01:17:01 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:09:51 PM
Clearly ethics.  The TSO had the legal right to do what it did.  I never argued it did not.

To be clear, my comment wasn't aimed at you or anybody else in particular.

(FWIW, I agree with you that the TSO made a bad call here that sets an ugly precedent.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:20:57 PM
Quote from: aquariuswb on April 08, 2015, 01:17:01 PMTo be clear, my comment wasn't aimed at you or anybody else in particular.


I didn't take it as such.  I took it as an opportunity to clarify the difference between what is legal and what is right.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 08, 2015, 01:52:06 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:09:51 PM

Clearly ethics.  The TSO had the legal right to do what it did.  I never argued it did not.  But they should not have done it.  It would be nice if one outcome of this was expanded legal protection for speech and expression.  That will not happen.


The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that the TSO found a better pianist as a replacement, but he withdrew, and the piece will not be played at all. (http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/shattering-display-of-mob-hysteria-forces-toronto-pianist-to-turn-down-chance-to-replace-ousted-performer)  If I were a ticket holder and found out that Stewart Goodyear got the gig, I would have been thrilled.

1.) Well, with any luck the blowback on this will be so hard and uncomfortable, that the TSO will think twice, next time a patron calls and blathers about someone violating human rights on Twitter and that therefore they should can the performance, take the loss, take the blame, and feel righteous.

Or at least they can learn their PR lesson and do it only if the donor is clearly worth it (and willing to be pointed to, in an unambiguous way, for the TSO's reasoning).

I, for one, hope that they have gotten (and will continue to get) burned quite notably over that appalling "protect our customers from opinions that might be offensive to someone" 'argument'. Next they'll cancel a performance because the clarinet soloist once refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Ugh!

2.) Stewart Goodyear ended up with egg on his face, too, with that obnoxious post that started nice, got gooey in the middle, and then ended up being soggy-sappy maudlin trip in the end. And yes, more interesting pianist... although in that repertoire, Lisitia might just about be able to offer a leveled the playing field.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:56:41 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 08, 2015, 01:52:06 PM2.) Stewart Goodyear ended up with egg on his face, too, with that obnoxious post that started nice, got gooey in the middle, and then ended up being soggy-sappy maudlin trip in the end.



His line about being "bullied" was a bit much.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 01:57:01 PM
Offenbach's third cousin called a gay man a name. Offenbach failed to disown this third cousin, and did in fact attend that third cousin's wedding. This outrageous behavior by Offenbach, endorsing anti-gay slurs and creating an unsafe envoironment for gays, has led Neal's employer to fire him for his tag line. Neal was not affected. The only issue, we all agree, is whether this was legal. In Neal's state I mean. God knows about France.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 02:04:15 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 01:09:51 PM

Clearly ethics.  The TSO had the legal right to do what it did.  I never argued it did not.  But they should not have done it.  It would be nice if one outcome of this was expanded legal protection for speech and expression.  That will not happen.
Nope.

QuoteThen you obviously missed the whole point.  I never stated that the TSO couldn't do what they did, but that they should not have.  I then outlined the types of more liberal guidelines defining limits to freedom of expression I would prefer to see in place.  You have made it clear that you desire "consequences" for tweets and other forms of expression you find objectionable.  Unless actual harm or risk is involved, I do not.
I never said I 'desire' consequences. What I am saying is that everything in life has consequences (everything we post included). You have made your standard clear - I just don't agree with it.

QuoteNo, she can blame the TSO.
Oh? They wrote the tweet?

QuoteI suppose that depends on how much weight you give Twitter followers.  In your case, apparently quite a lot.

This situation is very clearly a case of a few people not wanting a performer to perform because of her political views.  The performer had to be punished for naughty tweets.  No harm was done to anyone, there was no risk of anything other than perhaps dissatisfied sniffs from a few elderly patrons.  But something had to be done to assuage the concerns of a few very righteous people. 

The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that the TSO found a better pianist as a replacement, but he withdrew, and the piece will not be played at all. (http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/shattering-display-of-mob-hysteria-forces-toronto-pianist-to-turn-down-chance-to-replace-ousted-performer)  If I were a ticket holder and found out that Stewart Goodyear got the gig, I would have been thrilled.
You like to twist words a lot. The fact that she has more twitter followers is now something I apparently put quite a lot of weight on (sarcasm intended here). Thanks for letting me know.

You've summarized it with your slant. I get it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 02:13:08 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 02:04:15 PMOh? They wrote the tweet?



No, they cancelled her appearance.  That is one of the established facts in this situation.

Out of curiosity, what standard do you advocate?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 02:17:06 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 02:13:08 PM
No, they cancelled her appearance.  That is one of the established facts in this situation.

Out of curiosity, what standard do you advocate?
Haven't really spent a whole lot of time on that one...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 02:21:58 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 02:13:08 PM


No, they cancelled her appearance.  That is one of the established facts in this situation.

Out of curiosity, what standard do you advocate?
Bad tweet, 100 lashes
Awful tweet, cut off the left hand
Horrible tweet, be thrown from a tall building
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 02:23:18 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 02:21:58 PM
Bad tweet, 100 lashes
Awful tweet, cut off the left hand
Horrible tweet, be thrown from a tall building



This strikes me as grossly unfair.  All tweets are horrible.  Do you really advocate e-genocide?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 08, 2015, 03:26:07 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 02:23:18 PM
This strikes me as grossly unfair.  All tweets are horrible.

Oh!  I hope not all the tweets I sent today were horrible!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 03:50:58 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 02:30:22 PM
I find it a bit strange that you seem all for chilling the free expression of political opinions with consequences like what the TSO did.  In the US there is the idea that the best response to "offensive" speech is more speech (i.e. alternative opinions) not less (i.e. chilling  the offensive).
But she is free to say whatever she wants. AS long as it is not a lie, racist, etc, she is free to continue saying it. Why shouldn't any organization have the right to distance itself from statements they do not want to be associated with (within the law) by simply cutting the relationship with the person making the statements?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 04:00:10 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 03:50:58 PMAS long as it is not a lie, racist, etc, she is free to continue saying it.



What types of lies should people be prohibited from saying, in your estimation?  And what, precisely, constitutes racist speech?  And most important of all, what is "etc"? 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 04:04:13 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 02:30:22 PM
I find it a bit strange that you seem all for chilling the free expression of political opinions with consequences

I on the other hand expected no less.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:40:24 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 04:00:10 PM


What types of lies should people be prohibited from saying, in your estimation?  And what, precisely, constitutes racist speech?  And most important of all, what is "etc"? 
It doesn't matter. What's important is that she can keep writing her tweets.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 04:43:31 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:40:24 PM
It doesn't matter. What's important is that she can keep writing her tweets.
Until she tweets something you think is a lie, or racist. Like perhaps calling a cheapskate niggardly. Then it's open season. And she can't tweet anymore.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:46:24 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 04:04:13 PM
I on the other hand expected no less.
Sigh. Now you are just being nasty...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 04:53:19 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 04:40:24 PMIt doesn't matter. What's important is that she can keep writing her tweets.



In other words, you adhere to an arbitrary and capricious outlook, one devoid of principles, and one that allows an infinite flexibility to label anything at anytime worthy of being censored or suppressed. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:02:06 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 04:48:39 PM
This form of coercion will likely have a chilling effect.   Is that your idea of freedom of speech?

You didn't answer my question.

Again with the dramatic phrase - chilling effect. There is nothing chilling about it. Her freedom of speech has in no way been stopped as seen by her continued tweeting.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:02:41 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 04:53:19 PM


In other words, you adhere to an arbitrary and capricious outlook, one devoid of principles, and one that allows an infinite flexibility to label anything at anytime worthy of being censored or suppressed. 
I didn't say that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 05:12:41 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:02:41 PMI didn't say that.


You didn't have to.  Between your inclusion of lies, racism, and "etc", as types of speech that can implicitly be regulated or punished, and your earlier statement that you hadn't really thought about standards, you very obviously fall into the "I know it when I see it" category.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 05:20:00 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 08, 2015, 05:10:17 PM
Of course it has. 

Sure she can keep tweeting, but she can not perform Rachmaninoff with the TSO.  No harm done ...    ::)

Right. Neal has an odd standard for what counts as harmful. Losing your employment, no harm done. Wrong opinion in a tweet, a crime!

Her tweet did no actual harm. It merely exposed her opinion to those who do not share it and therefore seek to punish it. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:27:42 PM
Guys, it's been fun being ganged up on, but I really have better things to do, especially when you start representing my views with statements I don't agree with. Maybe in the morning when I am refreshed, I will make some sort of follow-up.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 05:29:59 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:27:42 PM
Guys, it's been fun being ganged up on, but I really have better things to do, especially when you start representing my views with statements I don't agree with. Maybe in the morning when I am refreshed, I will make some sort of follow-up.



Please make sure to include a definition of "etc".  That should prove most enlightening.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 06:03:44 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 05:27:42 PM
Guys, it's been fun being ganged up on, but I really have better things to do, especially when you start representing my views with statements I don't agree with. Maybe in the morning when I am refreshed, I will make some sort of follow-up.

Wait, wait. What if someone accused of a pro Putin, or lying, or racist, or etc, tweet complained of being misunderstood, or misrepresented, and ganged up on?


Update. I'll just leave this here. http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/08/umich-cancels-american-sniper-screening
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 06:39:30 PM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 05:29:59 PM


Please make sure to include a definition of "etc".  That should prove most enlightening.
You and Ken are so freaking pedantic. Etc here, and the sentence in general, refers to violations of a Civil Rights Act, Disability Acts and other similar items. It refers to the protection against termination based on sex, race, religion, age, and similar items. This doesn't change anything we have been discussing.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 06:42:08 PM
Quote from: Ken B on April 08, 2015, 06:03:44 PM
Wait, wait. What if someone accused of a pro Putin, or lying, or racist, or etc, tweet complained of being misunderstood, or misrepresented, and ganged up on?


Update. I'll just leave this here. http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/08/umich-cancels-american-sniper-screening

You and Todd have both made similar comments about who is to choose the standards. The point I have been making is that I don't choose anything. Private organizations do. They decide what political view they will accept or not. It doesn't matter if I agree with some and disagree with others. It doesn't matter for you either (unless you run those organizations, in which case, you make the decision).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 06:42:25 PM
So much for waiting til tomorrow!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on April 08, 2015, 06:55:50 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 08, 2015, 07:41:31 AM
The Internet.
Or apparently a good many American universities.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:06:19 PM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 08, 2015, 06:39:30 PMEtc here, and the sentence in general, refers to violations of a Civil Rights Act, Disability Acts and other similar items. It refers to the protection against termination based on sex, race, religion, age, and similar items. This doesn't change anything we have been discussing.



What?  The sentence I quoted read:

"AS long as it is not a lie, racist, etc, she is free to continue saying it."

Are you referring to what Ms Lisitsa may say?  If so, the laws you mention are irrelevant.  Or are you referring to what the TSO or its spokesperson says?  If so, the laws you mention are irrelevant.

Your new approach of claiming that you choose nothing is ducking a variety of issues and questions.  Yes, various organizations establish their own criteria, of varying and potentially dubious value.  No one is disputing that.  Nor is anyone disputing their legal ability to do so.  The discussions have been about whether the action undertaken by the TSO was right, and whether other organizations should be able to do so.  Your statements far more than imply that you support such action.

Let's make it simple: In your opinion, should Ms Lisitsa have been treated the way she was, and if so, why and what standards of free expression do you support? 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 09, 2015, 02:30:32 AM
The latest in this sordid story:

http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/04/08/interview-toronto-symphony-ceo-jeff-melanson-breaks-his-silence/ (http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/04/08/interview-toronto-symphony-ceo-jeff-melanson-breaks-his-silence/)

...doesn't make the TSO look any better, I'm afraid. "Here are your tweets that were deposited at our doorstep: Justify Yourself!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 09, 2015, 04:45:49 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 08, 2015, 06:55:50 PM
Or apparently a good many American universities.

Well played, sir.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 05:43:22 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 09, 2015, 02:30:32 AM
The latest in this sordid story:

http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/04/08/interview-toronto-symphony-ceo-jeff-melanson-breaks-his-silence/ (http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/04/08/interview-toronto-symphony-ceo-jeff-melanson-breaks-his-silence/)

...doesn't make the TSO look any better, I'm afraid. "Here are your tweets that were deposited at our doorstep: Justify Yourself!"
I disagree - it's not all bad (and will get back to Todd's post at some point):
1. They at least looked into it when they didn't have to
2. Most of the posts are rather tame if rude, though some later tweets not included here are pretty insensitive (worse could be said)
3. They gave her a chance to respond

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:39:06 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 08, 2015, 07:06:19 PM


What?  The sentence I quoted read:

"AS long as it is not a lie, racist, etc, she is free to continue saying it."

Are you referring to what Ms Lisitsa may say?  If so, the laws you mention are irrelevant.  Or are you referring to what the TSO or its spokesperson says?  If so, the laws you mention are irrelevant.

Your new approach of claiming that you choose nothing is ducking a variety of issues and questions.  Yes, various organizations establish their own criteria, of varying and potentially dubious value.  No one is disputing that.  Nor is anyone disputing their legal ability to do so.  The discussions have been about whether the action undertaken by the TSO was right, and whether other organizations should be able to do so.  Your statements far more than imply that you support such action.

Let's make it simple: In your opinion, should Ms Lisitsa have been treated the way she was, and if so, why and what standards of free expression do you support? 
So legally we are all agreed? I see you did say that earlier, which I hadn't focused on (my apologies for the circle). Are Ken and Sanantonio agreed here? If so, we can move on to the next point...

Was the action right? Depends on a number of factors. Is it right to fire someone for their political views (any view)? At first glance, the answer might seem no. What you do is your own business and why should an organization fire you for what is essentially your business? The problem is that those views can reflect on your employer. So does an organization have the right to protect its image/values and fire an employee who crosses some sort of line?  And here I think the answer is yes. Just as the church can fire employees who do not follow church doctrine, an employee can be fired who violates a company's values. How to reconcile the two will depend, I think, on either a case by case look, perhaps who had the more ethically sound position, or perhaps on your weighting of these sides. I think any of these is a reasonable way to go. Judging by the posts, posters here do not seem to think the company has an ethically based right to protect its image/values. This seems to be a position that is being dismissed.

When I look at the ethics of the actions from each side, well there are questions. The 7 page pdf is rather tame compared to her actual feed and does not really support their decision (but her tweets in their entirety do in my opinion). On the other hand, her tweets are 1) factually incorrect (and just a continuing propegation of Russian PR/lies), and 2) Rather hateful in their entirety. In addition, the position she is tweeting is not ethically defensible.

I think the free speech item is a bit of a red herring. She continues to enjoy the freedoms of free speech. That said, you asked for some sort of standard. I would not reinvent the wheel here (and I would reserve the right to change it/let it evolve), but would say something like this: In general, people can say whatever they want as long as it does not incite immediate unlawful behavior, does not include child pornograpy, is not libelous/slanderous, is not an invasion of pivacy, and does not violate the public health. The problem with this standard (and your standard) is who makes the judgment? There is no good answer for this. Any answer would be flawed.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 09, 2015, 06:46:03 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:39:06 AM
In general, people can say whatever they want as long as it does not incite immediate unlawful behavior, does not include child pornograpy, is not libelous/slanderous, is not an invasion of pivacy, and does not violate the public health.

Well, Lisitsa's inanities don't qualify for any of the above.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:49:13 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 09, 2015, 06:46:03 AM
Well, Lisitsa's inanities don't qualify for any of the above.
ok. And?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 09, 2015, 07:02:48 AM
Didn't I see someone mention on the Forum within the last year, that L'Oiseau-Lyre was releasing a box of Classical Era disks, like their Baroque box? That was the last (and only) mention I have seen of it, and I did a little searching just now, to no avail. Does anyone else recall this, or was I smoking opium at the time and dreamed it?  :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 07:09:06 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on April 09, 2015, 06:57:58 AM
("factually incorrect (and just a continuing propegation of Russian PR/lies)"),
As example, in one of the first posts I made on the topic, there was a link to some of her tweets (here: http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo (http://imgur.com/gallery/gDJLo)), where she refers to Ukriane as Nazis, the party line from Russia. That is factually incorrect - they are not prosecuting jews, building death camps, creating a version of the arayan race, etc. There was a small group that had influence during the events on maidan that was quite extreme, and Russia uses this group to scare everyone.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 07:09:43 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 09, 2015, 07:02:48 AM
Didn't I see someone mention on the Forum within the last year, that L'Oiseau-Lyre was releasing a box of Classical Era disks, like their Baroque box? That was the last (and only) mention I have seen of it, and I did a little searching just now, to no avail. Does anyone else recall this, or was I smoking opium at the time and dreamed it?  :)

8)
Alas, I don;t remember. But that would be nice.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2015, 07:19:17 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:39:06 AMI see you did say that earlier


Actually, I have maintained it all along.  Evidently, you were arguing against something that was not written.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:39:06 AMOn the other hand, her tweets are 1) factually incorrect (and just a continuing propegation of Russian PR/lies), and 2) Rather hateful in their entirety. In addition, the position she is tweeting is not ethically defensible.


So what?  Speech that is factually inaccurate and what you deem as being ethically indefensible is protected, at least in the US.  Even "hateful" speech, unless it meets pretty tightly defined standards of actual hate speech, is protected.  (The value and wisdom of so-called "Hate Speech" standards is another topic altogether.)  In Canada it may not be.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 06:39:06 AMThe problem with this standard (and your standard) is who makes the judgment? There is no good answer for this. Any answer would be flawed.


Talk about a red herring.  The answer to your rhetorical question is: The courts. 

Also, I notice you did not answer the main question: Do you support the TSO's actions in this case?  Evasiveness in this case makes it pretty clear that you do.  You disagree with Ms Lisitsa, and you think she should be punished. 

Your paean to employers rights is almost touching, but totally off base.  In this case, as an arts organization, I would expect the TSO to take the true moral high ground, allow her to play, make the very clear statement that the organization does not support her opinions, but that in its dedication to openness and artistic quality, they would move forward.  And then, as suggested earlier, they would never invite her back again.  Instead, they caved to pressure from a small number of individuals who want to punish those they disagree with.

Also, I'm not quite sure what church doctrine has to do with any of this.  That's two red herrings in one post.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 09, 2015, 07:31:23 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 05:43:22 AM
I disagree - it's not all bad (and will get back to Todd's post at some point):
1. They at least looked into it when they didn't have to
2. Most of the posts are rather tame if rude, though some later tweets not included here are pretty insensitive (worse could be said)
3. They gave her a chance to respond

1.) I don't understand. Are you suggesting that their action could have been more outrageous (i.e. not even remotely fact-check and cancel), and that therefore they have done a 'due diligence' on this?

2.) We agree. The posts that the TSO gave as supporting material for the reason of the cancellation are tame and don't amount to much more than a politically-incorrect way of expressing the opinions of a side which is politically incorrect to take in a manner that is juvenile sometimes, crass often. Nothing, by the way, that people wouldn't easily get away with saying about the other side in the conflict. [Mind you: I believe {not that my thoughts matter or should matter in this} that Putin/Russia/Russian rebels are easily the more blameworthy, more distrust-worthy elements in this conflict, but in toto, it reminds me of the cartoonish way the West depicted Serbs as evil and the rest as victims in the Balkan Wars, when the reality, as best as it can be approximated, was and remains far, far more complex.] In any case, that makes the decision of the TSO even more baffling.

3.) So what? That's meaningless. She's not supposed to have to justify herself for this stuff in the first place. "I heard you did something that might offend somebody. Justify yourself, or else!" That's precisely what we've been arguing about. The majority in this forum agrees that this is not looking good for the TSO, because they allowed themselves to be drawn into a conflict that is decidedly not theirs... and make moral/pseudo-ethical judgment calls that they probably ought to have delegated to audiences (ticket buyers).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on April 09, 2015, 07:32:05 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 09, 2015, 07:02:48 AM
Didn't I see someone mention on the Forum within the last year, that L'Oiseau-Lyre was releasing a box of Classical Era disks, like their Baroque box? That was the last (and only) mention I have seen of it, and I did a little searching just now, to no avail. Does anyone else recall this, or was I smoking opium at the time and dreamed it?  :)

8)

Perhaps I was sharing your pipe, since I remember that, and also mention of  a Medieval/Renaissance box.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wakefield on April 09, 2015, 07:45:14 AM
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 09, 2015, 07:02:48 AM
Didn't I see someone mention on the Forum within the last year, that L'Oiseau-Lyre was releasing a box of Classical Era disks, like their Baroque box? That was the last (and only) mention I have seen of it, and I did a little searching just now, to no avail. Does anyone else recall this, or was I smoking opium at the time and dreamed it?  :)

8)

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 09, 2015, 07:32:05 AM
Perhaps I was sharing your pipe, since I remember that, and also mention of  a Medieval/Renaissance box.

Yes, it was the info provided when the set of the Baroque Era was released:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LOiseau-Baroque-Christopher-Hogwood-Conductor/dp/B00IRQS24A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428593878&sr=8-1&keywords=oiseau+lyre+baroque+era

QuoteFurther sets will be The Classical Era and Medieval & Renaissance.

But, AFAIK, there aren't still release dates announced.  :(
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on April 09, 2015, 07:51:50 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on April 09, 2015, 07:32:05 AM
Perhaps I was sharing your pipe, since I remember that, and also mention of  a Medieval/Renaissance box.
Quote from: Gordo on April 09, 2015, 07:45:14 AM
Yes, it was the info provided when the set of the Baroque Era was released:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LOiseau-Baroque-Christopher-Hogwood-Conductor/dp/B00IRQS24A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428593878&sr=8-1&keywords=oiseau+lyre+baroque+era

But, AFAIK, there aren't still release dates announced.  :(

Ah, OK then, thanks for that. I thought I was losing it. I probably AM losing it, but at least not on this!  :D

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:00:07 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 09, 2015, 07:19:17 AM

So what?  Speech that is factually inaccurate and what you deem as being ethically indefensible is protected, at least in the US.  Even "hateful" speech, unless it meets pretty tightly defined standards of actual hate speech, is protected.  (The value and wisdom of so-called "Hate Speech" standards is another topic altogether.)  In Canada it may not be.
Ethical and legal are different. I'd think you'd get that distinction by now. We're talking ethics, not legal.


QuoteTalk about a red herring.  The answer to your rhetorical question is: The courts. 
That is a legal argument and not an ethical one. I thought we had set the legal aspec to bed. Even so, this is flawed. Why is a court more trustworthy of making ethical decisions?

QuoteAlso, I notice you did not answer the main question: Do you support the TSO's actions in this case?  Evasiveness in this case makes it pretty clear that you do.  You disagree with Ms Lisitsa, and you think she should be punished. 
I thought it was pretty clear I supported the TSO's actions. You seem unable to grasp that.
QuoteYour paean to employers rights is almost touching, but totally off base.  In this case, as an arts organization, I would expect the TSO to take the true moral high ground, allow her to play, make the very clear statement that the organization does not support her opinions, but that in its dedication to openness and artistic quality, they would move forward.  And then, as suggested earlier, they would never invite her back again.  Instead, they caved to pressure from a small number of individuals who want to punish those they disagree with.

Also, I'm not quite sure what church doctrine has to do with any of this.  That's two red herrings in one post.
You are dismissive of what you don't agree with. Ethically, you have now put individual rights as superior. I would not do that. As to the rest,  I expect no more from an arts organization than any other. You may want to temper your expectations in that regard.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2015, 08:29:38 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:00:07 AMWe're talking ethics


Only sort of, but keeping it purely "ethical", you did not make a compelling case that factually inaccurate speech, or "hateful" speech, or any other speech you disapprove of on "ethical" grounds can legitimately be suppressed.  In speech related matters, "case by case" is usually synonymous with arbitrary and capricious. 

The proof of this is that you cannot even apply your own standard in this case - that is, nothing the pianist uttered violated anything you wrote: "In general, people can say whatever they want as long as it does not incite immediate unlawful behavior, does not include child pornograpy, is not libelous/slanderous, is not an invasion of pivacy, and does not violate the public health." 

You completely ignore you own "standard" and come up with a new one on the fly that fulfills your desire to punish those who disagree with you.



Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:00:07 AMEthically, you have now put individual rights as superior. I would not do that.


I unambiguously place individual rights ahead of collective rights when it comes to matters of speech.  You are a collectivist on matters of speech.  Got it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:40:52 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 09, 2015, 08:29:38 AM

Only sort of, but keeping it purely "ethical", you did not make a compelling case that factually inaccurate speech, or "hateful" speech, or any other speech you disapprove of on "ethical" grounds can legitimately be suppressed.  In speech related matters, "case by case" is usually synonymous with arbitrary and capricious. 

The proof of this is that you cannot even apply your own standard in this case - that is, nothing the pianist uttered violated anything you wrote: "In general, people can say whatever they want as long as it does not incite immediate unlawful behavior, does not include child pornograpy, is not libelous/slanderous, is not an invasion of pivacy, and does not violate the public health." 

You completely ignore you own "standard" and come up with a new one on the fly that fulfills your desire to punish those who disagree with you

I unambiguously place individual rights ahead of collective rights when it comes to matters of speech.  You are a collectivist on matters of speech.  Got it.
We are not talking freedom of speech. We are talking whether it is ethically correct (or not) for an organization to fire someone based on political views. This is the crux of the discussion, but you keep ignoring it and focusing on other items. You have your answer. Move on.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2015, 08:51:16 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:40:52 AMWe are talking whether it is ethically correct (or not) for an organization to fire someone based on political views. This is the crux of the discussion, but you keep ignoring it and focusing on other items.



Hey, that's pretty neat, pretending that speech is not related to political views. 

A rather significant determining factor in the ethical-ness of an employer's action is the cause of termination.  Here, it was speech.  It is unethical to fire someone for speech that does not violate ethical standards.  Ms Lisitsa's speech did not violate ethical standards - even your stated standards.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:55:25 AM
Quote from: Todd on April 09, 2015, 08:51:16 AM


Hey, that's pretty neat, pretending that speech is not related to political views. 

A rather significant determining factor in the ethical-ness of an employer's action is the cause of termination.  Here, it was speech.  It is unethical to fire someone for speech that does not violate ethical standards.  Ms Lisitsa's speech did not violate ethical standards - even your stated standards.
No. The cause was political views. It can be ethical to fire someone whose views you don't share. Whether her speech violated (or not) ethical standards, mine or yours is besides the point. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on April 09, 2015, 09:48:11 AM
Quote from: mc ukrneal on April 09, 2015, 08:55:25 AMNo. The cause was political views. It can be ethical to fire someone whose views you don't share. Whether her speech violated (or not) ethical standards, mine or yours is besides the point.


Good to see you are steadfast in maintaining your fiction.  The only way political views are made known is through some sort of speech or active expression.  The two are inextricably linked, and in your own posts you mentioned "crossing some sort of line".  How does one do that without speech or action?  The implication of what you write is that people with views you, or some mysterious person or perhaps "they", disagree with should simply remain silent.

And, if anything, your insistence that it can be ethical to fire someone for holding views you don't share is even more troubling with even broader implications.

But here, in this case, unless there was some type of explicit morals or ethics clause in the arrangement between Ms Lisitsa and the TSO, it was the TSO that acted unethically.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 09, 2015, 10:09:41 AM
I read this thread entire and felt as if I were in the midst of a Supreme Court discussion - the points raised and debated are impressive.  Well, often they are.   :)

To me, it's censorship alright; and I wonder how many orchestras will hesitate to book her after this?  (I'm sensitive to the issue 'cause one of my favorite conductors, Furtwängler, was tarred and feathered for much less) The same conservatism that means war horse repertoire will also translate into avoiding trouble whenever possible.  Lisitsa, now = trouble.  And now she is in the sights of organizations that may not relent.  How this impacts her career will be interesting to watch.  It fascinates that Gergiev was allowed to perform and she not; am interested specifically in the possible contractual aspects involved.  I found several examples of Canadian music contracts and one of the clauses (Orchestras Canada - "unites the national voice of Canadian orchestral communities") reads "professional attitudes are to be expected."  While that statement is so loose as to be nearly meaningless, if that or a similar clause were in her TSO contract, it would permit an administrator to make the case that Gergiev's conduct is professional, hers not.  Her tweets as someone here observed are "juvenile;" to my mind, at best unprofessional.  If something similar were in her contract, it would have proved an easy escape clause, censorship though it be. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on April 10, 2015, 08:24:46 AM
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on April 09, 2015, 10:09:41 AM
I read this thread entire and felt as if I were in the midst of a Supreme Court discussion - the points raised and debated are impressive.  Well, often they are.   :)

To me, it's censorship alright; and I wonder how many orchestras will hesitate to book her after this?  (I'm sensitive to the issue 'cause one of my favorite conductors, Furtwängler, was tarred and feathered for much less) The same conservatism that means war horse repertoire will also translate into avoiding trouble whenever possible.  Lisitsa, now = trouble.  And now she is in the sights of organizations that may not relent.  How this impacts her career will be interesting to watch.  It fascinates that Gergiev was allowed to perform and she not; am interested specifically in the possible contractual aspects involved.  I found several examples of Canadian music contracts and one of the clauses (Orchestras Canada - "unites the national voice of Canadian orchestral communities") reads "professional attitudes are to be expected."  While that statement is so loose as to be nearly meaningless, if that or a similar clause were in her TSO contract, it would permit an administrator to make the case that Gergiev's conduct is professional, hers not.  Her tweets as someone here observed are "juvenile;" to my mind, at best unprofessional.  If something similar were in her contract, it would have proved an easy escape clause, censorship though it be.
Well, I still maintain that if we were to deny a musical forum to anyone so disingenuous as to express wrong or inane ideas in a public forum, our musical lives would diminish by about half, maybe more.  Musicians are musicians.  They may or may not be well-informed and compassionate; they may or may not express themselves well on other subjects than music.  But this is essentially irrelevant to whether or not they can sing, play or conduct well.  I just "glanced" at a recording of Ms. Lisitsa playing the Liszt B minor Sonata, and however she expresses her political views, she can certainly play. 8)

And that's my last comment on that subject.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 16, 2015, 03:18:23 PM


Ionarts-at-Large: Trio Wanderer in Romantic Redemption

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wqsLqATla4w/VSVPMLi5tVI/AAAAAAAAII8/dFcB5zAxB1M/s1600/Musikverein_Vienna_ionarts_jens-f-laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/04/ionarts-at-large-trio-wanderer-in.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/04/ionarts-at-large-trio-wanderer-in.html)

The Trio Wanderer is one of the ARD International Music Competition Prize Winner alumni
that make that competition's name in the chamber music field quite so prestigious. Their
recordings (Best of 2009 here, Best of 2012 here, Messiaen) are of library-building quality,
rivaled only by the Beaux Arts Trio and the Florestan Trio. In short: worth a trip to the Musik-
verein's Brahms-Saal even if it isn't my favorite chamber venue in Vienna. (Shaped like a coffin
and just a little less lively.) Snark aside, it's not that bad a place to hear Haydn, Schumann,
and Tchaikovsky. Nor is it surprising to hear such an ultra-conventional program there, down
to the abuse of glorious Haydn as the warm-up piece. (Complauding™*!)

And the Haydn Trio No.43 in C (the Vienna venues every only list Haydn by the incredibly
useless Hoboken numbers, as if "Hoboken XV/27" were particularly meaningful to everyone
but a musicologist with not much of a social life) did indeed sound like a warm-up, sadly. It
came and went—...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 17, 2015, 02:14:54 AM


Ionarts-at-Large: The Takács Quartet in Vienna

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wqsLqATla4w/VSVPMLi5tVI/AAAAAAAAII8/dFcB5zAxB1M/s1600/Musikverein_Vienna_ionarts_jens-f-laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/04/ionarts-at-large-takacs-quartet-in.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/04/ionarts-at-large-takacs-quartet-in.html)

The heart of chamber music of Vienna beats in the Mozart-Saal. But the
offerings at the Brahms-Saal of the venerable, more famous Musikverein
can be tempting, too... and if and when the Takács Quartet calls whence,
the resident-ionarts unit will drop whatever he is doing and head over to
hear one of our longest standing favorites. Even in an utterly conservative
program such as they presented at the Musikverein on Tuesday, February
10th: Schubert, Schubert, Beethoven. And the Beethoven "Razumovsky
1" at that... not that there is anything wrong with that. But it's not the
modern Beethoven à la op.135 which might have been the programmatically
redeeming element severed very severely at the end.

The Brahms-Saal, if you haven't been, looks and feels something like what
an Egyptian sarcophagus must, from the inside, and with a similar average
age of its contents. Or imagine a Russian oligarch with more money than
sense who got to re-design Wigmore Hall after watching a 70s Hercules film:
Doric columns in rusty red and emerald green stone tiles and gild plated
carvings, cherubs, and Greek maidens (as pillars) everywhere. If it wasn't
hallowed traditional grounds, people would call for the wrecking ball.

The Schubert Quartettsatz...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 21, 2015, 12:45:33 PM
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007BLB33Y/goodmusicguide-20)


ARTS & LETTERS 4/19/2015
Free Speech, Rachmaninov And Twitter Posts: How The Ukrainian War Invaded Toronto's Stage
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/04/19/free-speech-rachmaninov-and-twitter-posts-how-the-ukrainian-war-invaded-torontos-stage/

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/04/Valentina-Lisitsa_Glass_DECCA_laurson_FORBES_640-250_.jpg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/04/19/free-speech-rachmaninov-and-twitter-posts-how-the-ukrainian-war-invaded-torontos-stage/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 22, 2015, 01:12:26 AM
Excellent article, Jens!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 22, 2015, 09:40:49 AM
Quote from: Florestan on April 22, 2015, 01:12:26 AM
Excellent article, Jens!

Thanks kindly. Even linked/quoted GMG, if you noticed.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 22, 2015, 10:25:56 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on April 22, 2015, 09:40:49 AM
Thanks kindly. Even linked/quoted GMG, if you noticed.  ;)

I noticed all right. You could have quoted even more of us.  :D

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 24, 2015, 09:08:17 AM
I'm just not that into Boulez.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 24, 2015, 11:16:05 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2015, 09:08:17 AM
I'm just not that into Boulez.
Boulez
Stockhausen

Ives

You now what they say. Two out of three ain't bad.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 05, 2015, 10:55:48 AM
Things are getting a little weird even weirder than usual in the Havergal Brian thread . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on May 05, 2015, 01:38:10 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on April 24, 2015, 09:08:17 AM
I'm just not that into Boulez.

+1
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 08, 2015, 03:39:35 AM


Mariss Jansons renews contract with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra until 2021


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DjZd7SxNufc/UIK2ZMaDxBI/AAAAAAAAEn0/dvbFAnFrjlk/s1600/Jansons_Ackermann_laurson_600.jpg)

Mariss Jansons wasn't going to be seriously considered for the Chief Conductor
position of the Berlin Philharmonic (or maybe seriously considered but decidedly
without a hope of attaining the position, with the Berlin Philharmonic going for
someone young), so he might as well renew his gig with the Bavarian standouts...
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/mariss-jansons-renews-contract-with.html
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/mariss-jansons-renews-contract-with.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 08, 2015, 05:07:45 AM
Günter Reich is a fitting name for a narrator in A Survivor from Warsaw.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 09, 2015, 03:23:03 AM



Ionarts-at-Large: End-of-the-World-Music in Vienna

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wqsLqATla4w/VSVPMLi5tVI/AAAAAAAAII8/dFcB5zAxB1M/s1600/Musikverein_Vienna_ionarts_jens-f-laurson_600.jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/ionarts-at-large-end-of-world-music-in_9.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/ionarts-at-large-end-of-world-music-in_9.html)

Within a few days, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian State Orchestra
(the opera's orchestra) pitched their tents at the Musikverein in Vienna. I caught the second
of those two concerts, with the Opera's orchestra under their music director Kirill Petrenko,
because I had to! It featured Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, but that wasn't the reason. It
opened with Ravel's La Valse (Poème chorégraphique pour Orchestre), but that wasn't the
reason either. But in the middle lured a tremendous work: Gesangsszene to words from
"Sodom and Gomorrha" by Jean Giraudoux for Baritone and Orchestra by Karl Amadeus
Hartmann. Not only that, but with the best possible baritone in that repertoire, too: namely
Christian Gerhaher. That's unmissable in my book – and everything else is mere bonus...


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5TWSTg3D7HI/VU3g10mPNjI/AAAAAAAAILU/02AWGvE-swY/s1600/BStOp_VIENNA_Petrenko_Gerhaher_Hartmann_jens-f-laurson.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 09, 2015, 09:43:33 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

MAY 9, 2015 @ 7:30 PM
The Berlin Philharmonic's Next Conductor: The Odds And Ends

It's a slightly smaller community that cares, but for them it's like electing the pope:
The Berlin Philharmonic is getting together to choose their chief conductor and only
the plume of smoke will missing when they announce the result on Monday. Here's
some rampant speculation as to what that result will be...
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/05/Best_Recordings_of_2014_laurson_FORBES_640-250_Challenge_Roth_Weinberg_Britten_concertos_.png) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/05/09/the-berlin-philharmonics-next-conductor-the-odds-and-ends/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 20, 2015, 11:51:10 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 20, 2015, 09:34:09 AMEmotions are not innate properties of works of art, they are felt by someone experiencing a work of art --- very true, but the artist creating a work of art uses tools and elements which are specifically designed, or intended, to induce emotions, passions and feelings (I mean, those artists who are taking themselves seriously; those who are just into cold intellectual games or hot emotional histrionics for the sake of them should not even be counted in as artists).
I wonder what, and who, you mean by 'cold intellectual games' and 'hot emotional histrionics' for their own sake - list hit writers would certainly fit the description. I doubt that much, if any, that aspires to be art music can objectively be bracketed like that.

QuoteNow, there are basically two types of emotions, passions and feelings that a work of art can induce: (1) those of the one who listens, reads or watches or (2) those of the artist creating the work of art. Prior to the advent of Romanticism, the former was the norm: Romanticism turned the whole thing upside down and made a norm of the latter. Whether one likes one or the other is a matter of personal taste.

It is true that the likes of JMW Turner, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Wordsworth & Coleridge, Goethe, Schiller, and Friedrich started to express their own feelings, and what they felt was important, more than their predecessors had done, but I don't think it is justified to think of earlier art at all as a tabula rasa on which the listener built their own emotions. Before the Romantic era, art was commissioned by the church and the aristocracy, and most art was written for a purpose that wasn't necessarily artistic - to accompany a religious ceremony, to illustrate the greatness of an old man with a white beard or one of his to other personae, to show the majesty of the monarch or a prince, or perhaps to illustrate the products of a merchant. In Netherlands, the booming merchant class had created a strong demand for all kinds of art, of course. But after the start of the industrialization, artists were freed from the necessity of serving the church & monarchy, and they also gained more freedom to express their ideas.

In music it is surely true that e.g. the lieder of Schubert or Schumann are more emotion-inducing than a Renaissance mass, but a Bach cantata, can certainly be as emotion-inducing as anything. What you seem to be saying is that the Romantics started to feed us particular emotions in their art, and to me it is patently false to think that artists before hadn't worked to instill in us very particular feelings - artists just changed from expressing the the mightiness of the monarch or of the Heavenly Father to expressing the beauty of nature, joys and sorrows of love and life, antislavery, anti-industrialist, etc feelings.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 20, 2015, 11:55:48 AM
I will reply tomorrow.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 12:21:13 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 20, 2015, 11:51:10 AM
What you seem to be saying is that the Romantics started to feed us particular emotions in their art, and to me it is patently false to think that artists before hadn't worked to instill in us very particular feelings

You misunderstood me. Of course emotions have been expressed in music long before the Romantics. But they were not necessarily felt by the composer themselves. The composers had at their disposals a lot of tools and building blocks which they could combine in order to induce in the listener a particular emotion without any need for feeling it themselves. It´s exactly as you say: they worked (mostly) under patronage and on demand: the one who pays calls the tune, and if a patron wanted something cheerful or sorrowful or comic or tragic it should have been that way irrespective of the composer´s own feelings or state of mind at the time.

The Romantics changed all that in that they began to express their own emotions, feelings and state of mind. There is not a single emotion, feeling or state of mind in the greatest works of Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mahler etc that was not deeply felt or experienced by them at the time of its composition, whereas I doubt that Bach was for years in a constant state of religious fervor and rapture, for instance.

I hope my point is clearer now.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 21, 2015, 02:57:58 AM
Trash libretto aside, I really hope more people recognice some day the worth of Sibelius's only opera, Maiden in the tower. I often compare it to Fidelio and Pelleas, because they, although very different in style, are their creators single operas yet show tremendous skill. If only Sibelius had composed Juha or Blauer Dunst, much better librettos...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on May 21, 2015, 03:35:48 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 12:21:13 AM
There is not a single emotion, feeling or state of mind in the greatest works of Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mahler etc that was not deeply felt or experienced by them at the time of its composition,
How could one ever know that? It is usually unknowable and I seriously doubt that it is true, it seems a romantic cliche than might fit for a few works of some composers but very probably not in general.

We know of Berlioz that he took pains to create such a hyper-romantic persona (conducting with a sword or whatever). Apparently he claimed that he had composed the March to the scaffold in the Fantastique in one single night. He might have needed only one night but he basically arranged/transposed a piece he had already composed years before for an unfinished opera.

(Chopin presumeably was not fond of Berlioz' spleens and Mendelssohn is supposed to have quipped that Berlioz' tragedy was that in all his efforts to become raving mad he never succeded... ;))
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 03:44:43 AM
Ok, strike Berlioz off the list then.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2015, 04:01:45 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 21, 2015, 03:35:48 AM
We know of Berlioz that he took pains to create such a hyper-romantic persona (conducting with a sword or whatever). Apparently he claimed that he had composed the March to the scaffold in the Fantastique in one single night. He might have needed only one night but he basically arranged/transposed a piece he had already composed years before for an unfinished opera.

It might, of course, mean that at the time when he initially wrote it for the opera, he composed it in a single night, yes?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on May 21, 2015, 04:38:48 AM
It might, but I definitely read once a "debunking" that assumed that he had written it at a normal pace long before and the "composed in one night" specifically referred to the context of the SF.

Anyway, it might be an apocryphal anecdote either way but we should not confuse the persona of the tragic or crazy romantic artist with real people and especially not extend it to people like Chopin (or Mendelssohn or Brahms) who explicitly distanced themselves from those ultra-romantic manners.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2015, 04:42:33 AM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 21, 2015, 04:38:48 AM
It might, but I definitely read once a "debunking" that assumed that he had written it at a normal pace long before and the "composed in one night" specifically referred to the context of the SF.

Anyway, it might be an apocryphal anecdote either way but we should not confuse the persona of the tragic or crazy romantic artist with real people and especially not extend it to people like Chopin (or Mendelssohn or Brahms) who explicitly distanced themselves from those ultra-romantic manners.

All agreed on;  we may never sort through the anecdote . . . but it is indeed possible for Berlioz to have composed that movement in a single evening, all the more possible if we think of short score.  I'm not arguing that he must have, of course;  just pointing out that the claim itself does not compel debunking  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 21, 2015, 05:48:12 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 12:21:13 AM
You misunderstood me. Of course emotions have been expressed in music long before the Romantics. But they were not necessarily felt by the composer themselves. The composers had at their disposals a lot of tools and building blocks which they could combine in order to induce in the listener a particular emotion without any need for feeling it themselves. It´s exactly as you say: they worked (mostly) under patronage and on demand: the one who pays calls the tune, and if a patron wanted something cheerful or sorrowful or comic or tragic it should have been that way irrespective of the composer´s own feelings or state of mind at the time.

There was no misunderstanding on this matter - although it should be said that many of the artists did in fact feel what they wanted their audience to feel - Soli Deo Gloria and all that.

QuoteThe Romantics changed all that in that they began to express their own emotions, feelings and state of mind. There is not a single emotion, feeling or state of mind in the greatest works of Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Mahler etc that was not deeply felt or experienced by them at the time of its composition, whereas I doubt that Bach was for years in a constant state of religious fervor and rapture, for instance.

The Romantics changed the musical language into something more expressive, but that doesn't necessarily prove that all of their works were inspired by personal emotions, I'd be particularly loathe to include Chopin there, as he was in many ways an anti-Romantic.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2015, 05:54:16 AM
Agreed;  I think that if anything, Chopin was more of a classicist than was Mendelssohn.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:02:15 AM
@ North Star

Romantic or anti-Romantic, are you going to claim that there is a single note in the whole output of Chopin which did not express his soul, and that there is a single emotion in his music which he did not personally experienced?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 21, 2015, 06:12:32 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2015, 05:48:12 AMThe Romantics changed the musical language into something more expressive, but that doesn't necessarily prove that all of their works were inspired by personal emotions, I'd be particularly loathe to include Chopin there, as he was in many ways an anti-Romantic.
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:02:15 AM
Romantic or anti-Romantic, are you going to claim that there is a single note in the whole output of Chopin which did not express his soul, and that there is a single emotion in his music which he did not personally experienced?
To the same extent as I could make the same claim of the output of Bach.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2015, 06:17:09 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2015, 06:12:32 AM
To the same extent as I could make the same claim of the output of Bach.

Indeed.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:21:22 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2015, 06:12:32 AM
To the same extent as I could make the same claim of the output of Bach.

You won´t get any argument from me on this matter.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 21, 2015, 06:24:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:21:22 AM
You won´t get any argument from me on this matter.

Quote from: karlhenning on May 21, 2015, 06:17:09 AM
Indeed.

:-)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NorthNYMark on May 21, 2015, 10:21:02 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:02:15 AM
@ North Star

Romantic or anti-Romantic, are you going to claim that there is a single note in the whole output of Chopin which did not express his soul, and that there is a single emotion in his music which he did not personally experienced?

I have to admit that claims like this tend to bring out my skeptical side--especially when brought down to the level of "a single note."  Though the question was not addressed to me, my immediate, instinctual answer, is "Of course not every note "expresses his soul," and of course there are "emotions in his music which he did not personally experience."  Now, my instinctual reaction may not hold up to deeper scrutiny, but in this case, my skeptical response probably starts with my incomprehension of the phrase "emotions in his music." I don't see how there can be emotions in music--rather, emotions may be provoked by music, but I assume that such emotions will differ from person to person, though some emotional responses to certain sounds and sound combinations may be more common than others.  Also, I'm not sure that "his soul" is something that can be "expressed."

To me, the very fact that there is any (let alone so much) disagreement on these works and the emotional responses they can or should provoke suggests that they are anything but pure and direct conveyors of the composer's emotional state. An additional factor getting in the way of such a conception would be the many formal conventions to which the romantic composers still adhered--for example, if a 19th century composer were feeling emotions that would be most accurately conveyed by something like Pli Selon Pli or Become Ocean, I don't think they would (or could) have composed such works, despite those emotions.  In that sense, your description of the classical "tool set" model seems equally applicable to the Romantics, and to everyone else, for that matter.  Each composer, in each age, has a specific and limited set of tools at their disposal with which to produce emotional effects in listeners (which probably involves some attempt to imitate emotions they have felt themselves at some point, but probably not, in most cases, at the actual moment of composition).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 02:10:12 AM
Quote from: NorthNYMark on May 21, 2015, 10:21:02 AM
of course there are "emotions in his music which he did not personally experience." 

Name three, please.

Quotein each age, has a specific and limited set of tools at their disposal with which to produce emotional effects in listeners (which probably involves some attempt to imitate emotions they have felt themselves at some point, but probably not, in most cases, at the actual moment of composition).

Agreed, with the caveat that there is no "moment of composition". Even Mozart took one whole night to write the Don Giovanni overture.   ;D

In the case of the Romantics, for instance, between the moment a musical idea sprang in their mind (prompted by whatever feeling, emotion or state of mind they experienced at that precise moment in time, or around it) and the moment the last note was written down for good whole weeks, or months or even years may have passed. Of course one cannot compose a whole work while being in a state of religious rapture or deep longing or burning jealousy or whatever --- but there is no denying that the musical idea(s) upon which the work is built sprang in precisely such feverish states. Take Schumann, for instance, who composed most of his greatest piano works out of love for Clara Wieck and precisely as a testimony and musical embodiment to that love. Or take Mahler, whose work is almost like a musical autobiography.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 02:25:32 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 02:10:12 AM
Name three, please.

There may be emotions felt by the listener to the music, which the composer himself did not experience.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 02:27:30 AM
The problem, again (of course) is, "Does music contain emotion?"  Emotion in music has not become any less slippery a phrase, no matter how often we return to the topic.


Anyone surprised?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 02:36:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 02:25:32 AM
There may be emotions felt by the listener to the music, which the composer himself did not experience.

You seem to say that the listener may feel, say, sadness while listening to a piece which Chopin wrote (or more correctly, started writing) while feeling cheerful/neutral, or viceversa --- did I get it right?

Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 02:27:30 AM
The problem, again (of course) is, "Does music contain emotion?" 

Music, just like any other art, induces emotion by using a specific set of tools.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 05:45:43 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 02:36:03 AM
You seem to say that the listener may feel, say, sadness while listening to a piece which Chopin wrote (or more correctly, started writing) while feeling cheerful/neutral, or viceversa --- did I get it right?

No, because those are emotions which the composer himself felt (I expect).

Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 02:36:03 AM
Music, just like any other art, induces emotion by using a specific set of tools.

All right, that is a reasonable proposal!

Two Three corollary q.'s:

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 06:05:32 AM
BTW:

Quote from: Florestan on May 21, 2015, 06:02:15 AM
Romantic or anti-Romantic, are you going to claim that there is a single note in the whole output of Chopin which did not express his soul, and that there is a single emotion in his music which he did not personally experienced?

Hence my observation on the slipperiness of music containing emotion.

I think your new verb better suited to the topic!  And I dare say that there are emotions deduced from Chopin's music which he did not personally experience.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NorthNYMark on May 22, 2015, 10:31:09 AM
Karl's answers here are pretty much exactly what I was attempting to get at, but with far more succinctness.  Thank you!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 22, 2015, 10:36:34 AM
Quote from: North Star on May 21, 2015, 05:48:12 AM
I'd be particularly loathe to include Chopin there, as he was in many ways an anti-Romantic.

I don't know, I find Chopin having many romantic attributes in his music. Whether he was a true Romantic as a man, I cannot say, because I know embarrassingly little about his life. I guess I should read a Chopin biography.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 22, 2015, 10:47:54 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 06:05:32 AM
BTW:

Hence my observation on the slipperiness of music containing emotion.

I think your new verb better suited to the topic!  And I dare say that there are emotions deduced from Chopin's music which he did not personally experience.

DING DING! Pedantry time! I think "deduce" an inapt word here. No shame on Florestan, who is not a native English speaker, nor on Karl who as a Bostonian isn't one either, but a better word is educe.
Title: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 22, 2015, 11:37:55 AM
Dang if he ain't half right!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 11:41:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 05:45:43 AM
No, because those are emotions which the composer himself felt (I expect).

Well, that´s precisely my point.

Quote
  • Does (need) all art induce emotion?

What is art?

Quote
If two people disagree on the nature of emotion induced by a given artwork, how do we determine which of them is the emotion intended by the artist?

In the case of the Romantics or the Moderns, by studying the composer´s biography, particularly the events surrounding, or triggering, the beginning of the creation of that given artwork. In the case of the Classical composers, by studying the musical rhetoric of their time. In the case of the Baroque composers, by studying the Affektenlehre. In the case of the Renaissance and Medieval composers, by understanding the texts being sung.

Quote
Or that the artist did not intend to induce any particular emotion?

IMHO an artist who creates an artwork without any intention whatsoever to induce emotions / feelings / states of mind (remember this is the triad I´ve been using all the way) is not an artist but a charlatan.

Quote
  • Does the art induce emotion, or does the audience deduce emotion?

With all due respect, this is semantical hairsplitting. ;D

But all these are theoretical questions, let´s refer the matter to an actual artist. You are a composer yourself. May I ask why do you compose music? What is your purpose in putting pen to paper to arrange notes on a stave? Let´s take Out in the Sun: would you please tell us how and why did the idea sprang in your mind, and what was your purpose in composing it? These would be some most illuminating answers, very much relevant for the topic at hand. Of course you are under no obligation to answer but if you choose to do so I thank you in advance.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 25, 2015, 08:48:48 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2015, 06:05:32 AM
BTW:

Hence my observation on the slipperiness of music containing emotion.

I think your new verb better suited to the topic!  And I dare say that there are emotions deduced from Chopin's music which he did not personally experience.
Evoke is the verb I like to use.  It is beyond sense to say that composers feel no emotion as they write, that performers feel none as they play, or that audiences feel none as they listen.  But whether they are the same emotions is a different question...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 25, 2015, 09:02:25 AM
Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 11:41:03 AM
But all these are theoretical questions, let´s refer the matter to an actual artist. You are a composer yourself. May I ask why do you compose music? What is your purpose in putting pen to paper to arrange notes on a stave? Let´s take Out in the Sun: would you please tell us how and why did the idea sprang in your mind, and what was your purpose in composing it? These would be some most illuminating answers, very much relevant for the topic at hand. Of course you are under no obligation to answer but if you choose to do so I thank you in advance.

I started quite abstractly, really.  The two initial drivers were:  First . . . I had been writing quite a bit of music for church, where the music needed both to be of a certain character, and technically within reach of a very modest choir.  So before any consideration else, I wanted to write something fast, something challenging, and for a group of instruments.


Secondly, I wanted a full, brassy sound to the group, but with a generally low center of registral gravity.  With that goal in mind, I dreamt up the group:  six saxophones, two tenor trombones, one bass trombone and tuba.  (That is how I composed the 5-minute exposition originally, although the composition of the ensemble I later changed, swapping clarinets for two of the saxophones.)


I don't remember exactly where in the process I came up with the title;  but I had certainly already composed 2-3 minutes of the piece before I settled on a title.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 27, 2015, 12:20:22 AM
I found an old score for Messiaen's organ work Meditations sur la Mystere de la Sainte Trinite at this music store for a deal ($20 -- normally about $100). I was enjoying reading through it (both in my head and at the piano), but I am listening to parts of it now and I just don't like the sound of the instrument. It has nothing to do with the notes/content at all -- typical Messiaen, which I love.

Does anyone else just not care for the sound of the organ? Is it considered more "acquired" than other instruments? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who do like organ music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 27, 2015, 12:24:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 25, 2015, 09:02:25 AM
I started quite abstractly, really.  The two initial drivers were:  First . . . I had been writing quite a bit of music for church, where the music needed both to be of a certain character, and technically within reach of a very modest choir.  So before any consideration else, I wanted to write something fast, something challenging, and for a group of instruments.


Secondly, I wanted a full, brassy sound to the group, but with a generally low center of registral gravity.  With that goal in mind, I dreamt up the group:  six saxophones, two tenor trombones, one bass trombone and tuba.  (That is how I composed the 5-minute exposition originally, although the composition of the ensemble I later changed, swapping clarinets for two of the saxophones.)


I don't remember exactly where in the process I came up with the title;  but I had certainly already composed 2-3 minutes of the piece before I settled on a title.

Very interesting, thanks a lot.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 27, 2015, 12:26:35 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on May 25, 2015, 08:48:48 AM
Evoke is the verb I like to use.  It is beyond sense to say that composers feel no emotion as they write, that performers feel none as they play, or that audiences feel none as they listen.  But whether they are the same emotions is a different question...

Yes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on May 28, 2015, 05:51:59 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 27, 2015, 12:20:22 AM
Does anyone else just not care for the sound of the organ? Is it considered more "acquired" than other instruments? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who do like organ music.

I'm not a big fan of organ but there are several cases where this dislike can be used to its advantage. For ex. the ending of act II in Lohengrin, L. and E. are on their way to apparent bliss of marriage, cheesy-sounding organ sound flows in... and that makes the suddenly ensuing Nie sollst du mich befragen-leitmotiv in brass all the more powerful.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Gurn Blanston on May 28, 2015, 05:58:58 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 27, 2015, 12:20:22 AM

Does anyone else just not care for the sound of the organ? Is it considered more "acquired" than other instruments? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who do like organ music.

I'm not a huge fan of organ music. I don't like those great large organs everyone seems so keen on, with the Phil Spector-ish 'Wall of Sound' thing going. I DO like the little old Austrian organs, which often had only one manual and no pedals. I like the quality of the sound, and the music written to accommodate the limitations of the instrument. It is only one step above chamber music. :)

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on May 28, 2015, 06:16:25 AM
Do you mean the particular organ sound on that Messiaen recording? Or the sound of an organ in general?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on May 28, 2015, 06:55:18 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 27, 2015, 12:20:22 AM
Does anyone else just not care for the sound of the organ?

Like the harpsichord as a solo instrument, I'm not a fan of the solo organ either. But like the harpsichord, I rather enjoy the organ when it's part of an instrumental group (60s rock songs like Light My Fire, Chest Fever, 96 Tears, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Hush, She's About a Mover) or orchestral work (Saint-Saens Third Symphony, Elgar 2).

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on May 28, 2015, 07:23:47 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 27, 2015, 12:20:22 AM
I found an old score for Messiaen's organ work Meditations sur la Mystere de la Sainte Trinite at this music store for a deal ($20 -- normally about $100). I was enjoying reading through it (both in my head and at the piano), but I am listening to parts of it now and I just don't like the sound of the instrument. It has nothing to do with the notes/content at all -- typical Messiaen, which I love.

Does anyone else just not care for the sound of the organ? Is it considered more "acquired" than other instruments? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who do like organ music.

I'm very fond of organ music and the sound of the organ in general, but there are a number of variables: some instruments are better than others, some works are better than others, some recordings are better than others and the quality of one's listening equipment also comes heavily into play.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on May 28, 2015, 07:31:57 AM
I love the organ; always have.  Pipe organs are the best!  And I've come to enjoy the Hammond B3 as used in jazz or gospel.

Few recordings really do a big pipe organ justice; it's kind of like trying to take a photograph of Michelangelo's David.  When you're in the presence of a good pipe organ, you can really feel the sound.  There is a recording of E. Power Biggs playing the then-new Baroque organ in the Leipzig Thomaskirche, made in the 1970s when Leipzig was still part of Communist East Germany, and it is as good an organ recording as I've heard; you can hear the cathedral space as well as the organ sound itself. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 28, 2015, 07:36:04 AM
My mom definitely hates the sound of the church/pipe organ.

For me a full-size organ is a sometimes thing. I love it in an orchestra; I always love hearing organs live because jochanaan is right, there's nothing else that compares. On recordings, if it's the only instrument, I can enjoy it for 20-30 minutes but not an extended listening session. I feel the same way about the guitar (but not the lute or oud).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on May 28, 2015, 10:36:07 AM
I am not a great fan of the organ (Stravinsky supposedly said: "The monster never breathes", it tends to overwhelm) but I listen to Bach because the music is so good. (I like smallish organs used in some recordings of Handel's concerti and Bach's less massive pieces like the trio sonatas which are my favs anyway.)

I rather like the harpsichord. I rather dislike guitar, harp and similar plucked instruments (but maybe mainly because I consider most of the music typically played on them fluff)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on May 28, 2015, 12:06:02 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on May 28, 2015, 07:31:57 AM
I love the organ; always have.  Pipe organs are the best!

Few recordings really do a big pipe organ justice; it's kind of like trying to take a photograph of Michelangelo's David.  When you're in the presence of a good pipe organ, you can really feel the sound.

Indeed. I'll never forget the first time I heard (and felt) the mighty organ in its natural habitat: it was 1995 (or 1996) in Esztergom Cathedral, Hungary, and it was simply breathtaking.

Another great instance was when visiting La Madeleine in Paris; there was going to be an organ recital that afternoon and the organist (can't remember his name) was rehearsing something majestic while we were making our rounds around the church. I almost ditched the others to stay till the end.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 28, 2015, 06:18:05 PM
Dear Brilliant Classics

You guys do great work here's some things you might want to consider

Deserving a big box
B Martnu -- pure gold here guys
J Hummel -- so much good stuff from Haydn's chosen successor, and one of Beethoven's great pianist rivals
Gay American Composers -- excluding Copland, Bernstein

deserving at least a medium sized box
Takemitsu
Obrecht
Nino Rota
Spohr
Frank Martin
Taneyev

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 28, 2015, 10:12:59 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 28, 2015, 06:18:05 PM
Dear Brilliant Classics

You guys do great work here's some things you might want to consider

Deserving a big box
B Martnu -- pure gold here guys

deserving at least a medium sized box
Takemitsu
Yes!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 12:20:36 AM
Quote from: sanantonio on May 28, 2015, 06:48:17 AM
It might be an acquired taste.  I know I hated it at first, due to being forced into attending organ recitals at music school.  Way too much Reger.   ;)   But now I enjoy it quite a bit.  Jennifer Bate, I think, does a good job with Messiaen, and Meditations sur la Mystere de la Sainte Trinite in particular.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-SbR3tt%2BL._SY355_.jpg)
Noted. I'll see if it is on Spotify.

Quote from: Jo498 on May 28, 2015, 10:36:07 AM
I am not a great fan of the organ (Stravinsky supposedly said: "The monster never breathes", it tends to overwhelm) but I listen to Bach because the music is so good. (I like smallish organs used in some recordings of Handel's concerti and Bach's less massive pieces like the trio sonatas which are my favs anyway.)

I rather like the harpsichord. I rather dislike guitar, harp and similar plucked instruments (but maybe mainly because I consider most of the music typically played on them fluff)
I guess I feel the whey Stravinsky does. It does sound overwhelming. I'll keep trying, though.

Quote from: North Star on May 28, 2015, 10:12:59 PM
Yes!
I thought that you hated Takemitsu!

You know who needs a really big box set? Morton Feldman.

(You still need to hear Coptic Light, Ken! I haven't forgotten! ;D)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 29, 2015, 12:26:09 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 12:20:36 AM
I thought that you hated Takemitsu!
No, I like Takemitsu. I have no idea why you thought otherwise.

QuoteYou know who needs a really big box set? Morton Feldman.
Yes!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 29, 2015, 04:55:12 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 12:20:36 AM


You know who needs a really big box set? Morton Feldman.

A complete recording of that string quartet you mean?

Quote

(You still need to hear Coptic Light, Ken! I haven't forgotten! ;D)

Yes, I know ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 29, 2015, 05:45:08 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

MAY 29, 2015 @ 3:01 PM
Boxing Classical Music: Ferenc Fricsay on Deutsche Grammophon

There's something wonderful about classical music—certainly in its form as recorded music—having
become a commodity: It is more easily available than ever before, in greater variety than ever before,
and at a lower cost than ever before. Notable part of this trend is the packaging and re-packaging and
re-releasing of trusty records as part of box sets. Everything by everyone seems available affordably—
and we are talking about the physical product, not downloads, which you might think would spearhead
this development... perhaps even at the expense of the trusty CD.

Box sets used to be expensive, much cherished trophies of the collector. I remember my first set of
complete Beethoven Sonatas (incidentally not a particularly satisfying set, as it would eventually turn
out) and my first Ring Cycle (still a worthy member of the collection) and the hushed reverence that
went along with their purchase. With the tumbling of prices, that's changed entirely (furthered by the
budgetary constraints that are not those of one's student days). There are still some box sets that are
expensive, made with great care, and easy to covet. But more-so it has become a trend for labels to
use sets to manufacture bargain-basement collections that can be had for a few bucks per disc and
entice listeners to fill gaps in their collections they might not otherwise have had bothered or bee able
to fill....
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/03/Fricsay_Orchestral_Works_DG-Collection_Forbes_Box-Sets_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/05/29/boxing-classical-music-ferenc-fricsay-on-deutsche-grammophon/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on May 29, 2015, 11:04:50 AM
Nice article, Jens. I agree with you about Fricsay, and yet, there is now such an overwhelming array of choices that I almost missed him entirely (and many people probably did). Keep beating that drum!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 29, 2015, 12:26:56 PM
Quote from: Ken B on May 28, 2015, 06:18:05 PM
Obrecht
Who is Obrecht? I have never heard of him/her.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 29, 2015, 04:01:01 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on May 29, 2015, 12:31:39 PM
Kidding?  Jacob Obrecht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Obrecht) was one of the greatest Renaissance composers.

I meant Hjalmar Horace Greeley Obrecht, noted kazoo composer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 06:30:37 PM
Quote from: North Star on May 29, 2015, 12:26:09 AM
No, I like Takemitsu. I have no idea why you thought otherwise.
Oh, I meant to ask that to Ken, not you...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 29, 2015, 07:35:25 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 06:30:37 PM
Oh, I meant to ask that to Ken, not you...
I'm not a great fan, but I think he deserves a box. And I think many here would like it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Green Destiny on May 29, 2015, 09:48:04 PM
There is already a box of Takemitsu's Film Music:

[asin]B000E1KNC0[/asin]

Its OOP though and is very expensive from private sellers.
If this set was re-issued I would certainly get it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on May 29, 2015, 09:50:16 PM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 29, 2015, 06:30:37 PM
Oh, I meant to ask that to Ken, not you...
The world makes sense once again.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on June 05, 2015, 07:13:18 AM
News from NPR on Matthew Aucoin's opera, The Crossing, based on Walt Whitman's Civil War nursing experience :  http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/06/04/412000449/a-25-year-old-opera-composer-who-does-it-all
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 05, 2015, 07:15:54 AM
Good for him!  That sort of publicity is golden.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on June 07, 2015, 01:07:00 PM
I listened to Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges on a long drive today. What a piece! I love the plot, too. I can't help but think of my favorite childhood book "Where the Wild Things Are" ;D (boy gets in trouble with mom, sent to room, loses temper, etc.).

Millimetre, centimetre, decimetre, decametre, hectometre, kilometre, megametre, gigometre!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 12, 2015, 04:17:21 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

JUN 12, 2015
Boxing Classical Music: Claudio Abbado On Sony/RCA

The preamble to this review—a cursory glance at the state of the state of box sets in classical music—
precedes the first of what will be three (the orchestral works conducted by Ferenc Fricsay's on Deutsche
Grammophon) This second installment takes Claudio Abbado's recordings for Sony/RCA as its example.

Having covered Ferenc Fricsay box set, let's turn to the Abbado Box that Sony put forth. It covers his
output for that label spanning 22 years (1976-1997) and his most important orchestral stations (including
La Scala, 1971-1986, the LSO, 1975-1987, Vienna State Opera, 1986-1991, and Chicago, where he was
the principal guest conductor for three years in the 80s) up to and including (some of) his taking steward-
ship of the Berlin Philharmonic (1989-2002)...

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wlnTqaxAGaM/VXlq-effJlI/AAAAAAAAIPA/3ZCMbST_49A/s1600/Abbado_SONY-RCA_Box_Forbes_jens-f-laurson_BOX.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/06/11/boxing-classical-music-claudio-abbado-on-sonyrca/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 15, 2015, 11:19:09 PM
Fresh from ionarts:

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUHSjHlV2Ro/UqB_A8bgCxI/AAAAAAAAHWQ/1tFdkiDMHEo/s1600/KonzerthausMozartSaal.png)

JUN 12, 2015
Ionarts-at-Large: Heinz Holliger, Haydn-Master

If anyone can elicit great—or even just respectable—Haydn from the Vienna
Chamber Orchestra at a musician-unfriendly 10.30am, I should think it'd be
Heinz Holliger. Ever since hearing the septuagenarian conduct the Camerata
Salzburg at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg some years back (review here), I've
considered him the finest living Haydn conductor I know of. Perhaps some-
thing to do with him being a composer and thus communicating from one
bird of a feather to the other?

To hear Holliger in Haydn was consequently the main reason to go to the
Mozart-Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus, the building's gem of a hall and
probably as ideally suited to this kind of music—if not more so—than their
neighbor's more famous Goldener Saal.

The first look at the program hurt and baffled, though...
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/06/ionarts-at-large-heinz-holliger-haydn.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 16, 2015, 03:31:27 AM
Actually, 10:30 AM isn't at all bad, is it?  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 16, 2015, 03:46:59 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 16, 2015, 03:31:27 AM
Actually, 10:30 AM isn't at all bad, is it?  ;)

Is there something worse?  ???
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 16, 2015, 03:48:42 AM
07:30, surely  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 16, 2015, 03:49:59 AM
03:30 AM is my pick. . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 16, 2015, 03:51:38 AM
Some are just getting warmed up then, Karlo.  G'day!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on June 16, 2015, 03:52:50 AM
I think 4:30-5AM is the worst. Too early to get up, but not enough time to really get a good sleep.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on June 16, 2015, 03:57:22 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 15, 2015, 11:19:09 PM
Fresh from ionarts:

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUHSjHlV2Ro/UqB_A8bgCxI/AAAAAAAAHWQ/1tFdkiDMHEo/s1600/KonzerthausMozartSaal.png)
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/06/ionarts-at-large-heinz-holliger-haydn.html/)

"Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

:(  ....I'll try again later.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 16, 2015, 04:05:01 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on June 16, 2015, 03:57:22 AM
"Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

:(  ....I'll try again later.

Sarge
This one should do it:
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/06/ionarts-at-large-heinz-holliger-haydn.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 16, 2015, 04:05:20 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on June 16, 2015, 03:57:22 AM
"Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

:(  ....I'll try again later.

Sarge

Fixed!

Quote from: jlaurson on June 15, 2015, 11:19:09 PM
Fresh from ionarts:

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUHSjHlV2Ro/UqB_A8bgCxI/AAAAAAAAHWQ/1tFdkiDMHEo/s1600/KonzerthausMozartSaal.png)

JUN 12, 2015
Ionarts-at-Large: Heinz Holliger, Haydn-Master

If anyone can elicit great—or even just respectable—Haydn from the Vienna
Chamber Orchestra at a musician-unfriendly 10.30am, I should think it'd be
Heinz Holliger. Ever since hearing the septuagenarian conduct the Camerata
Salzburg at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg some years back (review here), I've
considered him the finest living Haydn conductor I know of. Perhaps some-
thing to do with him being a composer and thus communicating from one
bird of a feather to the other?

To hear Holliger in Haydn was consequently the main reason to go to the
Mozart-Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus, the building's gem of a hall and
probably as ideally suited to this kind of music—if not more so—than their
neighbor's more famous Goldener Saal.

The first look at the program hurt and baffled, though...
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/06/ionarts-at-large-heinz-holliger-haydn.html)


Quote from: karlhenning on June 16, 2015, 03:48:42 AM
07:30, surely  8)

That does not compute.

Quote from: mc ukrneal on June 16, 2015, 03:52:50 AM
I think 4:30-5AM is the worst. Too early to get up, but not enough time to really get a good sleep.

For the starting time of a concert? You are all nuts.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 16, 2015, 04:06:21 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on June 16, 2015, 03:51:38 AM
Some are just getting warmed up then, Karlo.  G'day!
Or already then. G'day, Karl!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on June 16, 2015, 04:08:07 AM
Quote from: North Star on June 16, 2015, 04:05:01 AM
This one should do it:
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/06/ionarts-at-large-heinz-holliger-haydn.html

Quote from: jlaurson on June 16, 2015, 04:05:20 AM
Fixed!

Thanks, guys.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 16, 2015, 04:17:16 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 16, 2015, 04:05:20 AM
For the starting time of a concert? You are all nuts.  :D

Concert?  There's an audience will go to a concert at 10:30??!!   ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 18, 2015, 07:02:36 PM
I'm in occasional correspondence with a member of the Alexander String Quartet, which is cool, but boy is it disheartening, too. They want to record more stuff for Foghorn Classics (which they own - the CD storage is one of their closets, I think), but raising the money is a serious challenge, and their resources dwindle year by year. Apparently they "never saw a cent" of profit from the Arte Nova Beethoven quartet cycle, either.

It's a hard life for artists out there, even truly great ones. A good reminder, this. We all take them for granted, "they should record this next," but a lot of the times they're not in a position to choose what they record, or to record at all.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 19, 2015, 03:21:25 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 18, 2015, 07:02:36 PM
I'm in occasional correspondence with a member of the Alexander String Quartet, which is cool, but boy is it disheartening, too. They want to record more stuff for Foghorn Classics (which they own - the CD storage is one of their closets, I think), but raising the money is a serious challenge, and their resources dwindle year by year. Apparently they "never saw a cent" of profit from the Arte Nova Beethoven quartet cycle, either.

It's a hard life for artists out there, even truly great ones. A good reminder, this. We all take them for granted, "they should record this next," but a lot of the times they're not in a position to choose what they record, or to record at all.

This composer/clarinetist knows that it is no bed of roses, even for artists who have much more of a name than he does.  The whole publication/recording environment has changed, and cataclysmically, and I just don't see any drivers to alter it so that artists receive much compensation.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 20, 2015, 12:32:08 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 18, 2015, 07:02:36 PM
... They want to record more stuff for Foghorn Classics (which they own - the CD storage is one of their closets, I think), but raising the money is a serious challenge...

And this surprises you... why? The Takacs had to raise money to record their Beethoven for Decca; Riccardo Chailly has to raise money when he wants to record something dear to his heart, but not the Decca execs. (Which you can tell, because it appears on Decca Italy... which is a glorified "Avie", of sorts.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 20, 2015, 05:49:56 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 20, 2015, 12:32:08 AM
And this surprises you... why? The Takacs had to raise money to record their Beethoven for Decca; Riccardo Chailly has to raise money when he wants to record something dear to his heart, but not the Decca execs. (Which you can tell, because it appears on Decca Italy... which is a glorified "Avie", of sorts.)

I think even Karajan had to waive his fee once, to get something recorded.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 22, 2015, 01:46:33 AM




(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

JUN 22, 2015 @ 10:23 AM
Kirill Petrenko New Chief Conductor Of The Berlin Philharmonic

Radio Berlin-Brandenburg reports that the Berlin Philharmonic has elected Kirill Petrenko
as their new music director and successor to Simon Rattle. An inquiry by that station was
neither confirmed nor denied, but there will be a press conference later today. (The press
conference will be transmitted live via Digital Concert Hall at 1PM CET / 12PM GMT / 7AM
EST.) The news is suggestive of Petrenko not renewing his contract in Munich, where he
is currently music director of the Bavarian State Opera, worshiped by the orchestra and
adored by the audience which he managed to galvanize like few conductors in the past....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/06/Kirill_Petrenko_jfl.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/05/09/the-berlin-philharmonics-next-conductor-the-odds-and-ends/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 02, 2015, 06:31:44 AM
Meanwhile I've been busy at work with the 11th (!) installment of the Beethoven Survey!


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VYQWtbpDv9Q/UPQjw3NPXEI/AAAAAAAAFro/1OCHnnTJ3H8/s1600/Beethoven_basic_laurson_600.jpg)

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
The Great Incomplete Cycles



http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html)

Which ones have I missed? What data did I get wrong?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 03, 2015, 12:02:00 PM
Lorin Maazel interviewed.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on July 03, 2015, 12:14:45 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2015, 12:02:00 PM
Lorin Maazel interviewed.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger)

Thanks for that, Ken! Interesting to read his views on music!  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:14:59 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on July 03, 2015, 12:14:45 PM
Thanks for that, Ken! Interesting to read his views on music!  8)

+ 1.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:24:25 AM
"If you have something to say, the idiom in which you choose to say it is irrelevant." - Lorin Maazel
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:30:33 AM
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger)

QuoteI ask, "Why do people sneer at Puccini, and at Tchaikovsky, for that matter?" Maazel replies with complete, perfect dismissiveness, "Envy."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:37:19 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:30:33 AM
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/227913/maazel-world-jay-nordlinger)

QuoteI bring up a pet peeve of mine — talking from the concert stage. These days, many concerts are concert-lectures, as musicians insist on talking. Administrators want them to do so, and so do some critics. They call it "outreach." Maazel says, "You're not popularizing anything, you're denigrating it. Music has its place because it's a language" all its own. Thoughts in music "cannot be verbalized. The moment you verbalize anything," you're finished. "It's like a guided tour through a picture gallery. I've seen the greatest pictures destroyed in three minutes of description. The point is taking something you cannot express in words."

Amen!


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on July 04, 2015, 06:12:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 05:24:25 AM
"If you have something to say, the idiom in which you choose to say it is irrelevant." - Lorin Maazel
Beautiful words perhaps, but what does it mean in the end? Plenty of composers have said that if they could express themselves in words, they would do that instead.
I certainly agree in the sense that an artist can create something of value in any artistic medium, but that doesn't mean that I might as well write a novel or a sonata instead of a poem or a photograph, or that one can communicate the same thing using different media.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 04, 2015, 06:15:31 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 04, 2015, 06:12:29 AM
Beautiful words perhaps, but what does it mean in the end? Plenty of composers have said that if they could express themselves in words, they would do that instead.
I certainly agree in the sense that an artist can create something of value in any artistic medium, but that doesn't mean that I might as well write a novel or a sonata instead of a poem or a photograph, or that one can communicate the same thing using different media.

I shoud have thought it was pretty obvious that Maazel refered to music.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 04, 2015, 10:50:36 AM
QuoteI ask, "Why do people sneer at Puccini, and at Tchaikovsky, for that matter?" Maazel replies with complete, perfect dismissiveness, "Envy."

A lazy answer to an uninteresting question.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on July 04, 2015, 01:00:05 PM
Quote from: Pat B on July 04, 2015, 10:50:36 AM
A lazy answer to an uninteresting question.
So you're saying that from Maazel's taste in classical music (a liking for Tchaikovsky and Puccini) we can deduce something about his character (he's intellectually lazy)?

*runs for exit, cackling*
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: starrynight on July 05, 2015, 08:40:07 AM
Maazel didn't ask the uninteresting question though.  Maybe such questions are best given a no comment answer.

When he said the idiom is irrelevant maybe he just meant that things can be expressed equally validly in many different forms, and not that the medium itself doesn't affect what is expressed?  It's a vague statement anyway and so too meaningless.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 05, 2015, 08:48:57 AM
Quote from: starrynight on July 05, 2015, 08:40:07 AM
When he said the idiom is irrelevant maybe he just meant that things can be expressed equally validly in many different forms, and not that the medium itself doesn't affect what is expressed?  It's a vague statement anyway and so too meaningless.

If you read the whole thing you´d see both the context and its meaning.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: starrynight on July 05, 2015, 08:51:03 AM
It needs to be quoted better here then.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: starrynight on July 05, 2015, 09:36:10 AM
On emotion and how the listener perceives it...

Quote from: Florestan on May 22, 2015, 11:41:03 AM
In the case of the Romantics or the Moderns, by studying the composer´s biography, particularly the events surrounding, or triggering, the beginning of the creation of that given artwork. In the case of the Classical composers, by studying the musical rhetoric of their time. In the case of the Baroque composers, by studying the Affektenlehre. In the case of the Renaissance and Medieval composers, by understanding the texts being sung.

Surely it's all about rhetoric.  And some of that rhetoric does still get passed down to us, even if heavily modified over time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 05, 2015, 12:57:19 PM

Dip Your Ears, No. 198 (Mahler Transcribed)


Mahler Doubling Down on Ivory

What do you give the Mahlerian who already has everything and of each Symphony
five or twenty recordings? Why, piano transcriptions of those symphonies—in this
case of Symphonies One and Two, arranged by ...

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00CGUSRVG.01.L.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/dip-your-ears-no-198-mahler-transcribed.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on July 05, 2015, 01:23:59 PM
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/2015/07/now_playing_harpsichord_of_columbus_era_sounds_again
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 06, 2015, 01:50:33 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

JUN 12, 2015
Simply The Perfect Box Set: "Maria Callas Remastered"

...Then again, for every trend there is a counter-trend. One could look at the modest but steady rise of vinyl.
Silly, if you look at it from a high-fidelity point of view, but perfectly understandable if you think of music as a
sensual experience, rather than a commodity. Listening to vinyl will never, ever get you a better sound quality
than digital reproduction can (but need not necessarily) produce. But it gives you an experience that might
be likened to the ceremony involved in opening a good bottle of wine, decanting it, and enjoying it in a huge,
mouth-blown glass. Or think of vinyl as the magisterially stuffed pipe over the CD or mp3's thoughtlessly
puffed cigarette....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/07/Fricsay_Box-Sets_Forbes_Sound-Advice_jens-f-laurson_DG_.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/07/06/simply-the-perfect-box-set-maria-callas-remastered)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: starrynight on July 06, 2015, 09:45:22 AM
But you could say a record is more of a commodity than say a digital format.  It's a physical material object.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 06, 2015, 09:52:44 AM
Quote from: starrynight on July 06, 2015, 09:45:22 AM
But you could say a record is more of a commodity than say a digital format.  It's a physical material object.

stop pointing out my logical inconsistencies.  :(  :)

Yes... hmmpf.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 06, 2015, 09:57:11 AM
I'll never thoughtlessly puff an mp3 again!  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 11, 2015, 09:01:37 AM


Dip Your Ears, No. 199 (Mozart from Tetzlaff & Vogt)


Mozart Melt

Mozart at once old fashioned and intellectually fresh comes courtesy of
Lars Vogt and Christian Tetzlaff. The title of their album reflects refreshing
honesty:...

(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00925TBLS.01.L.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/dip-your-ears-no-199-mozart-from.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 14, 2015, 04:49:55 PM


Remembering Charles Mackerras


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G0E14ToKpkw/VWuIwVjoI1I/AAAAAAAAIN4/XMb7xhK29KQ/s1600/Mackerras_Requiem_laurson_600.jpg)

TODAY, FIVE YEARS AGO, CHARLES MACKERRAS DIED. WELL WORTH RE-
SUSCITATING THIS REMEMBRANCE WHICH WAS INITIALLY WRITTEN FOR
WETA 90.9 WHERE IT HAS SINCE BEEN CHUCKED.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-charles-mackerras.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-charles-mackerras.html)

(apologies for the caps.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 02, 2015, 03:54:02 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 2, 2015
Turandot and Offenbach At The Bregenz Festival

...It might merit confessing that I'm not all that hot about Puccini and that I suffer from a general deficiency in appreciating Italian opera. That said, I consider Turandot the best compromise as far as quality and popularity is concerned.....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Bregenz-Turandot_lanterns_jens-f-laurson_640.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/07/06/simply-the-perfect-box-set-maria-callas-remastered)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 02, 2015, 03:57:09 AM
Jens, the links take us to the Callas box set review.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 02, 2015, 04:06:46 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 02, 2015, 03:57:09 AM
Jens, the links take us to the Callas box set review.

Sarge

Goshdarnit. Thanks!!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 02, 2015, 04:08:08 AM
Now:

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 2, 2015
Turandot and Offenbach At The Bregenz Festival

...It might merit confessing that I'm not all that hot about Puccini and that I suffer from a general deficiency in appreciating Italian opera. That said, I consider Turandot the best compromise as far as quality and popularity is concerned.....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Bregenz-Turandot_lanterns_jens-f-laurson_640.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/02/turandot-and-offenbach-at-the-bregenz-festival/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 02, 2015, 05:06:05 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 02, 2015, 04:08:08 AMTurandot and Offenbach At The Bregenz Festival

"auto-operatic asphyxiation"  ;D :D ;D

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 02, 2015, 03:43:19 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 02, 2015, 05:06:05 AM
"auto-operatic asphyxiation"  ;D :D ;D

Sarge

Hehe. Thanks. Quite pleased, I was, with that one.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 03, 2015, 05:46:20 AM
Sometimes, "thread drift" sets in practically at the outset.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 05, 2015, 10:07:25 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 5, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Das Rheingold

...The Rhinemaidens were a terrific trio, extremely even and very good and saucy
actresses all, svelte blondes, sexed-up lascivious bombshells with ankles to which
no English critic could object....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Rheingold_Bayreuth_2015_Koch-Dohmen-Daszak_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/)
[/quote]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 05, 2015, 10:50:00 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 05, 2015, 10:07:25 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 5, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Das Rheingold

...The Rhinemaidens were a terrific trio, extremely even and very good and saucy
actresses all, svelte blondes, sexed-up lascivious bombshells with ankles to which
no English critic could object....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Rheingold_Bayreuth_2015_Koch-Dohmen-Daszak_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/)
What?  No pictures of these sexy Rhinemaidens? ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 05, 2015, 02:14:38 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on August 05, 2015, 10:50:00 AM
What?  No pictures of these sexy Rhinemaidens? ;D

Just for you, I shall have some forthcoming (on ionarts)!  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on August 05, 2015, 06:02:00 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 05, 2015, 10:07:25 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 5, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Das Rheingold

...The Rhinemaidens were a terrific trio, extremely even and very good and saucy
actresses all, svelte blondes, sexed-up lascivious bombshells with ankles to which
no English critic could object....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Rheingold_Bayreuth_2015_Koch-Dohmen-Daszak_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/)

My first thought on seeing that photo was of the opening scene in Guys and Dolls.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 06, 2015, 02:09:47 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 05, 2015, 02:14:38 PM
Just for you, I shall have some forthcoming (on ionarts)!  ;D

Voila!

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 06, 2015, 03:22:03 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on August 05, 2015, 06:02:00 PM
My first thought on seeing that photo was of the opening scene in Guys and Dolls.

♫ I tell you Paul Revere, now this is no bum steer:
It's from a handicapper that's real sincere!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 07, 2015, 12:46:16 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 5, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Die Walküre

...But one casts Botha for his voice and has to accept that, dramatically, he
isn't the bee's knees, being easily out-acted by the more talented of the two
live turkeys in the cage. His preferred modus operandi is to stand there, arm
stretched out to the sides, and let us have it – and we take it pretty gladly...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Walkuere_Bayreuth_2015_Kampe_Youn_Botha_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/06/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-die-walkure/)
2015 Bayreuth Festival, Walküre, Act I
courtesy Bayreuth Festival, © Enrico Nawrath
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 07, 2015, 04:01:08 AM
Leonard Slatkin's 10 Forgotten American Masterpieces (http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2015/07/15/leonard-slatkins-10-favorite-forgotten-american-masterpieces/)

(Ken may be relieved that there is no Mennin on the list.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 07, 2015, 04:27:55 AM
Ouch! Schuman's name is misspelled . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 07, 2015, 10:43:34 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on August 07, 2015, 04:01:08 AM
Leonard Slatkin's 10 Forgotten American Masterpieces (http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2015/07/15/leonard-slatkins-10-favorite-forgotten-american-masterpieces/)

(Ken may be relieved that there is no Mennin on the list.)
Blocked at work! Maybe it's that suggestive name, Slatkin.
I will look at home.

Update. A good list. I do not know two of them, so some listening to do!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 08, 2015, 09:36:36 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 07, 2015, 12:46:16 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 5, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Die Walküre

...But one casts Botha for his voice and has to accept that, dramatically, he
isn't the bee's knees, being easily out-acted by the more talented of the two
live turkeys in the cage. His preferred modus operandi is to stand there, arm
stretched out to the sides, and let us have it – and we take it pretty gladly...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/05/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-das-rheingold/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Walkuere_Bayreuth_2015_Kampe_Youn_Botha_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/06/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-die-walkure/)
2015 Bayreuth Festival, Walküre, Act I
courtesy Bayreuth Festival, © Enrico Nawrath


More production photos from that performance here: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth_8.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth_8.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 09, 2015, 12:25:59 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 6, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Siegfried

...Wolfgang Koch, who continues his smarmy, drunken, sleazy, seedy Wotan with most admirable gusto and believability, certainly shows that it's not for lack of will or skill on his part... seeing that he gets plenty to do in the third act, when he summons Erda. It's perhaps the most touching moment of this Siegfried, when the washed-up Wotan, ex-lover, gets together with Erda, his aged, long-time favorite ho, for a spaghetti dinner and too much wine, in a scene full of recriminations and regrets and make-up blow jobs. When Wotan-Wanderer is supposed to pay up (the waiter catching Erda in flagrante), he realizes he's just a bit short on cash and with the words "Dort seh' ich Siegfried nahn!" ("Woha, I think Siegfried approaches!") he's off, properly welshing and leaving Erda with the bill and the audiences in stiches. It's not the only moment that garnered laughter, but there could have still been more, seeing that Siegfried is supposed to be a comedy and that Castorf certainly has the irreverent streak that lends itself to comedy....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/07/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-siegfried/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Siegfried_Bayreuth_2015_Weissmann_Koch_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/07/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-siegfried/)
2015 Bayreuth Festival, Siegfried, Act III
courtesy Bayreuth Festival, © Enrico Nawrath


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 11, 2015, 02:14:19 AM

Fresh from Forbes:


(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 6, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival Ring: Götterdämmerung

...After the excellently sung, superbly conducted, and rather warmly received Rhein-
gold, Walküre, and Siegfried, the last of the tetralogy's operas, Götterdämmerung,
felt like a triumph. Never mind the boos, when Castorf came out...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/08/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-gotterdammerung/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Goetterdaemmerung_Bayreuth_2015_Milling_Buhrrmester_Oakes_Vinke_Act1_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/08/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-gotterdammerung/)
2015 Bayreuth Festival, Goetterdaemmunger, Act II
courtesy Bayreuth Festival, © Enrico Nawrath

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 14, 2015, 06:20:26 PM
 :laugh:  :-[

Petrenko Does Suk, But That's A Good Thing
Review by: David Hurwitz

http://www.classicstoday.com/review/petrenko-does-suk-but-thats-a-good-thing/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on August 17, 2015, 05:05:11 AM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on October 24, 2013, 06:50:02 AM
I love Amazon.com's honesty...

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/24/papuqy9u.jpg)

Groovy!

Separately:

QuoteThere are no underrated composers, there are only composers that are known, all whom are rated correctly, and unknown composers, who have no rating at all but for the most part are unknown for a reason.

Such unblinking faith in the status quo is pretty to see!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on August 19, 2015, 01:38:12 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 06, 2015, 02:09:47 AM
Voila!

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/08/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html)
Mmmm.  And they can sing too, or so I've read. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 22, 2015, 08:55:39 AM
Here are more production photos from the other Ring operas... and Tristan photos soon to follow: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Bayreuth%20Festival (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Bayreuth%20Festival)

Meanwhile, fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 22, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival: Tristan & Isolde

...And then King Marke himself who entered, goodness gracious, all Colonel Mustard in a pimp-coat evidently tailored from the trombone-yellow carpet of Bayreuth's last Tristan production (Christoph Marthaler's, quite boring itself, but a thriller compared to this). I felt like playing a bored [sic] game: The mystery is solved! Melot! With the dagger! In the high-security bicycle shed! Nobody wins. Can we go home now?....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/07/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-ring-siegfried/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/08/Tristan_Bayreuth_2015_Act2_Herlitzius-Bicycle-Stand_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/08/22/the-2015-bayreuth-festival-tristan/)
2015 Bayreuth Festival, Tristan, Act II
courtesy Bayreuth Festival, © Enrico Nawrath

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 27, 2015, 05:05:18 AM
Stories like this are why I check eClassical's daily deal every day. Robert von Bahr writing about one of BIS's Bartok CDs:

(http://ecstatic.textalk.se/shop/thumbnails/shop/17115/art15/h1065/4441065-origpic-1f7b97.jpg_0_0_100_100_250_250_0.jpg)

"A nice memory, this one, to celebrate my birthday on. Actually, this was the very first CD I recorded in my (then) new house, where we had lifted up my Bösendorfer 275 concert grand through a hole in the wall to a huge attic in the dilapidated enormous house we just bought and took another 10 years to really get up to snuff. Robin McCabe and Bob Aitken came over to Sweden from the US and Canada, stayed with us for the better part of a month and made 2 piano solo and 2 flute/piano LP:s in the house. This is the first, a Bartók programme, incl. Allegro barbaro, a favourite piece of mine. Since the LP was too short for a CD, I included a song cycle, sung by the baritone Rolf Leanderson (who also doubled as my throat and ear doctor) and his wife. Yes, happy memories."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:05:45 PM
Applying to a job at the Seattle Symphony this week.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on September 07, 2015, 07:10:09 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:05:45 PM
Applying to a job at the Seattle Symphony this week.

For?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:14:35 PM
Quote from: Mirror Image on September 07, 2015, 07:10:09 PM
For?
Nice try, I don't want any competition ;)

Nah, it's a gig in their communications department.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 08, 2015, 03:38:49 AM
Conquer!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on September 08, 2015, 04:09:01 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:14:35 PM
Nice try, I don't want any competition ;)

Nah, it's a gig in their communications department.

Good luck, Brian!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 09, 2015, 12:30:19 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 22, 2015, 08:55:39 AM
Here are more production photos from the other Ring operas... and Tristan photos soon to follow: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Bayreuth%20Festival (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Bayreuth%20Festival)

Here they are: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/production-photos-from-bayreuth.html)


Meanwhile, fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 22, 2015
The 2015 Bayreuth Festival: Tristan & Isolde

T'was a coolly refreshing evening in the inner courtyard of the vast baroque priory
of St. Florian in Upper Austria, just before the final concert of the St. Florian
BrucknerTage (Bruckner-Days) on August 21: The brass section of the Altomonte
Orchestra – basically a purpose-assembled summer-band – get rid of excess energy
by regaling the guests of the monastery's restaurant with a selection of brass-band
favorites from hunting songs to Wagner chorales: Got you in the mood alright for
Bruckner's Ninth Symphony under Rémy Ballot, a Sergiù Celibidache disciple with a
penchant for glorious length, especially in the music of Anton Bruckner.

For this grand finale of the week-long celebration of Bruckner, the vast, gorgeous
baroque basilica was filled to the brim, except for the side balconies, allegedly among
the best places but cordoned off on this occasion. (That fact made a most determined
Austrian journalist lady – habitually taking her seat there and with little intention to
yielding to some stripling with a badge squeaking "Verboten" – reveal a whole new
color-range in her vocabulary when she ultimately had to follow others' instructions
over her instinct.) With everyone seated and standing in the right places, the sounds
of Debussy's Images pour orchestra, the concert's amuse-gueule, rose to the organ
balcony on which I had found myself at the last minute...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/08/the-second-coming-of-sergiu-celibidache-bruckner-in-st-florian/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Forbes_Bruckner_StFlorian_Ballot-3_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/08/the-second-coming-of-sergiu-celibidache-bruckner-in-st-florian/)
...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: The new erato on September 09, 2015, 01:21:50 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:05:45 PM
Applying to a job at the Seattle Symphony this week.
If you want any advice for clothing to wear in wet weather, you can PM me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 09, 2015, 06:34:06 AM
Quote from: The new erato on September 09, 2015, 01:21:50 AM
If you want any advice for clothing to wear in wet weather, you can PM me.
0:)

Can't go wrong with a waterproof coat  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 09, 2015, 06:45:59 AM
You'll need wellies decorated with Dvořák's profile, natch.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on September 11, 2015, 03:15:31 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 07, 2015, 07:14:35 PM
Nice try, I don't want any competition ;)

Nah, it's a gig in their communications department.

Very nice indeed. Godspeed to you. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 13, 2015, 07:42:50 AM
 fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 22, 2015
The Boston Symphony At Grafenegg Or: The Haydn
Ghetto


...If that be a rule, namely not to play Haydn first (and it really should be), this
performance did not bother to deviate from it. Predictably, the Haydn (or the
orchestra) sounded not remotely as good as it should have. The horns, for
one, were a long way from the standard the BSO (or any orchestra, amateur
and professional alike) sets itself, and in every single movement. And while
there was a spot of grace here and there to be found, it would have taken a lot
tighter playing and more energetic wit to get the juices flowing. I'm not saying
that the first movement was directly responsible for a woman passing out
before the Lincoln Town Car-style Andante (she recovered), but it cannot
have helped. Only with much benevolence could one try to blame it on the
orchestra's size: A little too big for Haydn and a little too small for the Wolken-
turm stage, but then there's no reason to fudge it: This was a dead-boring,
flaccid performance, like a formerly great white wine that lost all acidity...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/13/the-boston-symphony-at-grafenegg-or-the-haydn-ghetto_happpy40thbirthday_jfl_nelsons_/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Schloss_Nachmittag-Foto_Alexander_Haiden_jens-f-laurson_800.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/13/the-boston-symphony-at-grafenegg-or-the-haydn-ghetto_happpy40thbirthday_jfl_nelsons_/)
Grafenegg Castle
Picture courtesy Grafenegg Festival, © Andreas Hofer
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on September 13, 2015, 08:08:51 AM
Imagine my excitement this morning when seeing an email from Amazon with the subject line "New from Ludwig van Beethoven."  Turns out it was only Igor Levit's new recording of the Diabellis, which I already carted.  And here I thought it was an unearthed complete score for the 10th Symphony.  One might almost think the algorithm Amazon uses may not yield entirely accurate results . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2015, 02:34:12 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 13, 2015, 07:42:50 AM
fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

AUG 22, 2015
The Boston Symphony At Grafenegg Or: The Haydn
Ghetto


...If that be a rule, namely not to play Haydn first (and it really should be), this
performance did not bother to deviate from it. Predictably, the Haydn (or the
orchestra) sounded not remotely as good as it should have. The horns, for
one, were a long way from the standard the BSO (or any orchestra, amateur
and professional alike) sets itself, and in every single movement. And while
there was a spot of grace here and there to be found, it would have taken a lot
tighter playing and more energetic wit to get the juices flowing. I'm not saying
that the first movement was directly responsible for a woman passing out
before the Lincoln Town Car-style Andante (she recovered), but it cannot
have helped. Only with much benevolence could one try to blame it on the
orchestra's size: A little too big for Haydn and a little too small for the Wolken-
turm stage, but then there's no reason to fudge it: This was a dead-boring,
flaccid performance, like a formerly great white wine that lost all acidity...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/13/the-boston-symphony-at-grafenegg-or-the-haydn-ghetto_happpy40thbirthday_jfl_nelsons_/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Schloss_Nachmittag-Foto_Alexander_Haiden_jens-f-laurson_800.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/13/the-boston-symphony-at-grafenegg-or-the-haydn-ghetto_happpy40thbirthday_jfl_nelsons_/)
Grafenegg Castle
Picture courtesy Grafenegg Festival, © Andreas Hofer


Sorry our band let you down, Jens.

(FWIW, the two concerts at Symphony Hall when I heard the BSO play Haydn, it was not first-rate Haydn.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 13, 2015, 02:35:04 PM
Quote from: Todd on September 13, 2015, 08:08:51 AM
Imagine my excitement this morning when seeing an email from Amazon with the subject line "New from Ludwig van Beethoven."

"IT'S ALIVE !!!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on September 13, 2015, 03:11:07 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 13, 2015, 02:34:12 PM
Sorry our band let you down, Jens.

(FWIW, the two concerts at Symphony Hall when I heard the BSO play Haydn, it was not first-rate Haydn.)

I wonder...since the deaths of the old guard (Szell, Bernstein, Jochuum) I wonder if any of the "big" orchestras do Haydn justice.

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on September 13, 2015, 11:42:39 PM
Judging from recordings (and suspecting that the orchestra is maybe used with a somewhat reduced number of players) I think Rattle with Berlin (and 60/70/90 from Birmingham) and Hugh Wolf with the Frankfurt/Hessian Radio Orchestra made some excellent Haydn. Concertgebouw/Harnoncourt is a somewhat mixed bag but the orchestra is not to blame for that, rather some quirky choices of NH.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 14, 2015, 06:42:36 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 13, 2015, 03:11:07 PM
I wonder...since the deaths of the old guard (Szell, Bernstein, Jochuum) I wonder if any of the "big" orchestras do Haydn justice.

Sarge

Good question. Part of it is that these orchestras aren't playing enough of it. Vienna Phil did a much better job under Bychkov, a few days after the BSO (review forthcoming). Not great... and despite being from Vienna not a band I'd necessarily trust with Haydn any more than Boston, but comparably excellent.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on September 14, 2015, 09:51:51 AM
Saw my first live Tosca last friday. Scarpia naturally stole the show, although they portrayed him bit too much as a moustache-twirling villain, although they did represent his cultural side at certain points. The singer of Scarpia with his quirky moustache kind of reminded me of Vincent Price, oddly enough. Orchestral playing was varied, at some important points the playing wasn't as pure as it coud have been.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Maestro267 on September 16, 2015, 08:11:33 AM
I really don't know where to put this, and I don't think it warrants its own thread. Advance apologies...

---------------------

I like this forum. A lot. One of the reasons:

Mozart thread. Started April 2007, currently on 48 pages of replies.

Havergal Brian thread. Started June 2007. currently on 344 pages of replies.

On the other forums I've been on, composers like H. Brian are treated sarcastically, with enthusiasts made fun of. Here, they're treated with the respect they deserve.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 16, 2015, 08:33:31 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on September 16, 2015, 08:11:33 AM
I really don't know where to put this, and I don't think it warrants its own thread. Advance apologies...

---------------------

I like this forum. A lot. One of the reasons:

Mozart thread. Started April 2007, currently on 48 pages of replies.

Havergal Brian thread. Started June 2007. currently on 344 pages of replies.

On the other forums I've been on, composers like H. Brian are treated sarcastically, with enthusiasts made fun of. Here, they're treated with the respect they deserve.
The Brian thread is really its own universe.

Eff'n yer lookin' fo' gif's t'yer country moosic lovin' friends o' relatives, hyar's a tip:
[asin]B00BXOQCWC[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 17, 2015, 08:38:21 AM
A couple young performers in a master class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2i6UuCAw0Y (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2i6UuCAw0Y)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 21, 2015, 07:34:52 AM
Ffresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

SEP 21, 2015
No Rain On Bychkov And Vienna Philharmonic's
Grafenegg Parade


...As the applause for singer and the orchestra subsided, Rudolf Buchbinder,
artistic director of the festival, stepped on stage. He handed flowers and
compliments to Elisabeth Kulman and then announced that the remainder of
the concert – Brahms' Third Symphony – would take place in the auditorium's
concert hall, as a dry run for the second half could not be guaranteed. Sure
enough, minutes into intermission, raindrops started to plop into my 2013
Allram Riesling, confirming the aptitude of Grafenegg's meteorological division
or the accuracy of the twitch in Buchbinder's joints (depending on how they
operate)....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/21/no-rain-on-bychkov-and-vienna-philharmonics-grafenegg-parade/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Wolkenturm_Andreas_Hofer_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/21/no-rain-on-bychkov-and-vienna-philharmonics-grafenegg-parade/)
Grafenegg's Wolkenturm
Picture courtesy Grafenegg, © Alexander Haiden

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 22, 2015, 11:07:05 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

SEP 23, 2015
"Wozzeck" Opens Zurich Opera Season
With Uncommon, Resounding Success


...Had I gone to Zurich to see Falstaff (the opera next up on their program) I
would probably have experienced that disappointment. The kind of fluffy high
camp of which I got a glimpse at the dress rehearsal – even when it has Bryn
Terfel as the central character – just isn't my thing. But then again, neither is
Falstaff, really. Alban Berg's Wozzeck meanwhile is rather my thing. Easy,
perhaps, since it's one of the truly great dramatic operas written... so
embarrassingly good, it's hard to make a muck of it. Dense, gripping, and
succinct, Georg Büchner's 1837 drama conveys the nuanced struggle of its
characters across nearly two centuries with ease. As adapted by Berg in 1922
– right between Büchner and us on a timeline – it even allows for a little time-
travel by entering that time just before the outbreak of wide-spread material
prosperity and the ensuing runaway individualism...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/22/wozzeck-opens-zurich-opera-season-with-uncommon-resounding-success/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Zurich_Opera_Wozzeck_Gerhaher_Homoki_sf_w_cMonika-Rittershaus_jens-f-laurson.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/22/wozzeck-opens-zurich-opera-season-with-uncommon-resounding-success/)
Wozzeck, Christian Gerhaher
Picture courtesy Zurich Opera, © Monika Rittershaus


latest on ionarts:
Ionarts-at-Large: Involuntary Exclusivity
At Mozart's Home


(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-luBXy1sJzGg/Ue0TH0ptl4I/AAAAAAAAGqs/BrwUD3smS5Y/s1600/Mieczyslaw+_Weinberg_laurson_600.jpg)

Violist Julia Rebekka Adler and pianist Axel Gremmelspacher presented a program—
and their latest CD—in the sub-basement of the Mozart House in Vienna, just in
the shadow of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The program and disc are titled "Viola in
Exile", concocted of composers, threatened, prosecuted, and eventually forgotten,
that they all huddled at the very back of the alphabet: Leo Weiner, Karl Weigl,
Mieczysław Weinberg, and Erich Zeisl.

I've followed the projects of Mme. Adler (assistant principal viola of the Munich
Philharmonic, in her day job) with keen interest ever since writing a feature interview
about her and her Weinberg solo viola project for the pages of Fanfare, some years
ago. As part of that project, she had found and arranged Weinberg's Sonata for
Clarinet and Piano for the viola, one of the catchiest piece of this often thorny
composer and the opening work of this evening's proceedings.

Viola in Exile:

It was an unusual concert in that it took place before an audience of seven or—deducting the record producer, his wife, the music critic, friends of the performers and the page turner...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/ionarts-at-large-involuntary.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/ionarts-at-large-involuntary.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 28, 2015, 10:51:37 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

SEP 28, 2015
Gergiev Starts Munich Tenure With Mahler

...The concert opened inauspiciously when a man who didn't bother to introduce himself (it was
Hans-Georg Küppers, head of Munich's Department of Culture) gave a dry speech of the self-
congratulatory (or circle-jerk) variety which wasted everyone's time... except it might plausibly
have been used to cover the fact that the maestro was stuck in traffic, coming in from the airport.
(If that wasn't the case on this occasion, with Valery Gergiev as music director, that scenario
isn't far fetched at all.)...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/28/gergiev-starts-munich-tenure-with-mahler/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Gergiev__Valery_Alberto_Venzago-1940x1290.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/28/gergiev-starts-munich-tenure-with-mahler/)
Valery Gergiev
Photo courtesy Munich Philharmonic
© Alberto Venzago


latest on ionarts:
Grigory Sokolov refuses Cremona Music Award because this Guy's also on the List

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RebBSswW8ws/Vge6_PUcbXI/AAAAAAAAIlc/Px9fBvCYHyE/s640/Sokolov_refuses_prize_because_List_also_includes_Norman_Lebrecht_cremona_ru.png)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/grigory-sokolov-refuses-cremona-music.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/09/grigory-sokolov-refuses-cremona-music.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 30, 2015, 07:51:46 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

SEP 29, 2015
Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels Of Father And Son

...The classical music label Hänssler CLASSIC, which had been on its parent company's
chopping block for a while, has been picked up by Günter Hänssler's Profil label, thus
bringing the father's company into the fold of that of the son....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/29/merger-reunites-classical-music-labels-of-father-and-son/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Forbes-Graphic-Haenssler-Profil_header.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/09/29/merger-reunites-classical-music-labels-of-father-and-son/)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on October 02, 2015, 07:11:20 PM
My British bud is back in town and made good his promise to bring me another issue of Private Eye, the British satire magazine.  In it :
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on October 02, 2015, 07:38:11 PM
I am playing that Sistine Chapel CD now , by serendipity.
The William Byrd Choir still performs
http://www.williambyrdchoir.com/about%20wm%20byrd%20ch.htm
I think their Vatican recordings were done in concert and broadcast on the BBC before being released on LP.  The recordings on this new CD were "studio" recordings, and not in live performance. I think that is what the "first ever" claim refers to.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 03, 2015, 10:39:27 AM
According to Todd, Chopin´s piano concertos are just light fluff and not even Zimerman can redeem them.

Might very well be, what do I know?

I do know, though, that I can hardly wait for Todd´s deep, profound and ground-shattering piano concertos to be released.

Meanwhile, some of the great unwashed might enjoy this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/FOPQn17s5hs
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on October 03, 2015, 12:06:49 PM
Quote from: Florestan on October 03, 2015, 10:39:27 AMAccording to Todd, Chopin´s piano concertos are just light fluff and not even Zimerman can redeem them.


I said they were fluff, not that they needed redemption.  They are fine, entertaining, light works, and Zimerman's second recording of the duo is probably the best recording of them I've heard.  They cannot, however, compare to the great PCs of Beethoven or Brahms or Schumann or Bartok or Ravel or Mozart.  I plan on hearing Chopin's First PC in concert this upcoming season, though that's mainly because Benjamin Grosvenor will be the soloist.  Fluff can still be good, unless you view the world in a simplistic, binary way.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2015, 04:28:01 AM
Quote from: Todd on October 03, 2015, 12:06:49 PM

I said they were fluff, not that they needed redemption.  They are fine, entertaining, light works, and Zimerman's second recording of the duo is probably the best recording of them I've heard.  They cannot, however, compare to the great PCs of Beethoven or Brahms or Schumann or Bartok or Ravel or Mozart.  I plan on hearing Chopin's First PC in concert this upcoming season, though that's mainly because Benjamin Grosvenor will be the soloist.  Fluff can still be good, unless you view the world in a simplistic, binary way.

For the time being, the only binary worldview here is exactly yours: a piano concerto is either great or fluff...

Besides, Chopin´s piano concertos --- or indeed anyone´s piano concertos --- stand or fall on their own merits or lack thereof; there is no need to compare them with other concertos. But if comparisons need to be made, I fail to see in what way, or on what points, Chopin´s are inferior to Mozart´s  or Schumann´s or Ravel´s.

Be it as it may and bottom line, the term "fluff" strikes me as highly inaccurate when applied to Chopin. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2015, 06:39:27 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2015, 04:28:01 AMFor the time being, the only binary worldview here is exactly yours: a piano concerto is either great or fluff...



Nope, not at all.  Chopin's concertos are fluff.  Brahms 1st is a monumental masterpiece.  Beethoven's C Major falls in between.  You see, there's more than two categories out there.  You established a false premise for your "argument".  I get it, you like Chopin's concertos.  It's okay to like fluff.  Really, it is.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2015, 07:40:14 AM
Quote from: Todd on October 04, 2015, 06:39:27 AM
It's okay to like fluff.  Really, it is.

Yes indeed, I like fluff, for instance this:

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/102/MI0001102761.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

which is as charming and delightful as fluff can be.

EDIT: Let´s put fluff aside and get to serious business. You are probably the GMG´s leading expert in Beethoven´s piano sonatas, IIRC you own and have listened to some 80+ complete sets. I´d be interested in hearing two completely different approaches: one overtly romantic(ized), warm, passionate, sentimental and mellow, the other one overtly intellectual(ized), cool, dispassionate, unsentimental and severe. Where should I go? Could you please give me the 3 best options for each category? I am not an audiophile so mono or less than stellar sound is not an issue. Many TIA.


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on October 04, 2015, 09:15:28 AM
Quote from: Florestan on October 04, 2015, 07:40:14 AMYou are probably the GMG´s leading expert in Beethoven´s piano sonatas



I would say that aquablob is the real forum expert on Beethoven's piano sonatas, and (poco) Sforzando has far more detailed knowledge of the scores than I do, and could be considered an actual expert.  I've just listened to a lot of recorded cycles, which does not make me an actual expert.  (premont is another good source for comparative listening, as well.)

I don't really break down sonata cycles along intellectual vs romantic approaches, so keep that in mind when considering the following:

Intellectual: Russell Sherman (not severe so much as eccentric); Alfred Brendel II (Philips analog); Maurizio Pollini

Romantic: Annie Fischer; Andrea Lucchesini; Daniel Barenboim (first or third cycles)



Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 04, 2015, 09:24:59 AM
Quote from: Todd on October 04, 2015, 09:15:28 AM
I've just listened to a lot of recorded cycles

That´s exactly what I had in mind.

Quote
I don't really break down sonata cycles along intellectual vs romantic approaches, so keep that in mind when considering the following:

Intellectual: Russell Sherman (not severe so much as eccentric); Alfred Brendel II (Philips analog); Maurizio Pollini

Romantic: Annie Fischer; Andrea Lucchesini; Daniel Barenboim (first or third cycles)

Thanks again.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 05, 2015, 08:10:34 AM
SWR has already removed the Hanssler name from their new releases.

(http://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CD93.344.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NikF on October 06, 2015, 07:38:11 AM
Not sure if this is the correct section to post this in...
A couple of weeks ago my partner went to work in London for a few days. I accompanied her and in the process we were gifted tickets for the Royal Ballet performing Romeo and Juliet at the ROH. While Toots was charmed with it all, I thought the partnership of Sarah Lamb (including her cleft chin, which *could be clearly seen from our seats in the audience) and Steven McRae a little lacking in passion. Or perhaps it was the fact that the music via the conductor Koen Kessels overwhelmed - it seemed to be that he found extra boldness or something, more than I've become accustomed to hearing - which augmented the dancing to a greater degree and made up for the aforementioned lack of passion.

When we returned North it was quickly to Edinburgh for the Scottish Ballet and three pieces, the second of which ('Motion of Displacement') was another where i found myself thinking that the dancing is taking second place to the music - 'Shaker Loops' by the American composer John Adams. I hadn't heard anything quite like that before. I'm not sure where something that's so 'minimalist' fits into my taste, but I found a CD of the work and I'll listen more to see if it leads me somewhere interesting. Anyone familiar with that work and have anything good or bad or insightful to say about it or the composer? Please, do tell.

*here, I have perhaps exaggerated just a little. Heh.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 06, 2015, 08:02:07 AM
Quote from: NikF on October 06, 2015, 07:38:11 AM
...When we returned North it was quickly to Edinburgh for the Scottish Ballet and three pieces, the second of which ('Motion of Displacement') was another where i found myself thinking that the dancing is taking second place to the music - 'Shaker Loops' by the American composer John Adams. I hadn't heard anything quite like that before. I'm not sure where something that's so 'minimalist' fits into my taste, but I found a CD of the work and I'll listen more to see if it leads me somewhere interesting. Anyone familiar with that work and have anything good or bad or insightful to say about it or the composer? Please, do tell.


(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00030B9F2.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00030B9F2/goodmusicguide-20)

Shaker Loops is a terrific work; one of Adams' most accessible and most repriseable (if that's a word) next to his Violin Concerto and Fast Ride.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NikF on October 06, 2015, 08:25:47 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on October 06, 2015, 08:02:07 AM
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00030B9F2.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00030B9F2/goodmusicguide-20)

Shaker Loops is a terrific work; one of Adams' most accessible and most repriseable (if that's a word) next to his Violin Concerto and Fast Ride.

Yeah, that's the CD I found. Having read your post I've had a look and there appears to be (via Amazon) a few options for the violin concerto -
Hanslip/Slatkin/RPO on Naxos
McDuffie/Eschenbach/Houston Symphony on Telarc
Josefowitz/Adams/BBC Symphony on BBC
Kremer/Nagano/LSO on Nonesuch.
Any of those you're familiar with or are particularly recommended?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jaakko Keskinen on October 06, 2015, 08:44:27 AM
Personally, I like Chopin's PCs just fine. Criticism is often directed towards "uninteresting" orchestral part. I actually liked the orchestra parts in his concertos more. And Chopin was in his twenties when he composed them (although his life wasn't very long), staggeringly mature works.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on October 06, 2015, 08:59:45 AM
Quote from: NikF on October 06, 2015, 08:25:47 AM
Yeah, that's the CD I found. Having read your post I've had a look and there appears to be (via Amazon) a few options for the violin concerto -
Hanslip/Slatkin/RPO on Naxos
McDuffie/Eschenbach/Houston Symphony on Telarc
Josefowitz/Adams/BBC Symphony on BBC
Kremer/Nagano/LSO on Nonesuch.
Any of those you're familiar with or are particularly recommended?

Intervening to say Absolute Jest, which is relatively new, and in effect a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, is probably worth your time, if it is available to you. The San Francisco Symphony released it on their own label a few weeks ago;  I don't know if Spotify has it.

On the direct question, I have the Naxos recording of the VC,  and like it, but not enough to want other performances.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NikF on October 06, 2015, 09:09:31 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on October 06, 2015, 08:59:45 AM
Intervening to say Absolute Jest, which is relatively new, and in effect a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, is probably worth your time, if it is available to you. The San Francisco Symphony released it on their own label a few weeks ago;  I don't know if Spotify has it.

On the direct question, I have the Naxos recording of the VC,  and like it, but not enough to want other performances.

Absolute Jest - I'll certainly have a look/listen for that. Thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 06, 2015, 11:59:49 PM
Quote from: NikF on October 06, 2015, 08:25:47 AM
Yeah, that's the CD I found. Having read your post I've had a look and there appears to be (via Amazon) a few options for the violin concerto -
Hanslip/Slatkin/RPO on Naxos
McDuffie/Eschenbach/Houston Symphony on Telarc
Josefowitz/Adams/BBC Symphony on BBC
Kremer/Nagano/LSO on Nonesuch.
Any of those you're familiar with or are particularly recommended?

In the "Surprised by Beauty" chapter on Adams (which could be expanded and broadened, I'm the first one to admit, the four recommendations ("Transmigration" with some qualifiers) are these:

El Niño, Nonesuch (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NHNU/goodmusicguide-20)
Harmonielehre, Short Ride In A Fast Machine,  / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony, SFS Media (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0074B2MV8/goodmusicguide-20)
On The Transmigration Of Souls, Lorin Maazel, NYP, Nonesuch (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002JNLNM/goodmusicguide-20)
Concerto for Violin, Robert McDuffie, Christoph Eschenbach, Houston SO, Telarc (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JXZT/goodmusicguide-20)

I'm fully behind the Violin Concerto recommendation... (despite poor Robert McDuffie's agent being a total prick).

But it's hard to go wrong, actually: Hanslip/Slatkin/RPO on Naxos are very good, too (my second choice) and Kremer/Nagano/LSO as well. Josefowicz with the composer I've not heard but would suspect it of goodness, also.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: NikF on October 07, 2015, 01:52:26 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on October 06, 2015, 11:59:49 PM
In the "Surprised by Beauty" chapter on Adams (which could be expanded and broadened, I'm the first one to admit, the four recommendations ("Transmigration" with some qualifiers) are these:

El Niño, Nonesuch (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NHNU/goodmusicguide-20)
Harmonielehre, Short Ride In A Fast Machine,  / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony, SFS Media (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0074B2MV8/goodmusicguide-20)
On The Transmigration Of Souls, Lorin Maazel, NYP, Nonesuch (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002JNLNM/goodmusicguide-20)
Concerto for Violin, Robert McDuffie, Christoph Eschenbach, Houston SO, Telarc (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JXZT/goodmusicguide-20)

I'm fully behind the Violin Concerto recommendation... (despite poor Robert McDuffie's agent being a total prick).

But it's hard to go wrong, actually: Hanslip/Slatkin/RPO on Naxos are very good, too (my second choice) and Kremer/Nagano/LSO as well. Josefowicz with the composer I've not heard but would suspect it of goodness, also.

That's great. Thanks for taking the time to do that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 08, 2015, 01:56:16 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

SEP 29, 2015
Vienna: Premiering Beethoven Symphonies All Over Again

...Comparatively little has been done by way of research into how audiences be-
haved or listened on, or for that matter: where. And whatever has been done,
it hasn't been made visible or audible to audiences in the same way. No matter
how authentic "17th century" the band plays in front of us, audiences still sit on
the other side of the fourth wall as if it were 1977. We treat music from Monteverdi
to Stockhausen as if it were Parsifal. The lights are dimmed, we listen in awed quiet,
are embarrassed if caught snoring, and duly hiss if someone has shown his or her
appreciation at a point that doesn't fit the current convention of when to show
appreciation. (I call those hissers the "Vigilant Applause Police", an odious faction
that happens to overlap considerably with the only slightly less annoying "Eager
Early Clappers"; see the scientific looking, albeit completely speculative Venn
diagram below.)

Historic Venues

Doing just that – researching where music was played – is the raison d'être of
the "Resound" project of the Orchester Wiener Akademie (the Vienna Academy
Orchestra) under organist-cum-conductor-cum-impresario Martin Haselböck.
In seven concerts over two concert seasons, the orchestra will have performed
Beethoven's Nine Symphonies more or less in the venues they were premiered
in. Interestingly that is possible ...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/10/07/vienna-premiering-beethoven-symphonies-all-over-again/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/10/RE-SOUND_Wiener-Akademie_Vienna-Academy-Orchestra_Beethoven-9_CD-Cover_jens-f-laurson_Forbes.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/10/07/vienna-premiering-beethoven-symphonies-all-over-again/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 08, 2015, 08:56:06 AM
Sometimes people can be strange.
Quote from: 71 dB on October 08, 2015, 08:40:57 AM[W]hat happens "now" is relevant to me in music. What happened 20 seconds ago is distant history, mostly forgotten.
Quote from: 71 dB on October 08, 2015, 08:21:54 AM
Elgar's symphonies are longer than those of Sibelius
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 20, 2015, 04:19:30 PM
Results of the 2015 Chopin Competition are In, Ey!

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-results-of-2015-chopin-competition.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-results-of-2015-chopin-competition.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on October 23, 2015, 03:43:09 PM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

OCT 23, 2015
New Principal Conductor For The Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra

...Fischer is a fairly big name for an orchestra with so little name recognition, although the
orchestra has a proud tradition. It's just that one has to go back a while... namely to 1833,
when Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy led them for three seasons. Before him, Louis Spohr
and Ferdinand Ries had subbed; after him came Ferdinand Hiller (1847–1850) and then of
course Robert Schumann (1850–1854) who led them incompetently but with enthusiasm.
Big-ish names graced the orchestra again in the mid-20th century when Jean Martinon
(1960–1965) and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1966–1971) led the band in back-to-back,
one-term stints.

Picking a new music director for orchestras at this level of fame-purgatory is tricky; old
but famous hands who phone it in don't do the trick but unknown young music directors
can backfire if they don't turn out to be the next miracle man....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/10/23/new-principal-conductor-for-the-dusseldorf-symphony-orchestra/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/10/D-Dorf_jens-f-laurson_Forbes_Adam-Fischer_Logo_tonhalle.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/10/23/new-principal-conductor-for-the-dusseldorf-symphony-orchestra/)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Maestro267 on October 26, 2015, 06:03:05 AM
Each of the past three centuries has had a great and substantial set of variations for solo piano added to the repertoire. Bach started it in the 18th century with the Goldberg Variations, followed by Beethoven's Diabelli Variations in the 19th century and Frederic Rzewski's variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated in the 20th. Will a composer in this 21st century write an equally-substantial set of variations for solo piano to add to these great works?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on October 26, 2015, 07:31:38 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on October 26, 2015, 06:03:05 AM
Each of the past three centuries has had a great and substantial set of variations for solo piano added to the repertoire. Bach started it in the 18th century with the Goldberg Variations, followed by Beethoven's Diabelli Variations in the 19th century and Frederic Rzewski's variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated in the 20th. Will a composer in this 21st century write an equally-substantial set of variations for solo piano to add to these great works?
(The Bach is obviously written for a double manual harpsichord and not a piano)
There are also Rakhmaninov's Corelli Variations and Variations on a Theme of Chopin, the Brahms sets, and Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 26, 2015, 07:34:36 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on October 26, 2015, 06:03:05 AM
Will a composer in this 21st century write an equally-substantial set of variations for solo piano to add to these great works?

Sure.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Maestro267 on October 26, 2015, 09:41:34 AM
Quote from: North Star on October 26, 2015, 07:31:38 AM
(The Bach is obviously written for a double manual harpsichord and not a piano)
There are also Rakhmaninov's Corelli Variations and Variations on a Theme of Chopin, the Brahms sets, and Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH!!

Yes, but of those, only the DSCH is of a similar length to the ones I mentioned. I'm after sets that last for around an hour or longer.

This begs another question...how come there are no sets of variations of this length written for orchestra? The longest set I know of is the 30-minute Enigma Variations. And I'm not talking about transcriptions of piano variations for orchestra.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on October 27, 2015, 12:31:50 AM
Keyboard variations had been an established form already in the 16th century (or probably earlier). Bach's Goldberg variations put the earlier ones in the shade but there are actually some impressive earlier sets, e.g. one by Buxtehude in G major which is very probably one of the inspirations for the Goldbergs (lasts about 25 min or so). Orchestral variations were only a thing from the late romantic period on and in the 20th century.

And it's also not easy to write enough interesting variations for an hour... The Goldbergs were probably not intended to be performed in one run (and Busoni made a heavily cut edition for ca. 1900 audiences). So patience for such works is not to be taken for granted.
I don't know why orchestral variations never became such a big thing or why they usually run "only" about 20-25 minutes or so.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on October 27, 2015, 12:43:24 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 26, 2015, 07:34:36 AM
Sure.

Off to work, then, Karl!  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on October 27, 2015, 01:38:56 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on October 26, 2015, 09:41:34 AM
Yes, but of those, only the DSCH is of a similar length to the ones I mentioned. I'm after sets that last for around an hour or longer.

This begs another question...how come there are no sets of variations of this length written for orchestra? The longest set I know of is the 30-minute Enigma Variations. And I'm not talking about transcriptions of piano variations for orchestra.
The longest I know of is Sorabji's variations on the 'Dies Irae' plainchant which last about seven hours, including a 90-minute passacaglia and a fugue of equal length. And there's another set of Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra apparently of about equal length. But, well, Sorabji.

For non-piano variation sets, there is Robert Simpson's 9th String Quartet, consisting of 32 (I think) palindromic variations and a fugue on a theme by Haydn (the minuet of the Symphony No. 47). Lasts about an hour if I recall correctly. No idea why there are no orchestral ones, I suppose because long orchestral pieces tend to be symphonic cycles because composers want to exploit all the possible colours and invent material suited to them, whereas long piano pieces are more suited to variation form because the sonority of the instrument isn't as well suited to constantly introducing and differentiating new material.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 30, 2015, 11:12:19 AM
Quote from: amw on October 27, 2015, 01:38:56 AM
For non-piano variation sets, there is Robert Simpson's 9th String Quartet, consisting of 32 (I think) palindromic variations and a fugue on a theme by Haydn (the minuet of the Symphony No. 47). Lasts about an hour if I recall correctly.

Thanks for reminding me of this . . . and I know a friend from whom I can borrow it . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 09, 2015, 05:54:13 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

NOV 8, 2015
Bang-Bang: The European Union Youth Orchestra's
Summer Shenanigans


...Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as surprise...

A good youth orchestra has at its disposal a terrific weapon of surprise, namely
that it somehow lulls you into sus-pecting less than you would from a big name
professional orchestra... and then delivers more...

Angela Gheorgiu, one of the most difficult and by all accounts least pleasant
people to work with in the music world (thrice winner of the Kathleen Battle medal
for excellence in the Art of being a Diva), wouldn't have a career if her voice were
even just a shade less glorious. In her repertoire – dramatic Italian opera foremost
– she can conjure beauty and power that can evoke an imaginary Golden Age of
opera. There was nothing to quibble with the two arias for which she came and
after which she went... assuming one doesn't mind overlooking...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/08/bang-bang-the-european-union-youth-orchestras-summer-shenanigans/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/11/Forbes-EUYO_Grafenegg_Bang_bang.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/08/bang-bang-the-european-union-youth-orchestras-summer-shenanigans/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 11, 2015, 12:55:25 AM


Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

NOV 10, 2015
The 'Other' Petrenko To Stay At The Oslo Philharmonic Until 2020

...In appointing Vasily Petrenko, the orchestra made the right step towards youth and risk.
Apart from an early blooper when, right around the time of his inaugural concert, Petrenko
made a potentially sexist comment regarding the efficiency of women-conductors (something
that doesn't fly in aggressively gender-progressive Norway), this seems to have paid off
nicely. The orchestra is busy recording and reviews of its concerts are full of praise. Tours
and gigs abroad (the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Proms et al.) help greatly. Gramophone
Magazine quotes Petrenko as saying: "After two seasons with me at the reins, I think we
have freshened up the orchestra and introduced some great music that hasn't been heard
in Oslo for many years." That sounds about right...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/10/the-other-petrenko-to-stay-in-oslo-until-2020/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/11/Vasily-Petrenko_Oslo_Filharmonien_jens-f-laurson_Forbes.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/10/the-other-petrenko-to-stay-in-oslo-until-2020/)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Wanderer on November 24, 2015, 02:08:16 AM
Aunt Sally Disappointed With Contemporary Classical Piece (http://www.throwcase.com/2015/11/23/aunt-sally-disappointed-with-contemporary-classical-piece/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 24, 2015, 02:44:20 AM
Quote from: Wanderer on November 24, 2015, 02:08:16 AM
Aunt Sally Disappointed With Contemporary Classical Piece (http://www.throwcase.com/2015/11/23/aunt-sally-disappointed-with-contemporary-classical-piece/)
Brilliant!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on November 24, 2015, 03:55:40 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 24, 2015, 02:44:20 AM
Brilliant!


+1! The best concert review I´ve ever read, period.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 24, 2015, 05:00:44 AM
Quote from: Wanderer on November 24, 2015, 02:08:16 AM
Aunt Sally Disappointed With Contemporary Classical Piece (http://www.throwcase.com/2015/11/23/aunt-sally-disappointed-with-contemporary-classical-piece/)

I laughed. I cried.  I voiced a non-tonal hexachord.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 26, 2015, 01:13:02 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)

NOV 25, 2015
The Real Top 10 Bach Recordings

Bach, the Grand Master

There is something about the music of Johann Sebastian Bach that puts it in a category of its own.
Bach is the P.G. Wodehouse and the Shakespeare of the musical score rolled into one. He is the
only composer on whom I cannot overdose, and while his music seemed dated to his own, slightly
embarrassed sons, it strikes us as perfectly timeless now. His works pillars of mankind's culture,
and his music constitute the first tracks etched onto the golden record Voyager record that sails
toward hypothetical distant galactic civilizations. I should think that potential aliens might rather
get too sanguine an impression of us* ... but there we go: Bach is the bee's knees, and anyone
who knows Bach but doesn't love his music is going to be suspect to me, lest I learn a exculpatory
reason for their lamentable deficiency.

The Gramophone Bias

Gramophone Magazine is the only English language magazine that combines serious CD-reviewing
with the glossy, popular magazine approach. I used to read it religiously and got many of my first
hints, tastes, and opinions from its pages. BBC Music Magazine gets close; Classic FM Magazine
lasted nearly twenty years but wasn't taken seriously by the cogniscenti. No-nonsense, no-picture
publications like the American Record Guide or Fanfare Magazine (both American), which exude the
charm of telephone books, are total geek literature, arcane, loved by the few dedicated readers, and
more or less published out of the basements of their respective, dedicated publishers... private
ventures and labors of love that, like the lamented International Record Review, won't likely survive
their founders.

In my time as a clerk at Tower Records, we would sometimes make fun of Gramophone Magazine's
rather obvious pro-English biases. "Proximity bias" or "mere exposure effect" might be the appropriate
euphemism for them being unabashed homers. And indeed, when they published a "10 Best Bach
Recordings" list published early last year, they topped it in such a ridiculous way that it needed soft
rebutting which I hope to provide hereby...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/25/the-real-top-10-bach-recordings/
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/11/Top-10_Bach_Recordings_laurson_600-1200x446.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/11/25/the-real-top-10-bach-recordings/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on November 26, 2015, 03:37:17 AM
I have not heard the Guttenberg (and probably will not get it) but I also remember that passage "Wahrlich, wahrlich, dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen" from the first time I ever heard the piece on the radio (one of the Richter recordings, I think) and I found that most subsequent interpretations I have heard take it to quickly. Richter's broad tempo might not be historically correct but in most other readings this moment passes far too quickly.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on November 27, 2015, 07:48:47 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on November 24, 2015, 05:00:44 AM
I laughed. I cried.  I voiced a non-tonal hexachord.
:laugh: ;D :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on November 28, 2015, 03:48:53 PM

Fresh from ionarts:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IQo2cptZrDA/VlpDBOy_45I/AAAAAAAAIw0/bvSpF1fveJw/s640/_Forbes-Graphic-Haenssler-Profil_HAYDN.jpg)

NOV 28, 2015
The Hobbit Returns: Thomas Fey & the Heidelberg
Symphony will finish their Haydn Cycle


It has just been informally announced that Hänssler CLASSIC, which was recently,
partially merged with PROFIL Hänssler (see "Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels
Of Father And Son" on Forbes.com), will continue the wildly imaginative, musically
successful Haydn Symphony cycle that Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker
had been working on for the last few years. Yay!

Fey (*1960), who has attained the lovingly-meant nickname "The Hobbit" in an
internet forum that teems with appréciateurs for that particular cycle, founded the
orchestra in 1993 and has its roots in an early music ensemble that Fey founded as
a student, several years earlier. Fey, who had studied under Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
is greatly influenced by, but not beholden to, the historically informed performance
ideology or movement. (The orchestra calls itself "historically oriented".)

When their Haydn recording project began shortly after the orchestra assembled, in
1999...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hobbit-returns-thomas-fey.html
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hobbit-returns-thomas-fey.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on November 28, 2015, 04:20:02 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on November 28, 2015, 03:48:53 PM
Fresh from ionarts:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IQo2cptZrDA/VlpDBOy_45I/AAAAAAAAIw0/bvSpF1fveJw/s640/_Forbes-Graphic-Haenssler-Profil_HAYDN.jpg)

NOV 28, 2015
The Hobbit Returns: Thomas Fey & the Heidelberg
Symphony will finish their Haydn Cycle


It has just been informally announced that Hänssler CLASSIC, which was recently,
partially merged with PROFIL Hänssler (see "Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels
Of Father And Son" on Forbes.com), will continue the wildly imaginative, musically
successful Haydn Symphony cycle that Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker
had been working on for the last few years. Yay!

Fey (*1960), who has attained the lovingly-meant nickname "The Hobbit" in an
internet forum that teems with appréciateurs for that particular cycle, founded the
orchestra in 1993 and has its roots in an early music ensemble that Fey founded as
a student, several years earlier. Fey, who had studied under Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
is greatly influenced by, but not beholden to, the historically informed performance
ideology or movement. (The orchestra calls itself "historically oriented".)

When their Haydn recording project began shortly after the orchestra assembled, in
1999...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hobbit-returns-thomas-fey.html
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hobbit-returns-thomas-fey.html)


Just read the article through your Twitter account, Jens. Great news!

And I love that The Hobbit was mentioned. Who originally coined that name? Sarge, maybe?

Anyway, here's to Nos. 6, 67, 80 and 81 getting the Fey treatment!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 09, 2015, 01:05:32 PM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)


DEC 9, 2015
The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2015 (New Releases)

It's fair to say to say that such "Best-Of" lists are inherently daft if one clings too
literally to the idea of "Best." Still, I have been making "Best of the Year" lists for
classical music since 2004, when working at Tower Records gave me a splendid
oversight (occasionally insight) of the new releases and of the re-releases that
hit the classical music market. Since then, I've kept tabs on the market as much
as possible. (The 2014 Forbes list for new recordings can be found here, the one
for re-issues here.)

(The entire list on Amazon for CDs and mp3s (incomplete) can be found here.
The complete-as-possible Spotify playlist here. Links to iTunes (where available)
and the high-fidelity streaming/download platform Qobuz are provided individually.)

Making these lists is a subjective affair, aided only by massive exposure and
hopefully good ears and a discriminating, if personal taste. But then "10 CDs
that, all caveats duly noted, I consider to have been outstanding in 2015"
does not make for a sexy headline. You get the point. The built-in hyperbole
of the phrase is a tool to understand what this is about, not symbolic of
illusions of grandeur on part of the author. Because the market lends itself to
it, I distinguish between new releases and re-releases. This is the Top 10 of
the former, the Top 10 of the re-issues will follow. Let's get right to it:...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/12/No01_Forbes-Best-of-2015-HAYDN-SCARLATTI_Cave_AEON_laurson-1200x470.jpg)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/12/09/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2015-new-releases/
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/12/09/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2015-new-releases/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 13, 2015, 03:03:07 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWCfk8xU4AAaoxA.jpg:large)


DEC 12, 2015
The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2015 (Re-Issues)

The first stage of drafting such a list after listening to hundreds of new albums, is straining
to remember which ones were sufficiently excellent to include. The second stage is to justify
to oneself how not to include the many albums that come to mind only after the Top 10 has
been assembled. On the ionarts website I cheat by creating an "Almost List." Here, as I did
last year, I will merely lament ostentatiously that there was no room to include Zhu Xiao-Mei's
Art of the Fugue (Accentus), Mozart Violin Concertos with Christian Tetzlaff (Hänssler), the
Bruckner Fourth Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Manfred Honeck (Reference
Recordings), Alice Cooper narrating a new mashup of Peter and the Wolf (DG), the Pavel Haas
String Quartet's superb new recording of the Smetana Quartets (Supraphon), Pentatone's
splendid coupling of Richard Strauss Sinfonia domestica with his forgotten choral work "The
Times of the Day" or the snappy "Sinkovsky Plays & Sings Vivaldi" album on naïve. And off
we go to the list of Best Re-Issues of 2015:...

(http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=13493.0;attach=44612;image)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/12/12/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2015-re-releases/
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2015/12/12/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2015-re-releases/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 15, 2015, 08:21:31 AM
John reacting against one performance here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21492.msg938281.html#msg938281) . . .

. . . results in purchasing another performance here (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21529.msg938304.html#msg938304).

8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on December 26, 2015, 07:25:13 AM
Whilst hunting for online pictures of the Horowitz '67 Whitman recital, which ain't too hot, I noticed that Amazon sells individual MP3 tracks of applause from Horowitz releases for $1.29 each.  A bargain?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Turner on December 26, 2015, 11:22:48 AM
Are some people out there doing applause collecting ? :) 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on December 29, 2015, 03:49:18 AM
Quote from: Turner on December 26, 2015, 11:22:48 AM
Are some people out there doing applause collecting ? :)

I'm sure there must be completists out there owning 100+ recordings of applause from their favorite performer's releases.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 29, 2015, 08:30:34 AM
The MusicWeb reviewers are a strange, strange bunch.

Here are some CDs which NOBODY requested to review this month:

- Mendelssohn violin concerto (two versions - PentaTone and Chandos)
- Mendelssohn string quartets
- Diabelli variations
- Beethoven violin sonatas 6 & 7 plus dances
- Brahms/Reger clarinet quintets
- literally all of the new Chopin releases

Here are the two MOST-requested CDs which reviewers are fighting over:
- Henk Badings symphonies
- Walter Braunfels variations

...okay never mind, MusicWeb reviewers would all fit right in on GMG!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on December 29, 2015, 10:02:24 AM
I can understand being "sick" with the Mendelssohn concerto and some Chopin but the other things seem to be either not all that "overrecorded" (Mendelssohn, Reger) or anyone who cares for the music at all would often be interested in another version (maybe not in reviewing).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on December 29, 2015, 11:30:53 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 29, 2015, 08:30:34 AM
The MusicWeb reviewers are a strange, strange bunch.

Here are some CDs which NOBODY requested to review this month:

- literally all of the new Chopin releases



What are the Chopin recordings up for review?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 29, 2015, 04:53:30 PM
Quote from: Todd on December 29, 2015, 11:30:53 AM
What are the Chopin recordings up for review?

Ballades, Impromptus, Preludes - Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
Etudes - Alessandro Deljavan
"Chronological Chopin" 3CD box - Burkhard Schliessmann
Cello Sonata - Alexander Suleiman
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 30, 2015, 02:36:05 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 29, 2015, 04:53:30 PM
Ballades, Impromptus, Preludes - Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
Etudes - Alessandro Deljavan
"Chronological Chopin" 3CD box - Burkhard Schliessmann
Cello Sonata - Alexander Suleiman

Boy, that is a very uninspiring lot. Who could have possibly been waiting with baited breath for Burkard Schliessmann to regale us with chronological Chopin? Even if it did turn out to be quite sensational. Incidentally a lot of Chopin reviews (I've just tried to collect all the ones about Mazurka-collections) are rather brief and say little to nothing beyond general things about the music and where they do, they describe in detail the pleasures of listening to Joyce Hatto.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on December 30, 2015, 02:53:42 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on December 30, 2015, 02:36:05 AM
Boy, that is a very uninspiring lot. Who could have possibly been waiting with baited breath for Burkard Schliessmann to regale us with chronological Chopin? Even if it did turn out to be quite sensational.

Bring Mr. Schliessmann's performance in a GMG blind comparison and chances are great that he displace all the big names from their position.  And there will be at least one person to vote his favorite out right in the first round :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 30, 2015, 03:35:44 AM
Quote from: Florestan on December 30, 2015, 02:53:42 AM
Bring Mr. Schliessmann's performance in a GMG blind comparison and chances are great that he displace all the big names from their position.  And there will be at least one person to vote his favorite out right in the first round :D

Perfectly possible. But most people don't do blind comparisons and listen with their minds, not ears... which is to say: They hear what they expect and want to hear.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on December 30, 2015, 05:55:57 AM
From NPR - interesting discussion about Dart making Spotify easier to use for classical fans and composers: 

http://www.npr.org/2015/12/29/461409282/startup-aims-to-give-classical-musicians-an-online-bump
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 31, 2015, 06:10:18 AM
Just got Daniil Trifonov's "Rachmaninov Variations" CD. It has SEVENTY-THREE tracks. So I have to ask: what is the most tracks you've seen on a CD?

Also: "Daniil Trifonov's wardrobe courtesy of Ermenegildo Zegna."



Quote from: jlaurson on December 30, 2015, 02:36:05 AM
Boy, that is a very uninspiring lot. Who could have possibly been waiting with baited breath for Burkard Schliessmann to regale us with chronological Chopin? Even if it did turn out to be quite sensational. Incidentally a lot of Chopin reviews (I've just tried to collect all the ones about Mazurka-collections) are rather brief and say little to nothing beyond general things about the music and where they do, they describe in detail the pleasures of listening to Joyce Hatto.  ;)

I didn't grab the Schliessmann, but I did request the first two, so we'll see. The industry, for all its supposed ill health, does release waaaay more media than anybody could possibly want/need.

Chopin reviews are damn hard to write. With very rare exceptions (David Wilde!!) there is nothing new under the interpretive sun. All you really get to talk about with the mazurkas, in particular, is what they do with the rhythm, and maybe a few words about "poetry"...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on December 31, 2015, 06:53:25 AM
I don't think I have a CD which can compete with 73 tracks!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on December 31, 2015, 06:58:48 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2015, 06:10:18 AM


I didn't grab the Schliessmann, but I did request the first two, so we'll see. The industry, for all its supposed ill health, does release waaaay more media than anybody could possibly want/need.


Speaking of the devil:

QuotePRESS RELEASE

German pianist Burkard Schliessman is a performer with a passion and vision – to seek out and interpret the forms, colours and textures, indeed the soul and expression, and the poetic impact of works we believe have been fully explored. His recordings have received world-wide acclaim.


This new triple SACD set chronicles the works of Chopin in order of composition date, showing both the composer's development and a valuable informative tool for scholars – whilst also being a superb recital.
Tracklisting

Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20; Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23; 24 Preludes Op. 28; Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 31; Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38; Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 39; Prélude in C sharp minor, Op. 45; Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 47; Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49; Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52; Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54; Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57; Barcarolle in F sharp major Op. 60; Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major, Op. 61

CD Product Details

This recording is released as a 5-channel SACD/CD Hybrid, on three discs contained in a deluxe digipack. The 60 page, three language booklet features a highly informative essay by Burkard Schliessman himself, setting out his reasoning behind the whole project. The total CD playing time is almost 160 minutes.

Released via the Divine Art Recordings Group (Catalogue number DDC25752/Bar Code 0809730575228), distributed worldwide via Naxos and released on 8th January 2016 (both physically and digitally).

https://youtu.be/lAJlu5eETL4

About Burkard Schliessman

BURKARD SCHLIESSMANN, who completed his musical studies as a pupil in the masterclass of Herbert Seidel, Shura Cherkassky, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Poldi Mildner, is regarded as one of the most influential pianists of the modern era. He has received numerous prizes and awards of merits for his interpretations.

Burkard Schliessmann has regularly performed throughout Europe, in the United States, Czechoslovakia, Japan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia. He has participated in many European festivals, such as the Munich Piano Summer Festival, the festival "Frankfurt Feste", the Valldemossa Chopin Festival, and the Maurice Ravel Festival in Paris, among others. As orchestral soloist, Mr. Schliessmann's performance highlights include his orchestral solo appearances with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Symphony Orchestra Wuppertal and the New Philharmonic Westfalia, in addition to other orchestras. He enjoys great popularity in media and has been showcased at major German TV-studios, including the Philharmonie of Gasteig in Munich, the City Hall Wuppertal, and the WDR West German Radio studio in Cologne. Mr. Schliessmann has been featured by the WDR radio in its program 'aspekte' in a joint production of the ARD/ZDF TV- channels. He has also been featured by BR Bavarian radio, HR Hessian radio and was broadcast nationwide and throughout Europe in the cultural programs of 'ARTE', and '3sat'.

Burkard Schliessmann has collaborated with highly renowned régisseurs, such as José Montes-Baquer, Enrique Sánchez Lansch, Claus Viller, Lothar Mattner, Peter Gelb, Dieter Hens, Korbinian Meyer, Siegfried Aust and others. Famous critics have had no hesitation in placing him alongside the finest pianists: "This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild, Could - the highest order of artistry" wrote the «High Performance Review» in the USA. Burkard Schliessmann is also an exceptionally gifted pedagogue: As «Distinguished University Professor» he teaches in International Masterclasses of Major-Universities throughout the world, especially in USA; among these are Curtis-Institute in Philadelphia, Lee University in Cleveland (Tennessee), Bastyr-University in Seattle (Washington-State) and others. His pedagogical concept is a unit of psyche and physis of each student and his individuality, taking this by a fusion of the art, music and the instrument. His students are coming from the United States, Europe, Russia, Croatia, Poland, China, Japan and New Zealand. Most of them are prize-winners of international piano competitions and are teaching themselves in universities or conservatories.

Burkard Schliessmann is an Official Artist of STEINWAY & SONS.

>From Bastyr-University in Seattle (Washington-State) he received the highest US-Academic distinction, the «President's Citation» in February 2012; in April 2013 he was awarded with the «Melvin Jones Fellow Award» from LIONS-International in recognition of his international achievements in the Arts and Culture.

See also http://www.schliessmann.com

Further Information
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on December 31, 2015, 07:25:54 AM
Whoa whoa whoa whoa he teaches masterclasses at Bastyr University in Seattle?

I had never ever heard of Bastyr University before, so I looked it up, and:

"Bastyr University is an alternative medicine university with a campus in Kenmore, Washington and one in San Diego, California. Programs include naturopathy, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, ayurvedic medicine, psychology, and midwifery among others. Bastyr's programs are controversial for teaching subjects that are considered pseudoscience and quackery by the scientific and medical communities."

"The Bastyr curriculum has been criticized for teaching pseudoscience and quackery, as courses in homeopathy, herbalism, acupuncture, and ayurvedic methods lack a compelling evidence basis. Clinical training in the naturopathic medicine program was revealed to be significantly less hours than what Bastyr claims to provide its students, focusing on dubious diagnostics to prescribe experimental and pseudoscentific treatments, which do not adhere to medical standards of care. Research conducted at Bastyr has been criticized as being a waste of taxpayer dollars by studying implausible treatments inconsistent with the best understandings of science and medicine.

"Naturopaths trained at Bastyr are required to study homeopathy. David Gorski has been highly critical of this requirement; for him this makes the university fail the "litmus test" of whether it adheres to "science and reality".

"In 2007, Bastyr University was found by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to have violated the standards of academic freedom and shared governance for faculty members who were fired without cause of academic due process. Bastyr has been placed on the AAUP censure list for violating generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on December 31, 2015, 09:27:28 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2015, 06:10:18 AM
Just got Daniil Trifonov's "Rachmaninov Variations" CD. It has SEVENTY-THREE tracks. So I have to ask: what is the most tracks you've seen on a CD?

Also: "Daniil Trifonov's wardrobe courtesy of Ermenegildo Zegna."


You'll find the same credit in certain recordings by Gergiev.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on December 31, 2015, 10:23:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2015, 06:10:18 AM
Just got Daniil Trifonov's "Rachmaninov Variations" CD. It has SEVENTY-THREE tracks. So I have to ask: what is the most tracks you've seen on a CD?


73. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on December 31, 2015, 11:04:20 AM
The Stockhausen-Verlag CD with Mikrophonie I & II and Telemusik has 99 tracks. These are literally three continuous pieces, which by the composer's own orders were split into 33 tracks each—roughly the equivalent of each 4- or 8-bar phrase in a work of conventional music receiving its own track. I have no idea why he didn't just use index points.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 01, 2016, 06:02:36 AM
Quote from: amw on December 31, 2015, 11:04:20 AM
The Stockhausen-Verlag CD with Mikrophonie I & II and Telemusik has 99 tracks. These are literally three continuous pieces, which by the composer's own orders were split into 33 tracks each—roughly the equivalent of each 4- or 8-bar phrase in a work of conventional music receiving its own track. I have no idea why he didn't just use index points.

He wanted to make it streaming proof. Can you imagine listening to that on (free) spotify?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mandryka on January 02, 2016, 06:24:23 AM
Quote from: Brian on December 31, 2015, 06:10:18 AM



Chopin reviews are damn hard to write. With very rare exceptions (David Wilde!!) there is nothing new under the interpretive sun. All you really get to talk about with the mazurkas, in particular, is what they do with the rhythm, and maybe a few words about "poetry"...

One person who is bringing something new I think is Roger Woodward. I'm not sure I could say what but I think there is something very original there. Chopin is hard because the critical establishment is so conservative, with expectations about cantabile and rubato.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 06, 2016, 03:16:00 AM
Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)


JAN 5, 2015
National Symphony Orchestra's New Conductor Ideal
-- But Audience Quality Has To Match Him


...Word on the street was that Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center's president and previously
president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, thought there was no ceiling as to who the
NSO could get as its music director. This was very worrying, because while it is good to be
ambitious, it is also unhelpful to be deluded. To strive for name recognition above all is a
great recipe for orchestral regression... as any big name who might come wouldn't likely be
in it with his heart. The NSO is an upper-tier, middling orchestra; as per 2012 the sixth best
paid American orchestra, but never in its history the sixth best orchestra in the country. Not
a bad orchestra (incidentally the orchestra of my musical-coming-of-age, and I feel deeply
about it), but in brutal-sounding truth an ambitious B-orchestra with a C-audience and kept
relevant only by its location in the capital and having had a big-name conductor in Eschenbach
for the last seven years. It is less than its name, better than its reputation, but in any case not
a sexy position for any big-shot conductor wanting to make a glamorous career. And even
Christoph Eschenbach (who had previously been music director with the Tonhalle-Orchestra
Zurich, Houston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, and Philadelphia Orchestra) could only be
lured to the NSO in 2010 by having made him artistic director of the whole Kennedy Center,
which was a salary-inflating bunny Deborah Rutter's predecessor Michael Kaiser pulled out
of his hat....

(http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/75788554/960x0.jpg?fit=scale)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/01/05/national-symphony-orchestra-new-conductor-ideal-but-audience-quality-has-to-match-him/
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/01/05/national-symphony-orchestra-new-conductor-ideal-but-audience-quality-has-to-match-him/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 28, 2016, 03:01:47 PM
Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on January 29, 2016, 04:02:36 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2016, 03:01:47 PM
Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.

They had a budding contract with DG... but that petered out after a lackluster LvB9 and another, well-received Measha Brueggergosman disc.
FWM isn't a very attractive conductor to critics, it seems... nor does the excellence of the Clevelanders in concert necessarily translate into an advantage on disc, where most orchestras can sound excellent.
And they haven't founded their own label yet, which is how other orchestras have gotten around this. That must be a management / board decision.
The real question is the Player's Union situation, but I know nothing about that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 11, 2016, 12:43:10 AM

Fresh from Forbes:

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GS9pLMtbk04/VIB7VKbHqeI/AAAAAAAAHvs/QnxWx_SUGxc/s1600/Forbes_SOUND_ADVICE_laurson_2_600.jpg)


JAN 5, 2015
Washington's National Symphony And Lang Lang In Vienna

...In such proximity to the Super Bowl, a football analogy will have to fit the bill: The National Symphony
Orchestra is to American orchestras what the...

...BA-Dam!! Christopher Rouse rips the score of his 1986 8- or 9-minute symphonic overture open with a loud,
butts-from-seats-jolting chord before plinking and plonging away, harp-supported, and moving on with great
gaiety in the woodwind section. The tuba engages in sounds that would make juveniles giggle; the neglected
strings are allowed a word in, edgewise, here and there. Eventually the music works up an appetite and goes
through more notes than the Cookie Monster through Oreos. Me want demisemiquaver!...

...And the antics? Even trying to look away, the occasional glance at the pianist is impossible and whenever it
occurs, it is met by the spectacle of a young man looking like a self-satisfied juvenile hamster who does the slow
face-pan to the audience – ecstatic stop – very-moved head-swivel – slow semi-circle back to the music – briefly
arrested movement along with transfixed-by-beauty-of-his-own-playing stare. Lang Lang's gestures and
mimicking during a concert would make for primo live-blogging, if mobile phones weren't so taboo during
classical concerts...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca4oIUVWwAASb3E.jpg)
(Image courtesy [= stolen from] American Ambassador to Austria, Alexa Wesner)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/02/10/washingtons-national-symphony-and-lang-lang-in-vienna/#149124a71520
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/02/10/washingtons-national-symphony-and-lang-lang-in-vienna/#149124a71520)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on February 11, 2016, 05:28:46 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2016, 03:01:47 PM
Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.

Besides what Jens mentioned, there's the ongoing Uchida live Mozart cycle (she's doing 17 and 25 this week) and a live Knaben Wunderhorn with Rattle's wife and Gerhaher conducted by Boulez.

On BlueRay or DVD there is a Welser-Möst Brahms cycle (symphonies, concertos, overtures) and Bruckner 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/mozartpc2324uchidacleve.jpg) (http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/mozartpc921uchida.jpg)

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/mozartpc2027uchidacleve.jpg) (http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/sep2012/mozart1819uchidacleveland.jpg)

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/mahler/MahlerDKWBoulezCleve.jpg)


Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on February 20, 2016, 04:11:32 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbqOFL7WwAAjpuB.jpg:large)
A Survey of Mozart Piano Sonata Cycles
Updated from W.Klien to V.Perlemutter

(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-survey-of-mozart-piano-sonata-cycles.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 07, 2016, 01:14:00 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Liszt Inspections (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-liszt-inspections-2/#2202ad6627f0)

Liszt Inspections, Marino Formenti (piano), Kairos

A gentle small-scale giant of music who doesn't distinguish between "contemporary" and established, Marino Formenti has the preternatural ability to make any music sound weird.

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/02/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_KARUS_Liszt-Inspections_Formenti1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-liszt-inspections-2/#2202ad6627f0 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-liszt-inspections-2/#2202ad6627f0)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 09, 2016, 02:52:06 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mozart, Sonatas For Fortepiano (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-sonatas-for-fortepiano/#34f671756fd2/#2202ad6627f0)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Keyboard Sonatas vol.8 & 9, Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), (Harmonia Mundi)

There have been fortepianists before Ronald Brautigam and Kristian Bezuidenhout upon whose shoulders those two might be said to stand. But none had managed to so convincingly bring the fortepiano into the mainstream.

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_Harmonia-Mundi_Mozart_Bezuidenhout_Sonatas1600-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-sonatas-for-fortepiano/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-sonatas-for-fortepiano//#2202ad6627f0)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 13, 2016, 07:52:03 AM
Yesterday I heard Joseph Moog perform in recital, and for the first half of the recital, my wife and I were the only two people in the front row of a half-full house.  For the second half, one other couple took their seats in the front row.  It was a bit odd.

More important, Moog was first rate.  His Liszt was phenomenally good.  One thing of note was how loud he played.  Moog is the loudest pianist I've heard in person.  He didn't bang or anything, and he played with absolute command at all times, and he played quietly and with nuance when needed.  Here's a pianist who could play the big time concertos with aplomb.  I hope to hear him do so one day.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on March 16, 2016, 07:12:14 PM
Todd, I wonder if the piano had anything to do with Mr. Moog's volume?  Maybe he was using a different, more responsive instrument...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 17, 2016, 02:22:14 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mendelssohn String Quartets (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-mendelssohn-string-quartets/#7d462ff24664)

Felix Mendelssohn-B., String Quartets Nos.2 & 3, Escher String Quartet, BIS

The reverb on the last thunderously struck notes hovers in the air and you can almost smell a whiff of burnt resin as the Escher Quartet puts their smoking bows back into their scabbards. Ripping stuff!

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_BIS_Mendelssohn_Escher-Quartet_StringQuartets1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-mendelssohn-string-quartets/ (http://hhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-mendelssohn-string-quartets/#7d462ff24664)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 18, 2016, 11:30:31 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on March 16, 2016, 07:12:14 PMTodd, I wonder if the piano had anything to do with Mr. Moog's volume?  Maybe he was using a different, more responsive instrument...


Possibly, but it looked like the same Steinway D that the hall always uses.  The only way to gain a better understanding is to hear him in person again in a different venue.  I'm game.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on March 19, 2016, 06:43:55 AM
Quote from: Todd on March 18, 2016, 11:30:31 AM

Possibly, but it looked like the same Steinway D that the hall always uses.  The only way to gain a better understanding is to hear him in person again in a different venue.  I'm game.
So, probably not just the piano. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on March 20, 2016, 02:39:01 AM
This is what happens when an engineer gets a copy of the score for Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie for Christmas. Probably isn't too different from a 5-year-old with colored pencils getting one.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/r0fkcsqdjlqj9lp/Photo%20Mar%2020%2C%206%2027%2056%20AM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Artem on March 21, 2016, 04:10:59 PM
Does anybody have any experience with space saving cd sleeves? http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com (http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com) Any opinion would be appreciated.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on March 22, 2016, 11:22:36 AM
Quote from: Artem on March 21, 2016, 04:10:59 PM
Does anybody have any experience with space saving cd sleeves? http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com (http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com) Any opinion would be appreciated.

Yes. They do basically what they say. I am a repeat customer. Some batches have one side slightly wider than the other, in which case you'll want to put the back tray card in the wider side.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 22, 2016, 11:36:18 AM
Quote from: Pat B on March 22, 2016, 11:22:36 AM
Yes. They do basically what they say. I am a repeat customer. Some batches have one side slightly wider than the other, in which case you'll want to put the back tray card in the wider side.

Ditto.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 23, 2016, 03:17:28 PM
Quote from: Artem on March 21, 2016, 04:10:59 PM
Does anybody have any experience with space saving cd sleeves? http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com (http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com) Any opinion would be appreciated.

Brilliant! Life-safers. (If by life you mean shelf-space and domestic harmony.)
You lose something in the spines not being visible anymore (though you can still browse by thumbing over them, in which case you can read them), but you save so much space (an average of 2/3, I'd say or differently: tripling your shelf capacity). You don't save weight per square inch, incidentally, because three CDs + sleeves make up for the jewel case, easily... so if your shelves were bending then, they'll bend as much or more. I don't re-pack SACDs (so I can find them more easily) and operas (because too many don't have the right size booklet, anyway. The result is a little higher and a little wider than a jewel case... note that, if you have any boxes in which you put them that fit too snugly to a jewel case.
- - -

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Bach for Solo Soprano (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-bach-for-solo-soprano/#120b34ce6c50)

Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantatas for Solo-Soprano, Dorothee Mields / L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra / Michi Gaigg, Carus

...This is arguably the weaker part of the recording at hand (Suzuki presents all 12 strophes, which even Carolyn Sampson, a rare singer I cherish just as much as Mields, can only just about make bearable), but in a way that speaks to the disc's strength rather than any weakness...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_Carus_Bach_Mields_Cantatas1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-bach-for-solo-soprano/#120b34ce6c50 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-bach-for-solo-soprano/#120b34ce6c50)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Artem on March 23, 2016, 05:39:11 PM
Thanks for the comments regarding the sleeves. I was a bit concerned about how the spines would look. Also the issue of the weight is a bit of concern too, because I have to move a number of disks overseas. But I guess to really reduce the weight I must get rid of the liner notes too.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on March 23, 2016, 11:46:11 PM
Quote from: Artem on March 23, 2016, 05:39:11 PM
Thanks for the comments regarding the sleeves. I was a bit concerned about how the spines would look. Also the issue of the weight is a bit of concern too, because I have to move a number of disks overseas. But I guess to really reduce the weight I must get rid of the liner notes too.

Aesthetically the spines look really good, though Jens is correct that they are harder to read.

For shipping purposes note that Jens was talking weight-per-inch -- they surely save quite a bit of weight per disc. I'll try to measure that tomorrow.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 25, 2016, 03:58:03 AM
Quote from: Pat B on March 23, 2016, 11:46:11 PM
Aesthetically the spines look really good, though Jens is correct that they are harder to read.

For shipping purposes note that Jens was talking weight-per-inch -- they surely save quite a bit of weight per disc. I'll try to measure that tomorrow.

That is correct; you will save PLENTY weight per CD. More specifically 62 gramms* or thereabouts. And you will save many cubic inches/yards. (Or square, if you go by shelf-space.) Just not any weight per cubic yard because now they stack more tightly.

* An avg. disc with nice booklet and jewel case may weigh ~108g and only 46g with a sleeve. The sleeve itself weighs <6g to the ~68g (jewel cases differ; the cheaper the lighter) of the jewel case... so less than a 1/10. That's a considerable 6kg/>13lb on 100 discs.

Sleeves: If you are willing to ditch the liner notes (apart from the fact that I think that that's tantamount to castrating your collection), well, I don't know even where to begin. Yes, the advantage of these sleeves is specifically their ability to let you keep the back-inlay, which allows for the spine to remain in place and (sortof) readable... but really these sleeves work so well because they turn your CDs in to mini-LPs with all the information retained. I don't think I would spend ~25ct per sleeve/CD if I didn't take full advantage of them.

That said, I need to make another order of them darn things; 1000 at least. Any central European/German/Austrian who wants to try a few is welcome to piggy-bag ride on that order to test them sleeves out.

P.S. if you look at the picture of the tweet that goes with the above CD-of-the-Week post (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-bach-for-solo-soprano/#120b34ce6c50) (not the picture posted in this forum), you can see one of those sleeves in action, if you look closely.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on March 31, 2016, 06:35:28 AM
Latest on Forbes.com:

Music For The Easter Weekend: From Dresden Schütz to Elgar in Dresden (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/24/music-for-the-easter-weekend-from-dresden-schutz-to-elgar-in-dresden/#393a2abc66d6)

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.2 | Edward Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius | Heinrich Schütz, Resurrection Historia | Gottfried August Homilius, St. Mark Passion | George Philipp Telemann, Brockes-Passion

...What soundtrack to the Passion of the Christ, Pesach, or the Easter bunny? Bach wrote eight cantatas for Easter that survived, the Easter-Oratorio, and the two Passions. That's standard stuff and glorious and worthy any occasion but it's been written about plenty. Including in last year's post about Music for Easter on Forbes: "Bach And Beyond: Music For The Easter Weekend". (Nods were also given to Dieterich Buxtehude (Membra Jesu Nostri) and Wagner's Parsifal, and the less well known Carl Heinrich Graun and his Easter Oratorio.)...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Music-for-Easter_Forbes_laurson_Bruckner_Venzago_Northern-Sinfonia_CPO_1600-1200x446.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/24/music-for-the-easter-weekend-from-dresden-schutz-to-elgar-in-dresden/#393a2abc66d6 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/24/music-for-the-easter-weekend-from-dresden-schutz-to-elgar-in-dresden/#393a2abc66d6)






Classical CD Of The Week: Charles Ives Down Under (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/30/classical-cd-of-the-week-charles-ives-down-under/#20229fe06ede)

Charles Ives, Orchestral Works v.2, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor), Chandos SACD

...This disc, nominally the second volume in the Melbourne Orchestra's cycle of Charles Ives orchestral works, contains three of his major goodies (Central Park in the Dark, Three Places in New England, and The Unanswered Question) and one of his less performed, perhaps underappreciated works in the most phenomenal performance I have heard: The New England Holidays Symphony. This combination makes the release a perfect starting place for this series and indeed a perfect starting place for your Ives-adventure...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_CHANDOS_IVES_AndrewDavis_Melbourne_Orchestral-Works1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/30/classical-cd-of-the-week-charles-ives-down-under/#20229fe06ede (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/30/classical-cd-of-the-week-charles-ives-down-under/#20229fe06ede)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on March 31, 2016, 10:58:53 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on March 20, 2016, 02:39:01 AM
This is what happens when an engineer gets a copy of the score for Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie for Christmas. Probably isn't too different from a 5-year-old with colored pencils getting one.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/r0fkcsqdjlqj9lp/Photo%20Mar%2020%2C%206%2027%2056%20AM.jpg)
It is said that Leopold Stokowski marked up his scores with similar colored pencils. 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 06, 2016, 01:30:13 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:


Classical CD Of The Week: Croatian Romantic Discovery (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek006)

Dora Pejačević, Piano Concerto, Orchestral Songs, Overture op.49, Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt/Oder, Howard Griffith (conductor), cpo

...There are those who might wish to make a point of Dora Pejačevič being a composer of the female persuasion, but I would consider that possibly sexist; certainly faux-feminist posturing. She's simply a good composer from a time where few women ardently pursued that kind of career. The music deserves credit on account of its beauty, not on account of Pejačevič's chromosome-makeup....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_CPO_PEJACEVIC_Griffith_Frankfurt-Oder_Piano-Concerto1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/06/classical-cd-of-the-week-croatian-romantic-discovery/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek006)
[/quote]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 09, 2016, 05:33:11 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:


Gergiev Starts Into Second Season In Munich (http://bit.ly/GergievMunich02)

...On the subject of live-streaming concerts (a concept about which slight confusion seems to reign, when a live-stream of a concert from a few days ago was being promised) there came the comment, almost an aside, that because Gergiev's a star, there were plenty of streaming requests coming forth. It was a blink-or-you-miss-it moment. But Woha! I'll explain in a second....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2015/09/Gergiev__Valery_Alberto_Venzago-1940x1290.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/09/gergiev-starts-into-second-season-in-munich/#2a6df96c34b7 (http://bit.ly/GergievMunich02)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 12, 2016, 10:50:27 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:


In Search Of A Home, Abroad: The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra In North America (http://bit.ly/BRSO-does-America)

Forbes: The Bavarian RSO hits N.America today, starting @kencen & finishing @carnegiehall

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/04/BRSO_in_New_York_Mariss-Janoson_jens-f-laurson_Forbes_-1200x749.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/12/in-search-of-a-home-abroad-the-bavarian-radio-symphony-orchestra-in-north-america/ (http://bit.ly/BRSO-does-America)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 13, 2016, 05:11:18 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:


Classical CD Of The Week:
Danish Schumann With A Punch (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek007)


Until not so long ago, Wolfgang Sawallisch's set of Schumann Symphonies was
the universal consensus reference-recording which conveniently meant that
thinking about new recordings wasn't necessary – nor listening...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/03/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_CPO_SACD_SCHUMANN_Odense_Gaudenz_Symphonies1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/13/classical-cd-of-the-week-danish-schumann-with-a-punch/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek007)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 14, 2016, 12:57:14 AM
latest on ionarts... or actually just dusting off of a post that has languished for almost ten years after WETA dumped their blog including the Mahler survey I wrote for them. Here is, at nearly-last (Symphony 4 has yet to be restored), the Introduction:

Gustav Mahler – A Brief Introduction

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_HHFGspBp8E/Vw7ogVS0JYI/AAAAAAAAJDs/VFFAyuxBa54PIQe2kaCiYGpIXm0GLld3wCLcB/s1600/Gustav_Mahler_Introduction.png) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/gustav-mahler-brief-introduction.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/gustav-mahler-brief-introduction.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/gustav-mahler-brief-introduction.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 14, 2016, 11:05:36 PM
Hannu Lintu has extended his contract as the chief conductor of Finnish RSO to 2021, with an option of two more years. His reign started in autumn 2013.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 18, 2016, 02:51:45 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Bach At Home In Japan (http://onforb.es/1r9rDZy)

Where resides the best Bach Orchestra and Chorus in the world? Leipzig? Berlin?
Germany at least? Amsterdam – where the great Bach tradition still lives on vibrantly?
London, where the early music movement attained its first heights? Maybe, but for
my money try Kobe, Japan[1]. Forgive for a second the hyperbole of "best": there
are other really, really fine ensembles that do Bach extremely proud. But the Bach
Collegium Japan (BCJ) and its founding director Masaaki Suzuki are are part of the
exclusive high-end of interpreters of the Leipzig's Master and need yield to no one in
the quality of their Bach performances....

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1NuvBriUsKs/VxSqdCipdHI/AAAAAAAAJEE/p28PSI4ZR98DnRAd6Mw3DqUGRWxCCnktACLcB/s1600/BACH_Collegium_Japan_Logo_laurson_Forbes-600.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/17/bach-at-home-in-japan (http://bit.ly/Bach-Collegium-Japan_Konzerthaus)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 21, 2016, 02:20:37 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Living History Mozart (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek008)

Paul Badura-Skoda seems like a pianist from another era – t'is almost surprising he
is still alive and busily recording! But he certainly is – and the wealth of his musical
knowledge shows in this latest of his recent Mozart solo-recordings on a 1790s
Anton Weller instrument....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/04/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_GRAMOLA_Mozart_Badura-Skoda_Sonatas_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/20/classical-cd-of-the-week-living-history-mozart/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek008)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on April 24, 2016, 12:31:30 AM

Latest on ionarts:
Ionarts-at-Large: The Vienna Symphony's B Minor Mass: Bach to Snooze To (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/ionarts-at-large-vienna-symphonys-b.html)

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Philippe Jordan has taken on the sensible, laudable,
wonderful mission of adding Bach to its regularish fare. Last year they performed the St.
Matthew Passion.[1] Next season it will be the St. John Passion. And on March 19th, it was
the Mass in B minor at the Vienna Konzerthaus – part of the now defunct "Osterklang"
Festival of secular music associated with the Theater an der Wien (or rather: its Intendant,
Roland Geyer).

In short, this Karl Richter memorial performance was...

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DX4_ve7EuZ4/UqB-_O57r4I/AAAAAAAAHWI/4SfdDkEziXY/s1600/KonzerthausGrosserSaal.png)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/ionarts-at-large-vienna-symphonys-b.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/ionarts-at-large-vienna-symphonys-b.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: EigenUser on May 08, 2016, 02:53:11 PM
When I went to see Mahler 6 a couple of months ago with Brian, Bruce, and a few friends of mine, I told them that I listened to it at the gym. Brian specifically asked "When it is hammertime, what do you do?" Now I have a good answer: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFKdasmmDB3/

(since this is GMG, I should tell you that the audio clip used is from Bernstein's DG recording)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 11, 2016, 02:16:01 AM
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Revelation Of A Mystery Play (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek010)

Alongside Mieczysław Weinberg (Passenger and especially Idiot), Walter Braunfels is the greatest
among least known opera composers. (Needless to say, he was given an overdue chapter in the
new, second edition of Surprised by Beauty, Robert Reilly's "Listener's Guide to the Recovery of
20th Century of Music" for which it was my privilege to contribute this particular chapter.) Record-
ings of Jeanne D'Arc and at last a new recording of The Annunciation show Braunfels at his best...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_BR-KLASSIK_Braunfels_Annunciation_Banse_Schirmer_Munich-Radio-Symphony-Orchestra_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/20/classical-cd-of-the-week-living-history-mozart/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek010)


Classical CD Of The Week: Domestic Violins & Four Last Songs for Chorus (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek009)

It's easy to be dismissive about Richard Strauss' Sinfonia Domestica, with its purported or actual
depiction of his eggs sunny-side-up for breakfast, afternoon nap, and a digestive movement (ma
non troppo). And although it's likely Strauss was deliberately poking fun at the symphonic tradition
with his juxtaposition of the most banal topicality, he didn't compose his 9th (of 10) tone poem
just as a lark...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/04/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_PENTATONE_Strauss_Janowski_Tageszeiten_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/04/27/classical-cd-of-the-week-domestic-violins-four-last-songs-for-chorus/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek009)


Boston Symphony's Gift To Mahler In Vienna (http://bit.ly/BSO-in-Vienna)

...And that was achieved, and with perfectly hushed tones in the bargain, interrupted only by the
marimba ringtone of a goddamned iPhone, the owner of which was undoubtedly tarred and
feathered and thrown into the Danube Canal immediately following the concert...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/BostonSO_Musikverein_Marco-Borggreve_Andris-Nelsons-1200x798.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/10/boston-symphonys-gift-to-mahler-in-vienna/ (http://bit.ly/BSO-in-Vienna)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 12, 2016, 02:26:07 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mozart With Je Ne Sais Quoi (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek011)

To say that Mozart wrote some pieces that are greater than others is not to
denigrate the miracle-man from Salzburg. Even to say that he is an overrated
composer – which as the easily most popular classical composer, relative to
his colleagues, he must be – doesn't put a dent into his magnificent, ravishing
output. So to say that Mozart's violin concertos are wonderful works but not
of the same complexity and even quality as, for example, the later piano
concertos; to say that three of them are plenty in one sitting, and to say that
it needn't always be a complete recording of all five to adequately satisfy the
daily dose of Mozart, doesn't constitute a Lèse-majesté...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_HAENSSLER_Mozart_F-P-Zimmerman_Violin-Concertos_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/12/classicalcdoftheweekzimmermann/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek011)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 19, 2016, 03:02:48 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Once-In-A-Decade Schumann (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek012a)

The three Schumann String Quartets (op.41/1-3) are not as present on the recital- or recording
scene as one might assume, given the fame of the composer and the relative popularity of the
genre. We notice this when there comes a recording our way – as seems to happen every decade
or so – that turns our heads and makes us go: "Woha! Right – those works!"...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ci2stpeXAAAXB5j.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/19/classicalcdoftheweek_schumann_hermes-quartet_la-dolce-volta/#5147bc8c345a (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek012a)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 20, 2016, 10:01:25 AM
Quote from: EigenUser on May 08, 2016, 02:53:11 PM
When I went to see Mahler 6 a couple of months ago with Brian, Bruce, and a few friends of mine, I told them that I listened to it at the gym. Brian specifically asked "When it is hammertime, what do you do?" Now I have a good answer: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFKdasmmDB3/

(since this is GMG, I should tell you that the audio clip used is from Bernstein's DG recording)
yessss!!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:08:44 AM
In the latest pat-myself-on-the-shoulders news:


]Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(*Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 27, 2016, 11:57:37 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Post-Baroque Sluggard Demi-Genius (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek013)

After a master-class tour of the Who's-Who of late-baroque/post-baroque composers – Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Adolph Hasse, C.P.E. Bach, and Georg Philipp Telemann – the aspiring composer Johann Gottfried Müthel settled in Riga with his new-won skills and composed. But, in his own words, only when he was in the mood. He didn't think much of working for work's sake or whenever anything but fully inspired and convivial. Sounds as prototypical romantic as impractical an attitude to have. J.S. Bach and P.G. Wodehouse would certainly have disapproved and look where steady hard work has got them!...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BIS_Muethel_Keyboard-Concertos_Arte-dei-Suonatori-_Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/26/classical-cd-of-the-week-classical-cd-of-the-week-post-baroque-sluggard-demi-genius/#4d8697d45f53 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek013)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on May 29, 2016, 06:38:36 AM
Happy Birthday, Wolferl!

Latest on Forbes.com:
An Introduction To Erich Wolfgang Korngold (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/29/korngold_surprised-by-beauty/)

...It wasn't that far from his Snowman to Korngold's first works of artistic maturity – and the Sextet, op.10, premièred in Vienna just before the composers' 20th birthday May 29th, 1917, already shows a composer in the fullest bloom of creative prowess. Think Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht or Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen and you get a fair idea of its perfectly developed chromatic romanticism. Add to that a touch of Viennese gaiety in the Intermezzo, and an Adagio that teases the ear with unfamiliar harmonies—not unlike the opening of Mozart's "Dissonance Quartet" or Alban Berg's Piano Sonata op.1—before offering up the notes that reel us back into familiar, lush territory...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/korngold_1940ca_am_klavier_forbes640.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/29/korngold_surprised-by-beauty/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/05/29/korngold_surprised-by-beauty/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 03, 2016, 11:34:56 AM
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Scarlatti Classical And En Suite (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek14)

As every clever Scarlatti disc or recital should, this one has had some thought put into the selection and arrangement of the sonatas, rather than just willy-nilly lumping together personal favorites. True, the pudding-proof is in the listening, not the admiration of the thought behind it. But it's worth mentioning all the same in this case, especially since on Claire Huangci's disc it works so particularly well: The pianist (whom I heard at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where she came second, then still performing as Tori Huang) arranged bundles of sonatas in the form of baroque suites (disc 1) and classical sonatas (disc 2), as laid out by her lucid, well-written, and refreshingly level-headed liner notes:...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/05/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_BERLIN-CLASSICS_Scarlatti_Huangci_laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-scarlatti-classical-and-en-suite/ (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek014)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 06, 2016, 04:42:16 AM
Latest on Forbes:

The Rebirth of Contemporary Classical Music?
The Vienna Philharmonic Plays Larcher
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/06/the-rebirth-of-contemporary-classical-music-the-vienna-philharmonic-plays-larcher/)

A balmy, sunny Sunday morning. A full house – twice now, counting the previous night –
at the venerable Musikverein's Golden Hall. The Vienna Philharmonic performs under top-tier
conductor Semyon Bychkov. And on the program – prominently, not hidden! – is a world
premiere: A living composer's work and the ink barely dry on it. Kenotaph, by Thomas
Larcher – his Second Symphony...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/06/Thomas-Larcher_c_Richard-Haughton_laurson_1800-1200x446.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/06/the-rebirth-of-contemporary-classical-music-the-vienna-philharmonic-plays-larcher/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/06/the-rebirth-of-contemporary-classical-music-the-vienna-philharmonic-plays-larcher/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Spineur on June 06, 2016, 11:41:07 AM
Need a stradivarius ?
Go ask the Austrian central bank.  In their "unconventional" asset purchases, there is a collection of rare musical instruments including a dozen Stradivarius.
So why not ask for a loan ?
http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/marches-financiers/021994773424-les-achats-non-conventionnels-de-la-banque-centrale-autrichienne-2003821.php (http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/marches-financiers/021994773424-les-achats-non-conventionnels-de-la-banque-centrale-autrichienne-2003821.php)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 06, 2016, 11:42:56 AM
Quote from: Spineur on June 06, 2016, 11:41:07 AM
Need a stradivarius ?
Go ask the Austrian central bank.  In their "unconventional" asset purchases, there is a collection of rare musical instruments including a dozen Stradivarius.
So why not ask for a loan ?
http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/marches-financiers/021994773424-les-achats-non-conventionnels-de-la-banque-centrale-autrichienne-2003821.php (http://www.lesechos.fr/finance-marches/marches-financiers/021994773424-les-achats-non-conventionnels-de-la-banque-centrale-autrichienne-2003821.php)
Banks owning Stradivaris, Guarneris etc is not exactly uncommon.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on June 06, 2016, 02:18:32 PM
Quote from: North Star on June 06, 2016, 11:42:56 AM
Banks owning Stradivaris, Guarneris etc is not exactly uncommon.

One of the big investment banks owns a Clinton.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 07, 2016, 08:48:41 AM
Google just asked MusicWeb to remove the cover art from a CD review because it had a nipple.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 07, 2016, 09:12:59 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 07, 2016, 08:48:41 AM
Google just asked MusicWeb to remove the cover art from a CD review because it had a nipple.

I have a feeling that that's not exactly what happened. I'm not suggesting Len is easily confused... but I am suggesting that putting up this picture will not draw the ire of the search engine that let's you have the best spit-roasting videos at the click of a button... if one were to desire that.


(http://www.classical.net/music/recs/images/a/atm22503.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 07, 2016, 09:17:22 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 07, 2016, 09:12:59 AM
I have a feeling that that's not exactly what happened. I'm not suggesting Len is easily confused... but I am suggesting that putting up this picture will not draw the ire of the search engine that let's you have the best spit-roasting videos at the click of a button... if one were to desire that.

Google's hypocritical puritanism is certainly ridiculous enough for me to have no doubt that Brian's story is accurate. Reminds me of a story of an actress asking why a poster picture with her nipples showing through the costume (i.e., there were distinct bumps) "So why have you airbrushed my nipples, that's ridiculous. Why don't you just leave them?" - and the presenter's reply: "Well, perhaps they thought they weren't suitable for children"

Because, obviously, nipples aren't suitable for children.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 07, 2016, 09:39:44 AM
Quote from: North Star on June 07, 2016, 09:17:22 AM
Because, obviously, nipples aren't suitable for children.

"Kids, don't try these at home!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 07, 2016, 10:52:15 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on June 07, 2016, 09:12:59 AM
I'm not suggesting Len is easily confused...
I wouldn't be surprised if he was confused, but these behemoths are not somebody to mess around with. Did you see that YouTube recently deleted William Shatner's account with the explanation that he had violated their terms?
https://twitter.com/williamshatner/status/738136202436452353

Looks like they fixed it, but the philosophy is "Shoot first, ask questions later"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on June 09, 2016, 06:23:33 PM
Quote from: North Star on June 07, 2016, 09:17:22 AM
Google's hypocritical puritanism is certainly ridiculous enough for me to have no doubt that Brian's story is accurate. Reminds me of a story of an actress asking why a poster picture with her nipples showing through the costume (i.e., there were distinct bumps) "So why have you airbrushed my nipples, that's ridiculous. Why don't you just leave them?" - and the presenter's reply: "Well, perhaps they thought they weren't suitable for children"

Because, obviously, nipples aren't suitable for children.
"Blah blah blah feminist, blah blah blah gender-sh!t, blah blah blah OH MY GOD, NIPPLES!" --Amanda Palmer, "Dear Daily Mail"  (Which, ironically, is still up on Google despite the presence of not just one or two nipples, but Amanda "F#*%ing" Palmer in all her naked glory. ::) )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 10, 2016, 10:49:17 AM
Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: That's Mendelssohn! (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek015)

As every clever Scarlatti disc or recital should, this one has had some thought put into the selection and arrangement of the sonatas, rather than just willy-nilly lumping together personal favorites. True, the pudding-proof is in the listening, not the admiration of the thought behind it. But it's worth mentioning all the same in this case, especially since on Claire Huangci's disc it works so particularly well: The pianist (whom I heard at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where she came second, then still performing as Tori Huang) arranged bundles of sonatas in the form of baroque suites (disc 1) and classical sonatas (disc 2), as laid out by her lucid, well-written, and refreshingly level-headed liner notes:...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/04/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_BIS_Mendelssohn_Octet_DoubleConcerto_Tognetti_Leschenko_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/10/classical-cd-of-the-week-thats-mendelssohn (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek015)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 16, 2016, 01:23:51 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Serenading The Green Eyed Monster (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek016)

Riccardo Muti's Otello, his first commercial audio recording of Verdi's
far-and-away greatest opera, hasn't got an all-star cast by name but
hand-picked singers instead, who contribute...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/06/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_CSO-RESOUND_Verdi_Otello_Riccardo-Muti_Chicago-Symphony_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/15/classical-cd-of-the-week-serenading-the-green-eyed-monster/#79d3b76e4895 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek016)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 16, 2016, 01:50:25 PM
QuoteVatelot confirmed that these were indeed the bows of Ginette Neveu. Asked where they had been found, the visitors told of a man in the Azores village who was using the beautiful Hill & Sons bow: when questioned, he said he had found it on the mountain and promptly relinquished it. Hearing this incredible story, Vatelot asked, "And the violins?". The officials replied, "Oh, the violin played by that man was so old, and he played it so badly, that we knew it couldn't be important."

http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/what-happened-to-ginette-neveus-stradivari/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 21, 2016, 01:25:28 PM

Latest on Forbes.com:

Making Music Visible: Peter Sellars' St John Passion From Berlin (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/21/making-music-visible-peter-sellars-st-john-passion-from-berlin/)


Is a staging of a Bach Passion necessary? Peter Sellars' 2014 production from
Berlin, since published on DVD and Blu-ray, vigorously affirms that: Yes! It
does seem necessary. Or at the very least it is very moving....

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/06/BACH_Berlin-Phil_Roderick-Williams_Mark-Padmore_closeup_St-John-Passion_laurson_1800-1200x446.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/21/making-music-visible-peter-sellars-st-john-passion-from-berlin/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/21/making-music-visible-peter-sellars-st-john-passion-from-berlin/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on June 24, 2016, 05:25:53 AM

Latest on Forbes.com:

Classical CD Of The Week: Handel At His Most English (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek017)


If "no plot, no characters, no dialogue" (Ruth Smith) doesn't sound like a promising
premise for an entertaining musical work, think again: We listen to the music primarily
as it is (as we do with many very popular but daft operas and their excuses of a plot),
but if we chose to follow the text or listen carefully, we find ourselves immersed in an
enchanted literary world – very distant from ours, but beguiling...

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/06/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_SIGNUM_Handel_lallegro_McCreesh_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/06/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-handel-at-his-most-english/#2c0582f8343d (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek017)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on June 24, 2016, 05:45:07 PM
The Kennedy Center Honors for 2016 have been announced.
http://www.kennedy-center.org/pages/specialevents/honors
Martha Argerich will share the stage with Mavis Staples, the Eagles, Al Pacino, and James Taylor.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2016, 04:51:59 AM
Random thought:

The Z Quintet

Thomas Zehetmair, violin
Pinchas Zukerman, violin
Tabea Zimmermann, viola
Zuill Bailey, cello
Christian Zacharias, piano
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 28, 2016, 05:06:42 AM
Frank-Peter Zimmermann is disappointed to notice he's been left out in favour of a pensioner ;)
Maybe he and Krystian Zimerman, or Nikolaj Znaider and Lilya Zilberstein can join the tour as a duo...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2016, 06:41:10 AM
Quote from: North Star on June 28, 2016, 05:06:42 AM
Frank-Peter Zimmermann is disappointed to notice he's been left out in favour of a pensioner ;)
Maybe he and Krystian Zimerman, or Nikolaj Znaider and Lilya Zilberstein can join the tour as a duo...
Oh man!!

Also, Zukerman is still active - has a new CD this month.

Tell you what, let's add Zimmermann and Znaider, make Zukerman the second violist, invite the Zurich Tonhalle's woodwind soloists, and have Jaap van Zweden conduct the Z Chamber Players.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 28, 2016, 06:42:19 AM
With a little effort, you'll have a Z sextet for Verklärte Nacht.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 28, 2016, 07:17:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2016, 06:41:10 AM
Oh man!!

Also, Zukerman is still active - has a new CD this month.
Yes, I know he's active.  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 01, 2016, 10:54:08 AM
Latest on Forbes:

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/06/Neuberg-an-der-Muerz_Muenster_jens-f-laurson_2016_001_Front-of-Church-1200x467.jpg)

James MacMillan In The Countryside
Contemporary Music Festival in Neuberg an der Mürz

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/01/contemporary-music-in-the-countryside/#4543307f1094 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/01/contemporary-music-in-the-countryside/#4543307f1094)

Usually it is chamber music that I seek when I make musical trips into the countryside... partly because Munich –
if and when I am based there – is not a terribly good place for chamber music. When based in Vienna, the situation
is not quite as dire, if only for the efforts of the Wiener Konzerthaus whose chamber music cycle(s) do all the heavy
lifting and whose chamber music venues – the Mozart- and Schubert-Hall – are absolute jewels... acoustically and
atmospherically better than the sarcophagus-like Brahms-Saal of the the Musikverein. There's a bit of contemporary
music going on in Vienna, too, but much of that either of the fig-leaf variety (done to satisfy the abstract notion
that it should be done, but with little heart behind it) or in the damp prison cell of avant-garde niche-ism ("Wien
Modern", which has thus devolved). I've certainly never gone as far for a contemporary music festival as Neuberg
an der Mürz – which is located somewhere between Vienna and the end of the world...

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 20, 2016, 01:32:56 PM
I'm starting to think that the definition of maturity is learning to appreciate the pianism of Rudolf Serkin.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 24, 2016, 02:44:49 AM

Latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: André Isoir's Art Of The Fugue

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/07/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_LA-DOLCE-VOLTA_Bach-Art-of-the-Fugue_Andre_Isoire_laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/20/classical-cd-of-the-week-andre-isoirs-art-of-the-fugue/#83b634a293d5)
Andre Isoire died the day this was posted. May he rest in peace; I think of him with warm gratitude; he has brought me many hours of listening-joy!



Classical CD Of The Week: Madetoja -- Kullervo Without Sibelius

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/07/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Warner-Apex_MADETOJA_Orchestral-Works_Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/13/classical-cd-of-the-week-madetoja-kullervo-without-sibelius/#5afb58c47fcf)



Classical CD Of The Week: Winterreise Threesome

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/07/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Sony_Daniel-Behle_Oliver-Schnyder-Trio_Winterreise_Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/06/classical-cd-of-the-week-winterreise-threesome/#303b552b71e6)






Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on July 29, 2016, 12:25:04 PM
Latest on Forbes:


Classical CD of the Week: Orfeo And Counter-Orfeo

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/07/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Orfeo_Gluck_Equilbey_Archiv_Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-orfeo-and-counter-orfeo (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek022)


Einojuhani Rautavaara, Giant Of Beauty: An Obituary

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CojSaZZXEAAxppZ.jpg:large)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/29/einojuhani-rautavaara-giant-of-beauty-an-obituary (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/07/29/einojuhani-rautavaara-giant-of-beauty-an-obituary)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: TheGSMoeller on August 01, 2016, 12:59:01 PM
For a good time, follow this link and sample the 4th movement of Dvorak's symphony, sounds like Kobayashi's has perfected his grunting...


https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/from-the-new-world-die-moldau/id385161500
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on August 03, 2016, 09:43:00 AM
A musical analysis of the tune David Cameron was humming outside Downing Street

David Cameron was heard humming a bright but confusing little tune as he re-entered 10 Downing Street this afternoon. So we've written it out and analysed it as best we can.
(http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music-theory/david-cameron-musical-analysis/#S3STtV7qfgCiFrlT.97)

(http://assets.gcstatic.com/u/apps/asset_manager/uploaded/2016/28/david-cameron-humming-musical-analysis-1468256220-custom-0.png)

https://www.youtube.com/v/bprjHYY90lo
https://www.youtube.com/v/5HspxFzeB6k


A job for Henning, I think.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 14, 2016, 09:22:59 AM



Classical CD Of The Week: Bartók & Kodály, Toothsome Hungarian Twosome

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Kodaly-Bartok_String-Quartets-Alexander_Foghorn_Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg) (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek023)



Classical CD Of The Week: Schoecking Beauty From Switzerland

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Schoeck-Sommernacht-Venzago_Musiques-Suisses_Jens-f-Laurson-1200-1200x469.jpg) (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek024)


If I can coax someone into leaving a (reasonably meaningful) comment on any of the Forbes CD of the Week reviews, I've got a voucher for the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall (alas valid for only 7 days from the first concert watched) to go their way.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 26, 2016, 07:51:36 AM



Classical CD Of The Week: Bruckner Rising & Wagner Rarity

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_PROFIL-HAENSSLER_Wagner-Abendmahl_Bruckner-7_Thielemann_Dresden_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/08/24/classical-cd-of-the-week-bruckner-rising-wagner-rarity/#178363f9c55f (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek026)



Classical CD Of The Week: Bach Woman in Mad Men Times

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_PROFIL-HAENSSLER_Bach_Sonatas-Partitas_Johanna-Martzy_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/08/17/classical-cd-of-the-week-bach-woman-in-mad-men-times/#469a88611789 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek025)



If I can coax someone into leaving a comment on any of the Forbes CD of the Week reviews, I've got a voucher for the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall (alas valid for only 7 days from the first concert watched) to go their way.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 30, 2016, 01:18:36 PM
latest on ionarts:

Dip Your Ears, No. 212 (Alice Sara in Wonderland)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrIvUclWgAAt8Mj.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/dip-your-ears-no-212-sara-alice-in.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on August 31, 2016, 10:29:59 PM

latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: The Vivaldi Vanity Package
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_NAIVE_VIVALDI_Four-Seasons_Sinkovsky_Arias_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/08/31/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-vivaldi-vanity-package/#2bd122064599 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek027)

If I can coax someone into leaving a comment on any of the Forbes CD of the Week reviews, I've got a voucher for the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall (alas valid for only 7 days from the first concert watched) to go their way, or a High Resolution download of Alexandre Tharaud's Goldberg Variations.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 02, 2016, 10:09:08 AM

latest on ionarts:

Dip Your Ears, No. 213 (A Seven-Seal One Man Show)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrGiEnrXgAArhQi.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/09/dip-your-ears-no-213-seven-seal-one-man.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 02, 2016, 01:08:58 PM

latest on Forbes:

Itzhak Perlman: Mediocre Genius
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes-Itzhak-Perlman_Warner_Jens-F-Laurson-1200x470.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/02/itzhak-perlman-mediocre-genius/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/02/itzhak-perlman-mediocre-genius/#4a09ed9c35f8)

Half a study in finding out if I can find the greatness of this great violinist. Half successful at best.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 08, 2016, 12:44:10 AM

latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: Czech Please
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_LA-DOLCE-VOLTA_Talich-Quartet-Smetana_String-Quartets_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-czech-please/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-czech-please/#18242e2b7ad4)

Bedřich Smetana , String Quartets, Talich String Quartet (La Dolce Volta)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: GioCar on September 08, 2016, 12:58:49 PM
One cannot really get into Schubert without knowing his early Lieder (D1..-D2..)
Here's the true root of his later works.

8)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 12, 2016, 11:16:54 AM

latest on Forbes:

106 Years Mahler Eighth: The Best Recordings
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Mahler_conducting_Gustav_Mahler_laurson_Sy3_schli-1200x505.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/12/106-years-mahler-eighth-the-best-recordings/#2da82ef9be0c (http://hhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/12/106-years-mahler-eighth-the-best-recordings/#2da82ef9be0c)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Reckoner on September 14, 2016, 06:59:06 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on August 30, 2016, 01:18:36 PM
latest on ionarts:

Dip Your Ears, No. 212 (Alice Sara in Wonderland)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrIvUclWgAAt8Mj.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/dip-your-ears-no-212-sara-alice-in.html)
Anyone given this a spin?

I like Alice. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 14, 2016, 07:07:18 AM
Quote from: Reckoner on September 14, 2016, 06:59:06 AM
Anyone given this a spin?

I like Alice. :)

You mean, apart from me and the extensive review at the link? :-)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Reckoner on September 14, 2016, 08:03:55 AM
Quote from: jlaurson on September 14, 2016, 07:07:18 AM
You mean, apart from me and the extensive review at the link? :-)

I missed the link entirely!

Apologies, and thanks for the great review.  :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 15, 2016, 01:39:18 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:
To Succeed Or Not To Succeed:
Theater An Der Wien Premieres "Hamlet"

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Hamlet-piano-score_page-1-Opening_Anno-Schreier-1200x757.jpg) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/15/to-succeed-or-not-to-succeed-theater-an-der-wien-premieres-hamlet/#1ec067e55f73)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ComposerOfAvantGarde on September 15, 2016, 03:10:13 PM
^ I didnt know there was another recent opera based on Hamlet. The other one I know is Dean's opera written for Glyndebourne.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 16, 2016, 12:37:11 AM
Quote from: jessop on September 15, 2016, 03:10:13 PM
^ I didnt know there was another recent opera based on Hamlet. The other one I know is Dean's opera written for Glyndebourne.

Not only that, there's also the re-discovery of Franco Faccio's "Hamlet" ("Amleto"), with a libretto by Arrigo Boito -- which was performed at the Bregenz Festival. A friend of mine reviewed it and suggested it was very good; I've yet to listen to the copy of the radio broadcast, though, which he kindly brought along.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 16, 2016, 01:23:56 PM

latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: Nelson Freire's Bumble-Bee-Beethoven
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DECCA_Beethoven_Concerto_Sonata_op111_Freire_Chailly_Leipzig_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-nelson-freires-bumble-bee-beethoven (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek029)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5, Piano Sonata op.111, Nelson Freire (piano), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Riccardo Chailly (conductor), Decca
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 17, 2016, 07:54:43 AM
It is perhaps just a little sad to reflect that none of the shortcomings of my collection rise to anything like the level of amazing.

(I am taking it as read that no reasonable person would be amazed that anyone might have no Dittersdorf in his collection.)
Title: Re: Stockhausen's Spaceship
Post by: Karl Henning on September 17, 2016, 02:35:23 PM
Quote
Is that it re-instated the importance of melody.

("In that." You're welcome.)

Genius. Melody would never have been important again, had it not been for Moonboy's suuupreme geeeenius.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 19, 2016, 02:35:30 PM

latest on Forbes:

Emmanuelle Haïm Can Handel The Vienna Philharmonic
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes-Classical-Emmanuelle-Haim_Vienna-Philharmonic_Handel_Theater-an-der-Wien_Jens-F-Laurson-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/19/emmanuelle-haim-can-handel-the-vienna-philharmonic/#7a9ac3e11d2e (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/19/emmanuelle-haim-can-handel-the-vienna-philharmonic/#7a9ac3e11d2e)

Unusual and in a way typical for the Theater-an-der-Wien, which likes to think outside the box.
Emmanuelle Haïm, the third woman[1] to ever conduct the Vienna Philharmonic (or at least a
small, baroque-ensemble sized section thereof), had conducted the same George Frideric Handel
program at the Lucerne Festival and repeated it here: A first half of orchestral works and the solo
cantata Il delirio amoroso (HWV 99) in the second half.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Reckoner on September 21, 2016, 08:17:09 AM
If anyone's interested, Rautavaara's (possibly) last work is available to listen to here:

Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra
-- Performed by Anne A. Meyers

https://soundcloud.com/entertainment-one-classical/rautavaara-fantasia-for-violin-and-orchestra

mp3 download here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rautavaara-Fantasia-Anne-Akiko-Meyers/dp/B01LGTM77M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474474502&sr=8-1&keywords=rautavaara+fantasia
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jlaurson on September 21, 2016, 09:42:07 AM
latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: Fasch, A Classical Misunderstanding
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CPO_J-F-Fasch_Overture-Symphonies_Amis-de-Philippe_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_LINN_J-F-Fasch_Quartets-Concertos_Marsyas_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/19/emmanuelle-haim-can-handel-the-vienna-philharmonic/#7a9ac3e11d2e (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek030)

...Johann Friedrich Fasch was in line for a major renaissance in the early 20th century, when enthusiasts worldwide worked toward a better appreciation of his genius. Unfortunately, history steamrolled over the First International Union of Faschists*.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on September 21, 2016, 03:52:57 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 20, 2016, 01:32:56 PM
I'm starting to think that the definition of maturity is learning to appreciate the pianism of Rudolf Serkin.
Perhaps not.  I loved his playing even as a teenager.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on September 21, 2016, 03:59:39 PM
Quote from: jlaurson on May 23, 2016, 05:08:44 AM
In the latest pat-myself-on-the-shoulders news:


]Wohoo. My* first book has arrived from the printers!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjJFuYbWEAAZm3q.jpg) (http://www.surprisedbybeauty.org)


(*Co-authored, rather than translated [done] or solely authored [to do list])
Congratulations, sir! ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 21, 2016, 04:10:34 PM
Quote from: jochanaan on September 21, 2016, 03:52:57 PM
Perhaps not.  I loved his playing even as a teenager.  8)
Wise beyond your years.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 06, 2016, 12:19:17 AM


Classical CD Of The Week: Schumann Triptych Continued
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HARMONIA-MUNDI-PIAS_Schumann_Melnikov_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/05/classical-cd-of-the-week-schuman-triptych-continued-2/#46f90b5b2733 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/05/classical-cd-of-the-week-schuman-triptych-continued-2/#46f90b5b2733)

I'm trying to make these CD of the Week posts as varying as possible, but it seems, looking through this thread, that they have a surprising Schumann-heavy side to them, in the romantic field. Which is strange, since I never thought myself such a Schumann-maven. Except that, yes, I really have come around to late Schumann in the last seven or so years.

Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on October 04, 2016, 04:42:25 AM
Latest on Forbes:

Beethoven And Schubert Almost On Original Location: A REsounding Success

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Resound_Beethoven_Schubert_Jens-F-Laurson_Sound-Advice-1200x797.jpg?width=960) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/03/beethoven-and-schubert-almost-on-original-location-a-resounding-success/#56e8f3f17c5f)

Schubert's Great C major Symphony[2] is a challenge for a "REsound" project, since the only place it 'sounded', in Schubert's time, was in his head...

Classical CD Of The Week: A Timeless Combination Of Ligeti And Haydn

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_ONYX_Shai-Wosner-Haydn_Ligeti_Piano-Concertos_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/09/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-timeless-combination-of-ligeti-and-haydn/#7cc6249d2180)
Joseph Haydn / György Ligeti, Concertos , Shai Wosner (piano), Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon (conductor), Onyx (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01D3LC2DU/nectarandambr-20)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 07, 2016, 01:40:00 PM

The Castle Is Alive With Music: The Herrenchiemsee Festival
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Herrenchiemsee_View_front_Laurson_Festival_Forbes-1200x499.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/07/the-castle-is-alive-with-music-the-herrenchiemsee-festival/#7d83cee9640a (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/07/the-castle-is-alive-with-music-the-herrenchiemsee-festival/#7d83cee9640a)

QuoteDeeply embarrassed – an embarrassment furthered by a colleague who seemed to have a veritable epiphany during the performance – I tip-toed my way towards that admission in the conversation with Guttenberg late that week. He was – much like the orchestra – very happy with this performance for once, after having played it twice before, where it had apparently less gelled. I suggested that in the combination of what I heard and was capable of perceiving, I experienced little that I grasped or understood, that I found it segmental, even tedious in the same way I know I shouldn't find the Brahms Requiem tedious (but do, on occasion). That while the Fauré Requiem, for example, which  begs to be loved, the Dvořák Requiem stiff-arms the listener. Guttenberg, increasingly in agreement on how unwieldy a piece it is (thus encouraging me into confessional mode) eventually smiled wrily and said:

"There is one work with which I struggled for forty years, and that's Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. And now I love it, because I think I know the direction into it and how to perform it or what Beethoven meant to express. And that's the thing: You have to make a piece your own, if you really want to convey it. You can always just conduct it, of course, but that's not ideal. And the Dvořák Requiem, I may not have spent forty years on, before 'getting' and performing it, but at least twenty years of grappling with it. And by grappling with it, I mean: looking at it at least once a week, as I had done with the Missa."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 14, 2016, 01:45:32 AM



Classical CD Of The Week: A Whole Lotti Fun

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DELPHIAN_Lotti-Crucifixus_Syred-Consort_Orchestra-of-StPauls_Ben-Palmer_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960) (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/12/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-whole-lotti-fun/#1bb9fbf47f0f)

QuoteThese world premiere recordings will undoubtedly initiate a wonderful journey of rediscovery.
I'm startled by the originality and immediacy of all the included works: High baroque magnificence
woven with silver threads of austere Renaissance style... largely set in minor keys. Think of a melancholic
Zelenka, perhaps.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 19, 2016, 06:09:16 AM
Another burst of honesty from BIS CEO Robert von Bahr, on the BIS CD which is eClassical's daily deal:

"The Complete Organ Music by Niels W. Gade, whose symphonies we have previously recorded. A very talented Dane, who worked much in Germany together with Mendelssohn, he didn't anyway write very much for the organ. I personally would be tempted to say that what he did write was absolutely enough. A not-so-nice way is to say that you don't have to buy a lot of Melatonin for lots of money to fall asleep. Just spend less than 4 bucks for this, and you're set for life. Nice but not earth-shattering in any way. RvB"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: jochanaan on October 20, 2016, 06:47:47 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on October 07, 2016, 01:40:00 PM

The Castle Is Alive With Music: The Herrenchiemsee Festival
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Herrenchiemsee_View_front_Laurson_Festival_Forbes-1200x499.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/07/the-castle-is-alive-with-music-the-herrenchiemsee-festival/#7d83cee9640a (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/07/the-castle-is-alive-with-music-the-herrenchiemsee-festival/#7d83cee9640a)
Well, perhaps someone has to struggle with certain music for 20 years so the rest of us may have an epiphany while listening once. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 20, 2016, 06:57:47 AM
Quote from: jochanaan on October 20, 2016, 06:47:47 AM
Well, perhaps someone has to struggle with certain music for 20 years so the rest of us may have an epiphany while listening once. :)

We should thank them for their hard labor.  ;D

Meanwhile:
Classical CD Of The Week: Jörg Widmann, A 21st Century Berg Concerto
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_ONDINE-J-Widmann_C-Tetzlaff_D-Harding_Swedish_RSO_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/19/classical-cd-of-the-week-jorg-widmann-a-21st-century-berg-concerto/#f5fb33b73a01
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/19/classical-cd-of-the-week-jorg-widmann-a-21st-century-berg-concerto/#f5fb33b73a01)

QuoteJörg Widman's Violin Concerto (reviewed in concert here) is a lyrical tour-de-force in which the violinist, dedicatee Christian Tetzlaff, who has performed the world premiere in 2007 in Essen, doesn't get to take the bow of the strings for 30 minutes. You can hear the composer's will to make contemporary violin concerto with every chance to enter the repertoire. You enjoy the success of it; it is a 21st Century concerto for the ages...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 21, 2016, 11:23:40 AM
Latest on Forbes:


Die Meistersinger With Kirill Petrenko From Munich
Or: Why did Herr B. Run Amok?
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Die-Meistersinger-von-Nuernberg__Bruns_Sachsens-Citroen_Munich-State-Opera_cWilfried-Hoesl-1200x750.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/21/die-meistersinger-with-kirill-petrenko-from-munich/#60d00f883666 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/21/die-meistersinger-with-kirill-petrenko-from-munich/#60d00f883666)

Quote...If David Bösch's direction was short on story, whether imposing or revealing, it succeeded in its chatty ways
and bleak-to-lively-in-10-seconds sets by Patrick Bannwart. The curtain opens to a naked black stage, scaffolding,
and archival ring binders...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 09, 2016, 07:46:15 AM
Latest on Forbes:

Classical CD Of The Week: Bassoon Delight From Sweden
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/10/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BIS_Bassoon_in_Sweden_Teunis-van-der-Zwart_Ronald-Brautigam_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/26/classical-cd-of-the-week-bassoon-delight-from-sweden/#39baea617634 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/10/26/classical-cd-of-the-week-bassoon-delight-from-sweden/#39baea617634)
At its lowest, the bassoon is the orchestra's fart-cushion. Haydn wasn't above to employ it thus. At its best, it is this:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 09, 2016, 08:48:20 AM
No thread for this composer yet? Then let this be his new home!

Classical CD Of The Week: From The Sistine Chapel, Palestrina Populism
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/11/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DG_Palestrina_Missa-Papae-Marcelli_Sistine-Chapel_Laurson_1200-1-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-from-the-sistine-chapel-palestrina-populism/#32eaf0186dce (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-from-the-sistine-chapel-palestrina-populism/#32eaf0186dce)

What's the deal here? Palestrina is an amazing Renaissance composer and this recording is much welcome, but isn't acapella early music a little high-brow for the 21st century everything-is-crossover DG label? Worry not, populism was built-in, here, too:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 09, 2016, 09:19:34 AM
Hey, for once I can interrupt Jens' articles with one of my own!

Two Dallas Music Teachers Are Topping the Classical Charts (http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/two-dallas-music-teachers-are-topping-the-classical-charts-with-songs-by-a-19th-century-frenchman-8874253) (interview)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 17, 2016, 04:00:27 PM
And me again, Brian.


Classical CD Of The Week: Super-Added Goldberg Variations
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/11/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CAPRICCIO_Bach_Goldberg-Variations_Buxtehude-Capricciosa_Schornsheim_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-super-added-goldberg-variations/#def2993547e1 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-super-added-goldberg-variations/)

Whoo!! The Buxtehude is the real deal, here, almost... that's how good it is.

Also:

There's Something Wonderful In The State Of Denmark
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/11/Wonderful-Denmark_Music_Forbes_Sound-Advice_Jens-F-Laurson_1600__Langgaard_Symphonies_Dausgaard-1200x446.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/17/theres-something-wonderful-in-the-state-of-denmark/#7a50e5cc5a73 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/17/theres-something-wonderful-in-the-state-of-denmark/#7a50e5cc5a73)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 23, 2016, 04:47:25 AM


Classical CD Of The Week: Ersatz-Scarlatti? Diego Ares Plays Antonio Soler
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/11/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HARMONIA-MUNDI_Soler_Sonatas_Diego-Ares_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-ersatz-scarlatti-diego-ares-plays-antonio-soler/#ffc8e5469876 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/11/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-ersatz-scarlatti-diego-ares-plays-antonio-soler/#ffc8e5469876)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 02, 2016, 08:39:53 AM

Classical CD Of The Week: Scandals Once Upon A Time

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/12/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DG_Scandale_Tristano-Ott_Stravinsky_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-scandals-once-upon-a-time/#60fe57256973 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-scandals-once-upon-a-time/#60fe57256973)

Also:

Krenek, Mahler Rarity, Knock-Out Trebles And Velvet Suits
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/12/ORF_Radio_Symphony-Orchestra-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/04/krenek-mahler-rarity-knock-out-trebles-and-velvet-suits/#5c7746fb62f5 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/04/krenek-mahler-rarity-knock-out-trebles-and-velvet-suits/#5c7746fb62f5)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy3TQ0BWQAAKmcK.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 03, 2016, 12:34:51 PM

This is a book review I started three years ago. But G.Pieler and I didn't find a suitable outlet in print and our common Forbes column folded. Now I wanted to publish it solo, but Forbes has a (actually very commendable) policy of not letting contributors review each other's books. It's probably meant to avoid shills, more than take-downs, but fair enough. But I wasn't going to sit on this review for another year. This book is so incredibly bad, such an absolutely lazy opinioneering hack job... so choc full of mistakes... it absolutely needed to be written about. Let's just stay it starts with mixing up Richard and Johann Strauss (attributing to the former "Die Fledermaus" while pointing out that it is an exemplar of specifically Bavarian humor in music) and gets worse from there.

Still, I've bothered to create an annotated discography for the book


The Worst Mozart Biography Ever. Paul Johnson: «Mozart -- A Life»

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-31phGs9Jh7o/WEMLHHS8JiI/AAAAAAAAJKk/bRcSfbPFa8Qi0d2nSk6n36qU6r0FtcZmQCLcB/s640/Paul-Johnson-Mozart-A-Life_Book-review_jens-f-laurson_george-a-pieler_Viking-Press_MOZART-L-H-O-O-Q..jpg)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-worst-mozart-biography-ever-paul.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-worst-mozart-biography-ever-paul.html)



Paul Johnson "Mozart: A Life" — The Discography, Part 1 (Keyboard Sonatas, Chamber Music)
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cFY_zinalzc/WDxXA9S43sI/AAAAAAAAJKU/2XhuGrOZ6KYDH_pVF8t2Va28F6DCJ4SwQCLcB/s640/Mozart_Discography_Johnson_Forbes-Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Spotify_Sound-Advice_Jens-F-Laurson.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/12/paul-johnson-mozart-life-discography.html)

Spotify Playlist (https://open.spotify.com/user/sound_advice/playlist/7tcktaxR4btMeAdoaW7eIR)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on December 07, 2016, 12:04:35 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/martha-argerich-is-a-legend-of-the-classical-music-world-but-she-doesnt-act-like-one/2016/12/01/117095b4-b104-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html?utm_term=.467f19bc864a

unproblematic fave
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 15, 2016, 02:55:49 AM
Classical CD Of The Week: Mozart Père's Reputation Rescued

(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/12/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Oehms_Leopold-Mozart_Reinhard-Goebel_Bayerische-Kammerphilharmonie_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/14/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-peres-reputation-rescued/#3d42b1d65cb7 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/14/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-peres-reputation-rescued/#3d42b1d65cb7)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 22, 2016, 05:26:45 AM


Classical CD Of The Week: Or How I Learned To Love Late Schumann
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2016/12/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_LABEL-HERISSON_Schumann-Last-Thoughts_Soo-Park_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
Classical CD Of The Week: Or How I Learned To Love Late Schumann (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/12/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-or-how-i-learned-to-love-late-schumann/#d0ead9d484a5)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 01, 2017, 05:23:15 AM
Latest on Forbes:

The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2016 (Re-Releases)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1FrKCuXEAAurdl.jpg:large)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/01/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2016-re-releases/#44c8a5e46bd0 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/01/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2016-re-releases/2/#7551580876a1)

&


The 10 Best Classical Recordings Of 2016 (New Releases)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1HzdAWXgAArnYh.jpg:large)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/01/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2016-new-releases/#176dae556802 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/01/the-10-best-classical-recordings-of-2016-new-releases/#176dae556802)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on January 01, 2017, 09:08:30 AM
How nice to see the Danel Quartet's Shostakovich get a nod! Finally getting its time in the spotlight.

For those of us who've plumped for this set from the outset (in 2005) this is a sight for sore eyes. :-* 
Title: Re: The Foote Stool
Post by: Karl Henning on January 02, 2017, 04:45:42 PM
Quote from: snyprrr on January 02, 2017, 01:29:37 PM
You knew it had to happen sometime, right?

Arthur Foote

I have the D-major SQ around here somewhere...

Thank goodness it isn't The Foote Fetish

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: The Foote Stool
Post by: kishnevi on January 02, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 02, 2017, 04:45:42 PM
Thank goodness it isn't The Foote Fetish

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Nor playing Footesie.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 03, 2017, 05:12:44 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on January 02, 2017, 05:02:52 PM
Nor playing Footesie.

Hah!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 14, 2017, 11:00:19 AM


Elbphilharmonie
Review: Hamburg Elbphilharmonie Opening And G.F.Haas World Premiere
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/01/161221_elbphilharmonie_foto_thies_raetzke_0009-1200x800.jpg?width=960)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2J8uvRWQAANC2W.jpg)
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/14/review-hamburg-elbphilharmonie-opening-and-g-f-haas-world-premiere/#2fe593262217)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 15, 2017, 04:05:25 PM
Classical CD Of The Week: Schubert At His Secret Best With Four Hands
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2E1g4eXAAA1MRc.jpg) (https://t.co/i8GuD8GjQC)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 30, 2017, 12:06:04 AM

A Very Brief Excursion Into The World And Music Of Johann Pachelbel
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/01/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Harmonia-Mundi_Pachelbel_Orage-d-Avril_Gli-Incogniti_Canon_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
(CD of the Week: Un Orage d'Avril)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/05/a-very-brief-excursion-into-the-world-and-music-of-johann-pachelbel/#302e8f5e3dff (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/05/a-very-brief-excursion-into-the-world-and-music-of-johann-pachelbel/#302e8f5e3dff)


Classical CD Of The Week: The Martin Luther Soundtrack
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/01/Forbes_Classica-CD-of-the-Week_CARUS_Luther-Collage_1517-Mitten-im-Leben_Calmus-Ensemble_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-martin-luther-soundtrack/#76465b8154fe (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/01/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-martin-luther-soundtrack/#76465b8154fe)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 08, 2017, 09:49:18 AM

Review: Hamburg Elbphilharmonie Opening And First Impressions Of The Great Hall
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/02/tube_c_michael_zapf-1200x1798.jpg?width=960)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/08/review-hamburg-elbphilharmonie-opening-and-first-impressions-of-the-great-hall/#474bf13b3cd2 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/08/review-hamburg-elbphilharmonie-opening-and-first-impressions-of-the-great-hall/#474bf13b3cd2)

QuoteAnother innovation, as per the marketing department, is the long, curved escalator – "The Tube" – that takes the inclined visitor through an oval tunnel up to the 7th floor in one fell 4-minite swoop. On first taking, this long ride enhances the anticipation and the patrons are rewarded at the end with a great view. I would, however, suggest that the real innovation about a long escalator that curves  is the idea and ability of selling it as an innovation.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 09, 2017, 04:59:42 AM
Today I learned that there used to be a string quartet called "The Sophisticated Ladies."

(http://ecstatic.textalk.se/shop/17115/art15/h2942/4442942-origpic-8d59b6.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 09, 2017, 02:51:37 PM
Quote from: Brian on February 09, 2017, 04:59:42 AM
Today I learned that there used to be a string quartet called "The Sophisticated Ladies."

(http://ecstatic.textalk.se/shop/17115/art15/h2942/4442942-origpic-8d59b6.jpg)

I have beheld that statue in situ, though I do not have the photo to support my claim  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 18, 2017, 11:57:13 PM
I should have liked to meet those ladies, if the CD had been made a bit later than it was...

meanwhile:

Classical CD Of The Week: Zelenka To Fall In Love With
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/02/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_ZELENKA_MissaDiviXaverii_Collegium-1704_Vaclav-Luks_Laurson_1200-banner-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/18/classical-cd-of-the-week-zelenka-to-fall-in-love-with/#56a37e7e78e2 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/18/classical-cd-of-the-week-zelenka-to-fall-in-love-with/#56a37e7e78e2)

The Luxury of Excellence | The Sound of Broken Hearts | Beethovenian Seething | Desperate Dissonance | To Hell and Back:

(https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16807218_10154480288957989_3466438273017092737_n.jpg?oh=0bbdb4c923e8560b81b7e336c74211c3&oe=593896DC)

Review: Mahler 10 With Yannick Nézet-Séguin
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/02/Yannick-Nezet-Seguin_BRSO_Mahler10_Berg-VC_jens-f-laurson_Forbes_photocredit_c-to-be-determined_narrowband-1200x600.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/19/review-mahler-10-with-yannick-nezet-seguin/#454f33724fe7 (//http://Review:%20Mahler%2010%20With%20Yannick%20N%C3%A9zet-S%C3%A9guin)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 23, 2017, 04:02:50 PM



Classical CD Of The Week: Bruckner's End In Salzburg
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/02/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_Signum_Bruckner-9_Philharmonia_Dohnanyi_Salzburg_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-bruckners-end-in-salzburg/#339188451714)

The 2014 Salzburg Festival featured all the Bruckner Symphonies and the Ninth with Christoph von Dohnányi and the Philharmonia Orchestra was the best of the lot.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 01, 2017, 03:32:08 PM

Classical CD Of The Week: C-P-Eppreciation! Or: The Rescue For Bach Junior
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/02/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HAENSSLER_CPE-Bach_Ana-Marija-Markovina_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-c-p-eppreciation-or-the-rescue-for-bach-junior/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-c-p-eppreciation-or-the-rescue-for-bach-junior/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on March 09, 2017, 12:20:37 PM
Seems like a well-placed recommendation, no?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mahlerian on March 09, 2017, 12:21:55 PM
I wonder how many people bought both the recommended Boulez Complete Works set and the also recommended Inspirational Piano disc.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 09, 2017, 01:41:10 PM
Quote from: North Star on March 09, 2017, 12:20:37 PM
Seems like a well-placed recommendation, no?

In fairness, that's not a recommendation (those are below and make sense) but an add.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on March 10, 2017, 08:16:01 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on March 09, 2017, 12:21:55 PM
I wonder how many people bought both the recommended Boulez Complete Works set and the also recommended Inspirational Piano disc.

/chuckles
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 11, 2017, 10:11:05 AM
Classical CD Of The Week: America! From "Maryland, My Maryland" To John Cage
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/03/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HarmoniaMUNDI_AMERICA-1_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek49 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek49)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 15, 2017, 05:26:26 PM
Classical CD Of The Week: Amid Debussy and Arno Breker
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/03/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_PROFIL-Haenssler_Pfitzner-Busoni-Reger_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek50 (http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek50)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 19, 2017, 09:34:22 AM
After 111,000 characters of html-code; countless re-starts after code-FUBARs... and with a LOT of help from fellow GMGers, my most ambitious discography to date* has been brought up to date:




A Survey of Mozart Piano Sonata Cycles

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HANG8wPLcUE/Vqud-W_IOwI/AAAAAAAAI1o/O7QpMFRb75w/s1600/Mozart_last-portrait_jens-laurson_600_greenpattern.jpg)
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-survey-of-mozart-piano-sonata-cycles.html)

80 (!) different Mozart Piano Sonata Cycles exist, by my count.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 22, 2017, 06:15:38 PM

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7kWH9oXwAAN7pP.jpg)
Latest Classical #CDoftheWeek on Forbes: #Birthday-Boy Bach & Cantata Diversity

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-birthday-boy-bach-cantata-diversity/#5224cfc13d15 ...

#JohannSebastianBach #Bach332
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-birthday-boy-bach-cantata-diversity/#5224cfc13d15)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 28, 2017, 06:42:38 AM

Review: Irish Chamber Orchestra On Tour With A Mendelssohn Revelation
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/03/Irish-Chamber-Orchestra-Widmann-Forbes_Laurson_-1200x700.jpg) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/28/review-irish-chamber-orchestra-on-tour-with-a-mendelssohn-revelation/#1556572718e8)
The Irish Chamber Orchestra may not be much of an established brand in the international orchestra-world,
but they are on their best way of getting there. Currently on a on-and-off tour of continental Europe, they
are spreading their excellence in places like Brussels, Freiburg, Vienna and Heidelberg. It helps that they
surround themselves with interesting and good musicians. Among them "Principal Artistic Partner" (a bit
labored, their titles) Gábor Tákacs Nagy, that old-school continental musician with semi-quavers running in
his veins, "Principal [Guest] Conductor and Artistic Partner" composer-clarinetist-conductor Jörg Widmann,
and, on this tour, Igor Levit, one of a hot new generation of musicians; a young-ish, nicely severe pianists...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/28/review-irish-chamber-orchestra-on-tour-with-a-mendelssohn-revelation/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/03/28/review-irish-chamber-orchestra-on-tour-with-a-mendelssohn-revelation/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 01, 2017, 07:28:50 AM


Classical CD Of The Week: York Bowen, The English Rachmaninoff

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8VkflMXcAEPTyq.jpg)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-york-bowen-the-english-rachmaninoff/#5f14ba171f0b (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/01/classical-cd-of-the-week-york-bowen-the-english-rachmaninoff/#5f14ba171f0b)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 02, 2017, 05:04:53 PM

Review: Eternal Youth -- Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra At 30
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/04/Gustav-Mahler-Jugendorchester_cCosimo-Filippini_Excerpt2_laurson_1800-1200x446.jpg?width=960)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/02/review-eternal-youth-gustav-mahler-youth-orchestra-at-30/#6fa07f6e5720 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/02/review-eternal-youth-gustav-mahler-youth-orchestra-at-30/#6fa07f6e5720)

Blowsy Bruckner, Gerhaher Gorgeousness
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 13, 2017, 02:54:32 PM
Classical CD Of The Week: Johann Sebastian Clown
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/04/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CARPENTER-All-you-need-is-BACH-SONY_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
http://bit.ly/CDoftheWeek054 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/13/classical-cd-of-the-week-johann-sebastian-clown/#79d94b8258c0)

Johann Sebastian Clown: For all those unafraid of garish colors, subwoofer-busting bass, and liberal applications of tremulant and celeste, this is the ticket!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 14, 2017, 03:21:30 PM
I've compared seven mobile DACs (and a few headphones in the process) on Forbes... which make mobile listening to a laptop possible. It's a bit of a read, at 7000 words, but there's a conclusion at the end you can skip to.  ;)

Review: A Mobile DAC/Headphone Amp Comparison

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9XPgWKVoAEq8St.jpg) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/14/review-a-mobile-dacheadphone-amp-comparison/#510861f0739a)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 19, 2017, 05:41:39 PM
Diary of a trip with a Viennese HIP Band to Japan



Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 1)

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WjX3lJk7jGM/WPU5-y45c-I/AAAAAAAAJXc/ZalM21HAvXgz0c1E4rWrr9zZzgC_QRaEACPcB/s640/DSC00071-1200.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with.html)

Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 2)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--tnB6Jk5DZI/WPc_FTOGWGI/AAAAAAAAJZc/24NvqKkr58kHtlJ9-QG5ehh-nqdt0W1ywCPcB/s640/DSC00211-1200.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_19.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Teenager String Quartets of Ohio
Post by: Cato on April 20, 2017, 02:28:31 PM
A local music school called the Chamber Music Connection here in central Ohio has 3 string quartets going to the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition: only 6 total are competing!

See:

http://cmconnection.org/send-off-concert-to-st-paul-string-quartet-competition/ (http://cmconnection.org/send-off-concert-to-st-paul-string-quartet-competition/)

An example of their skills:

https://www.youtube.com/v/5KaZ364M-Xo
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 21, 2017, 07:38:04 AM
NOW HOLD ON A MINUTE DID YOU GUYS KNOW CELLIST JAN VOGLER IS RECORDING AN ALBUM WITH BILL MURRAY??!?!?!

http://www.avclub.com/article/bill-murray-working-classical-album-254081
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 21, 2017, 03:03:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 21, 2017, 07:38:04 AM
NOW HOLD ON A MINUTE DID YOU GUYS KNOW CELLIST JAN VOGLER IS RECORDING AN ALBUM WITH BILL MURRAY??!?!?!

http://www.avclub.com/article/bill-murray-working-classical-album-254081

Doesn't make him a better cellist, unfortunately.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 21, 2017, 03:05:01 PM

Diary of a trip with a Viennese HIP Band to Japan



Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 3)

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gCk4nIiX1TU/WPn1J8pzRYI/AAAAAAAAJao/UgDG12zLgBU7G9Ns3n80Pe-h6ObWXReygCLcB/s640/_DSC00290.JPG) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_21.html)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_21.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_21.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 26, 2017, 06:21:59 AM
Got to complete a rite of passage last night! Stopped by a recording session for an upcoming classical album, and blew a take by making a sound. After that I was silent  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on April 26, 2017, 06:27:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 26, 2017, 06:21:59 AM
Got to complete a rite of passage last night! Stopped by a recording session for an upcoming classical album, and blew a take by making a sound. After that I was silent  8)

Maybe they'll use that take anyway...and you will achieve immortality  8)

Sarge
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2017, 06:40:51 AM
Some kind of immortal . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 26, 2017, 10:11:27 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on April 26, 2017, 06:27:55 AM
Maybe they'll use that take anyway...and you will achieve immortality  8)

Sarge
Nope, they stopped immediately and told me to go sit way back in the back.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2017, 10:38:10 AM
Did they glower at you?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 26, 2017, 11:17:41 PM
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/04/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_REMY-BALLOT_BRUCKNER_3_St-Florian_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
Classical CD Of The Week: The Second Coming Of Celibidache
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-second-coming-of-celibidache/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/04/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-the-second-coming-of-celibidache/#4d42c2ab7a84)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2017, 06:43:42 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 26, 2017, 10:38:10 AM
Did they glower at you?
All was forgiven pretty quickly. The air conditioner came on halfway through the next take and ended up spoiling the whole rest of the night. I'm told that for day 2 of the session, they unplugged the whole AC system.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 05, 2017, 02:00:14 PM

Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 4)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qtXY1C-yJfs/WP7VSVly-vI/AAAAAAAAJbU/O4NjaEcz1h06qKab3z4GfF1F4JpRAeZ2gCLcB/s640/DSC00361_No01.JPG) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_25.html)

Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 5)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p0YnZkkuKh8/WQO3CET6awI/AAAAAAAAJdY/Q68EzL_cFHgjcDM19fbESWPDdICZ7K8jQCLcB/s640/DSC00447.JPG) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/04/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_28.html)

Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 6)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNdcDYU9CN8/WQeNNOCwpuI/AAAAAAAAJeY/WirfpE9SqbQQyy9GBfm0Nxsar2NUm6k3gCLcB/s640/DSC00461.JPG) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/05/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with.html)

Beethoven visits Japan: On Tour with the Vienna Academy Orchestra (Part 7)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A5FZXCUNsyU/WQznbXcMBKI/AAAAAAAAJfo/Ob6N8Xyt5Fc1dIQo7Yx8t15qne2nCtdLwCLcB/s640/_DSC00497.JPG) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2017/05/beethoven-visits-japan-on-tour-with_5.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 12, 2017, 04:41:50 AM
Latest on Forbes about one of my favorite composers:


Classical CD Of The Week: Rued Langgaard, A Danish Lark
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/05/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DACAPO_Langgaard_String-Quartets_vol1_Laurson_1200-banner-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/05/11/classical-cd-of-the-week-rued-langgaard-a-danish-lark/#5d447da5addf (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/05/11/classical-cd-of-the-week-rued-langgaard-a-danish-lark/#5d447da5addf)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 26, 2017, 09:41:47 AM
Sometimes, you just can't wedge a joke into the conversation.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 26, 2017, 02:00:12 AM
Bach might have been really great, if only he had written more melodically.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on June 04, 2017, 01:18:12 AM
In a way, this is the least necessary list for the GMG Classical Music Forum members, who have swallowed the bait -- and the line, and the sinker -- long ago.
But I would be interested in what others think are the best 'grabbers' in classical music to get either the non-existent average listener or every listener hooked.

How To Build A Top Quality Classical Music Library: The Second $100
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/06/100-dollars_MAHLER_2400_Laurson_Finished-1200x517.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/02/how-to-build-a-top-quality-classical-music-library-the-second-100/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/02/how-to-build-a-top-quality-classical-music-library-the-second-100/#3602379c607e)

QuoteBack in February of 2013, George Pieler and I wrote a column here on Forbes.com
("Two Cents About Classical Music For $100") on some of the market- and technology-
changes that affect this sneakily growing, more-important-than-you-think niche in
21st century entertainment: classical music. We followed this up with an actual list,
"How To Build A Top Quality Classical Music Library For $100" – which refers back
to a 2011 post on Tyler Cowen's "Marginal Revolution". Here's the sequel.

The complete list on Amazon on CDs (http://amzn.to/2ry8uUo) – and as mp3s/streaming (http://amzn.to/2slcKEE).

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on June 04, 2017, 04:53:56 PM
I don't know if this was covered in another thread (a search turned up nothing), but the Pacifica Quartet is churning half the ensemble. (http://www.thestrad.com/violinist-austin-hartman-violist-guy-ben-ziony-join-pacifica-quartet/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on June 04, 2017, 10:19:23 PM
Quote from: Todd on June 04, 2017, 04:53:56 PM
I don't know if this was covered in another thread (a search turned up nothing), but the Pacifica Quartet is churning half the ensemble. (http://www.thestrad.com/violinist-austin-hartman-violist-guy-ben-ziony-join-pacifica-quartet/)

Teaching appointments are great reasons to leave, though it's sad to see them go, all the same. First heard them at the Freer Gallery a loooong time ago (2005, to be precise (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/04/ligeti-with-pacifica-quartet.html)), and tried to catch them wherever possible, wherever necessary (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2015/04/ionarts-at-large-countryside-chamber.html) since.

But more disheartening is the fact that even string quartets now issue cookie-cutter press releases that could just as well have come from the Kansas City Chief cutting Jeremy Maclin or politician getting a divorce.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 06, 2017, 07:36:10 AM
Mirror Image hasn't posted about classical music in a week. Shocking!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 07, 2017, 12:43:10 PM
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/06/Forbes-Bach-Mass-in-B-Minor_Blue-Ribband-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
We all know who's the fastest mouse of all Mexico. But whose is the Fastest B-Minor Mass On Record?

Review @forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/27/review-the-fastest-b-minor-mass-on-record/#52ba47292b2e ...
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/27/review-the-fastest-b-minor-mass-on-record/#58c8497a2b2e)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 11, 2017, 06:39:53 AM
The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's bass trombone player is now Donald Trump Jr.'s attorney (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/the-many-talents-of-donald-trump-jr-s-attorney-a-juilliard-trained-trombonist-and-lawyer-for-mobsters/?utm_term=.9d1463008b50).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 11, 2017, 08:00:57 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 11, 2017, 06:39:53 AM
The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's bass trombone player is now Donald Trump Jr.'s attorney (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/the-many-talents-of-donald-trump-jr-s-attorney-a-juilliard-trained-trombonist-and-lawyer-for-mobsters/?utm_term=.9d1463008b50).

A few thoughts (some of which may possibly apply):

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 11, 2017, 08:11:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 11, 2017, 06:39:53 AM
The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's bass trombone player is now Donald Trump Jr.'s attorney (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/the-many-talents-of-donald-trump-jr-s-attorney-a-juilliard-trained-trombonist-and-lawyer-for-mobsters/?utm_term=.9d1463008b50).

One of the horn players of the Vienna Academy Orchestra is a top shelf lawyer from LA.

But realistically, one better look at it the other way round: A top shelf lawyer from LA indulges in her hobby, horn-playing, with the OWA... and is allowed to do so, because she brings connections & money to the party. (She isn't terribly good but very decent for an amateur.) Similar situation above: a lawyer who played trombone in an orchestra as a semi-professional hobby (probably also getting his spot in that band through his extra-musical merits) has simply gotten another lawyer-job.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 11, 2017, 08:35:12 AM
Well it is worth noting that the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony is not a professional orchestra but is composed of classically-trained part timers; there is a hedge fund manager violinist and a UN officer in the cellos. If I were to take away an extra-musical lesson from this, it's the difficulty trained musicians have finding work in that field, and the desire they still have, after switching to a more lucrative career, to continue pursuing a musical life.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 11, 2017, 08:36:38 AM
Of course, it is possible that none of my thoughts apply.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 11, 2017, 09:33:04 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 11, 2017, 08:36:38 AM
Of course, it is possible that none of my thoughts apply.
Certainly after Trump Jr. spent the morning posting potentially self-incriminating emails, the third point applies.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 21, 2017, 03:42:39 AM
Latest on Forbes.com

Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie is glorious. But at a 20th (!) of its cost, Bochum's very fine new venue might be a better model for future concert halls.


On Time, On Budget: Bochum's New Concert Hall
Might Be A Better Model Than Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie

(https://blogs.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/07/m02_musikforum_innen_Mark-Wohlrab-1200x812.jpg)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/07/20/on-time-on-budget-bochums-new-concert-hall-might-be-a-better-model-than-hamburgs-elbphilharmonie/#3239fee86d52 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/07/20/on-time-on-budget-bochums-new-concert-hall-might-be-a-better-model-than-hamburgs-elbphilharmonie/#3239fee86d52)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 21, 2017, 12:05:55 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 21, 2017, 03:42:39 AM
Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie is glorious. But at a 20th (!) of its cost, Bochum's very fine new venue might be a better model for future concert halls.

From a quick peek at wikipedia, the Elbphilharmonie is a much larger facility, with double the capacity in both halls, an organ, a parking garage, and a (presumably revenue-generating) hotel. The building itself is a tourist attraction. I don't disagree with your points that Hamburg paid a premium and that many cities will just want a nice hall, I just want to emphasize that the cost comparison is apples to oranges.

Your article is excellent.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 21, 2017, 01:14:15 PM
Quote from: Pat B on July 21, 2017, 12:05:55 PM
From a quick peek at wikipedia, the Elbphilharmonie is a much larger facility, with double the capacity in both halls, an organ, a parking garage, and a (presumably revenue-generating) hotel. The building itself is a tourist attraction. I don't disagree with your points that Hamburg paid a premium and that many cities will just want a nice hall, I just want to emphasize that the cost comparison is apples to oranges.

Your article is excellent.

Of course the two places are VERY different. Not that the size or the organ accounts for the Elbphilharmonie (I was lucky to be at its opening, too) having been 20 (!) times as expensive. It's the ambitiousness of the project and in particular its location + the ineptitude along the way. What I meant to suggest is that the Bochum-model is one to which more places could realistically look than the "Temple-at-all-costs" model of Hamburg. Even though, in its way, it's working out for them, of course. As the Hamburg Intendant said: "We could put a janitor playing the jewish harp on the bill, and we'd still sell out the large hall for the next two years." It's got an attraction-quality of its own that the Bochum hall doesn't exude.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 22, 2017, 02:11:31 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 21, 2017, 01:14:15 PM
Of course the two places are VERY different. Not that the size or the organ accounts for the Elbphilharmonie (I was lucky to be at its opening, too) having been 20 (!) times as expensive. It's the ambitiousness of the project and in particular its location + the ineptitude along the way.

I basically agree (taking your word on the ineptitude part). You would expect a 2x-sized building to have about 2x cost. But even looking at the per-seat cost, Hamburg is 10x more than Bochum. Accounting for the other things I mentioned (hotel, garage, organ) brings it down to maybe 8x, still a whopping cost for location and design.

Quote
What I meant to suggest is that the Bochum-model is one to which more places could realistically look than the "Temple-at-all-costs" model of Hamburg. Even though, in its way, it's working out for them, of course... It's got an attraction-quality of its own that the Bochum hall doesn't exude.

Totally agree with all of this.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 23, 2017, 01:05:17 AM
Quote from: Pat B on July 22, 2017, 02:11:31 PM
I basically agree (taking your word on the ineptitude part). You would expect a 2x-sized building to have about 2x cost. But even looking at the per-seat cost, Hamburg is 10x more than Bochum. Accounting for the other things I mentioned (hotel, garage, organ) brings it down to maybe 8x, still a whopping cost for location and design.

Totally agree with all of this.

Well, technically you would expect a 2x size building to have about 8x the cost. I (mis)remember a mythical story about how the Colossus of Rhodes was conceived and the Rhodesians asked a neighbouring people to build it for them. The latter projected the cost, the Rhodesians agreed, and the project was about to be tackled when the Rhodesians said: "Wait a minute, actually... maybe we'd like it twice as tall as projected, after all. Could you do that? Obviously we'd pay you twice the amount!" And the other tribe, being maths-challenged (which is strange for a tribe good at engineering difficult things; another hole in the story) said: "Okeydokey, sure thing." Only to realize, too late, that a three-dimensional body doubled in size means eight times the volume ... and went bancrupt over the incident.

Fanciful, but the story still is in me and reminds me every time I think of cubic-anything that doubling meand octupling. That said, a modern a concert hall wouldn't necessarily 8 times as expensive because on the inside is mostly air... nor does double the seats mean that twice the size a building would be necessary.

That said (I have the hard facts somewhere but not off the top of my head), I'm sure that the Elbphilharmonie is WELL over twice -- in fact probably ten+ times -- in volume what the Bochum Anneliese Brost Musikzentrum is. Probably even if one counted the church. The Elbphilharmonie is gigantic and massive and complicated and a real engineering feet. Herzog & Meuron said it had been their most challenging project, by far. The cost overrun in the end was caused a.) by insufficient planning and calculating the cost (perhaps partly intentional/tolerated, to get the initial estimated cost down and make the project politically more feasible), b.) encountering unforseen problems that further pushed cost, and c.) by said ineptitude of a complete lack of communication between the various parties responsible to plan and build the thing. In short: You are right in saying the places are not quite comparable...
I'm sure the Elbphilharmonie will turn out to be something like a minor Neuschwanstein for Hamburg... not as long-lived, not AS popular, but still a civic milestone of iconic proportions that people will soon say was worth it all. (If they don't already say that, given how popular it is.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 23, 2017, 12:55:32 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 23, 2017, 01:05:17 AM
Fanciful, but the story still is in me and reminds me every time I think of cubic-anything that doubling meand octupling. That said, a modern a concert hall wouldn't necessarily 8 times as expensive because on the inside is mostly air... nor does double the seats mean that twice the size a building would be necessary.

If you double each dimension, then the volume is 8x but the surface area is 4x.

I don't think concert halls scale like that in height, but I could be wrong.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 23, 2017, 11:00:59 PM
Quote from: Pat B on July 23, 2017, 12:55:32 PM
If you double each dimension ... 8x but the surface area is 4x.

Really? If I have a cube with the height of 1, it has the surface area 6-square. If my cube gets increased to the height of 2, the surface area is, if I am having this straight, 6x4... ah, yes, I see.   :-[

Quote
I don't think concert halls scale like that in height, but I could be wrong.

You'd be right, EXCEPT with the Elbphilharmonie, which just happens to go really, really high up - not just the building, but the concert hall itself.

(Though we've stopped comparing, of course, knowing that one was really "just a building" and the other one was a true modern engineering feat.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 24, 2017, 08:07:11 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 23, 2017, 11:00:59 PM
Really? If I have a cube with the height of 1, it has the surface area 6-square. If my cube gets increased to the height of 2, the surface area is, if I am having this straight, 6x4... ah, yes, I see.   :-[

You'd be right, EXCEPT with the Elbphilharmonie, which just happens to go really, really high up - not just the building, but the concert hall itself.

(Though we've stopped comparing, of course, knowing that one was really "just a building" and the other one was a true modern engineering feat.

On a semi-related note, I read that London is again considering a new hall, this time at the Barbican, but not as a replacement for the existing hall. It would take the current place of the Museum of London which is moving elsewhere. Apparently the budget was £278M but has been revised down to £250M. Assuming the project comes to fruition, what's the over-under on final cost?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 25, 2017, 11:26:07 AM
Quote from: Pat B on July 24, 2017, 08:07:11 PM
re. Apparently the budget was £278M but has been revised down to £250M. Assuming the project comes to fruition, what's the over-under on final cost?

Ha! I'll give you 640.

p.s.

Latest on Forbes:


Classical CD Of The Week: Friedrich Cerha Succumbs To Lulu At Night
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/07/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CERHA_Nacht_3-Orchesterstuecke_KAIROS_Laurson_1200-1200x469.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/07/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-friedrich-cerha-succumbs-to-lulu-at-night/#194656c03cd3 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/07/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-friedrich-cerha-succumbs-to-lulu-at-night/#194656c03cd3)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 26, 2017, 10:21:31 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 25, 2017, 11:26:07 AM
Ha! I'll give you 640.

If there is one city that really does not need a splashy, attention-grabbing concert hall, it is London. (If there are two, the other would be Paris, but that spaceship has already launched.)

But I have seen the list of architects they're considering, so I'll take the over.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 26, 2017, 11:59:54 AM
Quote from: Pat B on July 26, 2017, 10:21:31 AM
If there is one city that really does not need a splashy, attention-grabbing concert hall, it is London.


But they COULD use a REALLY GOOD hall! I hate the Barbican (outside more than inside, but not by MUCH), and Southbank ain't very sexy or great-sounding... though it's workmanlike OK.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 26, 2017, 12:01:59 PM
I like Southbank a good deal. Barbican is godawful inside and out. And of course it can't fit an orchestra, but Wigmore is divine.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 27, 2017, 12:27:53 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2017, 12:01:59 PM
I like Southbank a good deal. Barbican is godawful inside and out. And of course it can't fit an orchestra, but Wigmore is divine.

The programming is the best part of Wigmore, though; the acoustic fine is surely overrated, at least for the last 15 rows where, by some evil coincidence, I seem to sit every time I'm there.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on July 29, 2017, 08:43:33 PM
Quote from: Brian on July 26, 2017, 12:01:59 PM
Barbican is godawful inside and out.

I haven't been there. Do you dislike Brutalism in general or do you think Barbican is a bad instance of it?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 29, 2017, 10:30:11 PM
Quote from: Pat B on July 29, 2017, 08:43:33 PM
I haven't been there. Do you dislike Brutalism in general or do you think Barbican is a bad instance of it?

Don't know about Brian, but even if you are not a fan of Brutalism, you could still like, say, the Copan or other select Niemeyer works, and hate that grimy, black, anti-aircraft bunker masquerading as a concert hall a.k.a. Barbican. Also: Every time I go there, I can never find the entrance on the first attempt. Brutalism is generally an unfortunate period in architecture, that created monuments, not dwellings (a very contemporary problem, come to think of it), and the Barbican is certainly not an above-average example of it. Architecture is the one among the arts (is it one of the arts?) where my tastes run comparatively conservative - and I think it's because ever since neo-classicism (not including fascist versions thereof), the human scale has been missing as the elemental ingredient... and you simply can't get around that when making good buildings for humans.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 31, 2017, 09:28:21 AM
New Cedille Records album with Mahershala Ali includes a page thanking the label's major/frequent donors - including Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

(https://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/hires/CDR90000-172.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on August 08, 2017, 12:15:07 PM
I may very well have missed discussion of this before, but the Eloquence website (https://eloquenceclassics.com/) lists the Eloquence catalog, new releases, and upcoming releases.  There are two other items of note:

1.) There is a "Suggest a Release" contact button.  Perhaps a coordinated effort could result in a reissue.

2.) There is a link to a massive Decca discography, with an updated copyright year of 2017, by Philip Stuart.  (http://toto.adstream.com/public#preview/1n04uyjd9qust).  It's 1494 pages and lists 5994 recordings.  It cites why it is not truly complete.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 10, 2017, 11:34:49 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on June 04, 2017, 01:18:12 AM
In a way, this is the least necessary list for the GMG Classical Music Forum members, who have swallowed the bait -- and the line, and the sinker -- long ago.
But I would be interested in what others think are the best 'grabbers' in classical music to get either the non-existent average listener or every listener hooked.

How To Build A Top Quality Classical Music Library: The Second $100
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/06/100-dollars_MAHLER_2400_Laurson_Finished-1200x517.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/02/how-to-build-a-top-quality-classical-music-library-the-second-100/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/06/02/how-to-build-a-top-quality-classical-music-library-the-second-100/#3602379c607e)

I just purchased the Pollini late LvBs. Seems like a good list. Sigh my working class life situation doesn't currently allow MOAR CDs. 70% of my CDs are from bi-weekly trips I used to make to Tower Records circa 2004 to 2006. Then they closed. :(



Heard Mahler 6th last and finally cracked this nut.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 15, 2017, 12:09:32 AM
Quote from: -abe- on August 10, 2017, 11:34:49 AM
I just purchased the Pollini late LvBs. Seems like a good list. Sigh my working class life situation doesn't currently allow MOAR CDs. 70% of my CDs are from bi-weekly trips I used to make to Tower Records circa 2004 to 2006. Then they closed. :(



Heard Mahler 6th last and finally cracked this nut.  8)

Which Tower Records did you frequent? I worked at the 2000 Penn Tower from ca. 2004 until the very last day they were open.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 15, 2017, 02:41:01 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on August 15, 2017, 12:09:32 AM
Which Tower Records did you frequent? I worked at the 2000 Penn Tower from ca. 2004 until the very last day they were open.

Tysons Corner, Northern VA.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 15, 2017, 03:09:17 AM
Quote from: -abe- on August 15, 2017, 02:41:01 AM
Tysons Corner, Northern VA.

Oh... it still hurts that we couldn't lure you over to our section in DC.  ;D It had a renaissance in those years and was quite nice until it all ended.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Omicron9 on August 23, 2017, 09:14:23 AM
Quote from: Brewski on July 15, 2009, 09:46:03 AM
The Fourth is probably my favorite Shostakovich symphony at the moment, especially after hearing two blazing live performances of it in the last few years: first with Andrey Boreyko making his debut with the New York Philharmonic, and then with Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  And interestingly, in the Boreyko evening, which was part of a series called "Inside the Music," it emerged that Shostakovich himself thought the Fourth might be finer than any of the symphonies that came afterward.  (I'm not necessarily agreeing, just reporting.  ;D) 

Last year Haitink and the CSO then released a recording taped from their concerts in Chicago, which I thought was one of the best recordings of 2008.  Both the performance and the sound quality (on CSO-Resound) are stunning.  I have yet to hear the Ormandy/Philadelphia one, but if you are looking for another version, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

--Bruce

4 is my favorite Shostakovich symphony; 5, 8, and 14 are not far behind. 

In 1998, I was fortunate enough to catch a performance of Shostakovich 4 at the Barbican in London.  LSO conducted by Rostropovich.  Before they started 4, Rostropovich explained that what we now know as 4 was not the symphony with which Shostakovich had started.  He went on to say that DS had begun 4, but was unhappy with its progress.  He abandoned what he had so far, and started over from scratch.  The "started over from scratch" version is what we now know as 4.  Rostropovich explained that he had the original material, and the LSO would perform it, exactly as DS had left it; then begin the 4 that we know immediately after.  The piece they performed was nothing like the 4 that we know.  It was more subdued and "safe," for lack of a better word.  But still a very interesting piece; just nothing like 4 in any way.  The first version of 4 lasted for, as I recall, between 5 and 10 minutes.  Eventually, each instrument began to trail off and drop out, exactly where DS had stopped composing for that instrument in his original sketch.  After the final instrument stopped, Rostropovich paused for a few seconds,  and the LSO exploded into a ripping performance of the 4 that we know.  It was a fantastic experience.  I've looked for a recording of the preliminary 4th symphony sketch, but never located.  If anyone knows of one, I'd be grateful if you could point me in that direction.

TIA and regards,
--09
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 31, 2017, 05:06:31 AM


Not The CD Of The Week: Claudio Abbado's Croaking Swansong
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/08/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BPhil_ABBADO-Last-Concert-Mendelssohn_Berlioz_1200_Laurson_highQality-1200x469.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/08/30/not-the-cd-of-the-week-claudio-abbados-croaking-swansong/#7e3d61415f29)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on August 31, 2017, 06:12:37 AM
So the composer for the Simpsons was canned after 27 years...
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/simpsons-composer-alf-clausen-fired-1202543183/ (http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/simpsons-composer-alf-clausen-fired-1202543183/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 26, 2017, 10:32:46 AM
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/42/15/75/4215752676fa50fc960d930dbb2db372.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 29, 2017, 10:24:56 AM

The Paganini String Quartet set (formerly Cleveland & Tokyo quartets) has found a new home!


(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/09/Paganini-Quartet-Set_Stradivarius_Classical-Critici_Jens-f-Laurson.jpg?width=960)
From Washington To Tokyo To Cremona: The Most Famous Set Of Instruments Finds A New Home
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/09/29/from-washington-to-tokyo-to-cremona-the-most-famous-set-of-instruments-finds-a-new-home/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/09/29/from-washington-to-tokyo-to-cremona-the-most-famous-set-of-instruments-finds-a-new-home/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 04, 2017, 11:50:56 PM

Classical CD Of The Week: Folk Music For String Quartet, Out Of The Woodwork
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/09/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_WOOD-WORKS_Danish-String-Quartet_DACAPO_Laurson_960.jpg?width=960)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/10/04/classical-cd-of-the-week-folksy-string-quartet-out-of-the-woodwork/#6f82c574d0c9 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/10/04/classical-cd-of-the-week-folksy-string-quartet-out-of-the-woodwork/#6f82c574d0c9)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on October 06, 2017, 03:10:42 AM
Not sure if this should go somewhere else, but Thomas Dausgaard was appointed to lead the Seattle Symphony (he was Principal Guest Conductor):
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/arts/the-seattle-symphony-looks-inward-for-its-next-maestro-thomas-dausgaard.html?ref=todayspaper (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/arts/the-seattle-symphony-looks-inward-for-its-next-maestro-thomas-dausgaard.html?ref=todayspaper)
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/classical-music/seattle-symphony-picks-thomas-dausgaard-to-succeed-ludovic-morlot-as-music-director/ (https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/classical-music/seattle-symphony-picks-thomas-dausgaard-to-succeed-ludovic-morlot-as-music-director/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on November 01, 2017, 12:27:31 AM
Did you guys know that youtube uses machine learning/neural-networks to select the videos they suggest to you? Anytime I play something by an obscure composer I get suggestions for all manner of other obscure composers, usually from the same era. Pretty cool.  8)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ_5NwGn28E 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on November 01, 2017, 03:00:27 PM
(http://www.classicalsonoma.org/userfiles/sosborn_1152009114810PM.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 03, 2017, 11:01:26 AM
Quote from: North Star on November 01, 2017, 03:00:27 PM
(http://www.classicalsonoma.org/userfiles/sosborn_1152009114810PM.jpg)


That's what I'm talking!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 03, 2017, 11:56:46 AM
Speaking of Youtube: If any of the German speakers / understanders are interested: Here's a video interview with Bo Skovhus in his wine cellar in Vienna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGuo_R--vRE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGuo_R--vRE)

https://www.youtube.com/v/yGuo_R--vRE
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on November 03, 2017, 06:33:14 PM
MTT to step down from SFS in 2020. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/arts/music/michael-tilson-thomas-san-francisco-symphony.html)  Could be interesting to see who replaces him.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 17, 2017, 03:54:56 AM
A portrait of Geza Anda. For Steinway / @ListenMusicMag

"Only the Steinway piano provides me with wings."
https://www.steinway.com/artists/geza-anda ...


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DO1eXJMXcAA32Hc.jpg:large) (https://www.steinway.com/artists/geza-anda)

The title loses a wonderful pun in translation from the German, where the
same phrase ("Nur Steinway verleiht mir Flügel") also means: "Only
Steinway rents pianos out to me."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on November 17, 2017, 09:40:48 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 17, 2017, 03:54:56 AM
A portrait of Geza Anda. For Steinway / @ListenMusicMag

"Only the Steinway piano provides me with wings."
https://www.steinway.com/artists/geza-anda ...


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DO1eXJMXcAA32Hc.jpg:large) (https://www.steinway.com/artists/geza-anda)

The title loses a wonderful pun in translation from the German, where the
same phrase ("Nur Steinway verleiht mir Flügel") also means: "Only
Steinway rents pianos out to me."

Thoroughly enjoyable write-up, Jet. I've been listening to quite a bit of Anda lately, so I'm especially appreciative of your timely article.

And that's a perfect "Anda-sized" bit of Steinway ad copy in the middle of your article. I have no doubts Anda would've approved. :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 17, 2017, 10:09:32 AM
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on November 17, 2017, 09:40:48 AM
Thoroughly enjoyable write-up, Jet. I've been listening to quite a bit of Anda lately, so I'm especially appreciative of your timely article.

And that's a perfect "Anda-sized" bit of Steinway ad copy in the middle of your article. I have no doubts Anda would've approved. :)

Thanks for the kind words.

Also, the headline (not mine, but the editor's) is something to note, because it loses a wonderful pun in translation from the German, where the same phrase ("Nur Steinway verleiht mir Flügel") also means: "Only Steinway rents pianos out to me." Which is a really good play of words for someone who had only been in German-speaking countries for about a decade or so, when he came up with it in response to a Steinway request for a PR-usable quote.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 22, 2017, 12:03:52 PM
Latest on Forbes.com:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPQmcwZXcAAQVWE.jpg)
Latest on @ForbesOpinion: Classical #CDoftheWeek:
Alexei Lubimov And C.P.E. Bach Going Off On A Tangent
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/11/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-alexei-lubimov-and-c-p-e-bach-going-off-on-a-tangent/#50b50f666cb7  (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/11/22/classical-cd-of-the-week-alexei-lubimov-and-c-p-e-bach-going-off-on-a-tangent/#50b50f666cb7)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 30, 2017, 01:00:08 AM
Welcome to Graun Gardens!

Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 29, 2017, 01:30:53 PM
Graun's just got a big boost, methinks! Now if only people pick up on it.

Major artist-love. And very well done, both in concert and on CD:


Classical CD Of The Week: Julia Lezhneva Discovers Graun
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/11/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_GRAUN_Lezhneva-Arias_DECCA_Laurson_960.jpg?width=960)
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/11/29/classical-cd-of-the-week-julia-lezhneva-discovers-graun-for-us/#2c55ddca2f4b)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 01, 2017, 02:03:18 PM
Review: Visiting Nazgûl - An Evening Of Late Schumann And Darker Schubert
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/12/Caspar-David-Friedrich_Meeresstrand-im-Nebel_Classical_Critic_jfl.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/01/review-visiting-nazgul-an-evening-of-late-schumann-and-darker-schubert/#7d6043f623a9 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/01/review-visiting-nazgul-an-evening-of-late-schumann-and-darker-schubert/#7d6043f623a9)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 05, 2017, 04:56:51 AM




Review: Oh, Only The Best Schöne Müllerin Ever!
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/12/Forbes_CD-Review_Schubert_Gerhaher-Huber_GerhaherHuber_Muellerin_SONY_Laurson_960.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/05/review-oh-only-the-best-schone-mullerin-ever/#535b615f632c (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/05/review-oh-only-the-best-schone-mullerin-ever/#535b615f632c)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 21, 2017, 05:51:56 PM

(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/11/Forbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_DRESDEN_Zefiro_ARCANA_outhere-records_Laurson_960.jpg?width=960)
Classical CD Of The Week: Dresden Gems And Storks In Love
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/21/classical-cd-of-the-week-dresden-gems-and-storks-in-love/#288ef8a7eb0f (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/21/classical-cd-of-the-week-dresden-gems-and-storks-in-love/#288ef8a7eb0f)
J.F.Fasch, J.J.Quantz, J.D.Heinichen, A.Vivaldi, G.P.Telemann, A.Califano, A.Lotti, "Dresden", Zefiro / Alfredo Bernardini, Arcana

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on January 15, 2018, 04:52:13 PM
Not content with 97 and 102 key models, Stuart & Sons is building a nine octave, 108 key piano. (http://www.stuartandsons.com/events.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 16, 2018, 09:35:06 AM
A few reviews:

Classical CD Of The Week: Civilized Mozart-Beauty From Uchida And The Cleveland Orchestra
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/03/classical-cd-of-the-week-civilized-mozart-beauty-from-uchida-and-the-cleveland-orchestra/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/03/classical-cd-of-the-week-civilized-mozart-beauty-from-uchida-and-the-cleveland-orchestra/)
Uchida and her Clevelanders flow from movement to movement with the greatest natural ease.


Classical CD Of The Week: Lied-And-Mélodie Beauties From Viktor Ullmann
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/10/classical-cd-of-the-week-lied-and-melodie-gems-from-viktor-ullmann/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/10/classical-cd-of-the-week-lied-and-melodie-gems-from-viktor-ullmann/)
Ullmann fashioned an ingratiating style of 20th-century modernism rooted in the romanticism of Mahler and Zemlinsky.


Review: A Dress, Two Stars And A Trout 'Electric-Eclectic'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/11/review-a-dress-two-stars-and-a-trout-electric-eclectic/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/11/review-a-dress-two-stars-and-a-trout-electric-eclectic/)
Electric Egomania: You get a hint from the cover, where Mutter, wrapped in a red-fading-to-black dream of ruffled, strapless silk, drapes herself over a museum bench like a piece of molten minx; an astounding pose for which a mixing of metaphors is decidedly required...


Review: HK Gruber's Birthday-Bash At The Vienna Konzerthaus -- Modern Music With A Smile
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/16/review-hk-grubers-birthday-bash-at-the-vienna-konzerthaus-modern-music-with-a-smile/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/16/review-hk-grubers-birthday-bash-at-the-vienna-konzerthaus-modern-music-with-a-smile/)
Composer-conductor HK Gruber got a birthday bash last Friday, conducting a concert of music of his friends, mentors, a protégé, and his own, leading the Vienna RSO of which he had been a member for a quarter century. And what a fun time was being had – befitting a 75th birthday celebration.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Christabel on January 17, 2018, 12:18:47 PM
According to 'insiders' the great Thomas Quasthoff is coming out of retirement and going back behind the microphone for recordings.  It's yet unclear whether this will be Jazz or Classical or both.  Great to have Quasthoff back in the business!! :)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 17, 2018, 12:56:36 PM
Quote from: Christabel on January 17, 2018, 12:18:47 PM
According to 'insiders' the great Thomas Quasthoff is coming out of retirement and going back behind the microphone for recordings.  It's yet unclear whether this will be Jazz or Classical or both.  Great to have Quasthoff back in the business!! :)

a.) Is it? b.) Anyone but Lebrecht report anything substantial on this?


In other news:


Trouble In Berlin: Whatever You Do, Don't Make A Shred Video Of Superstar Violinist Daniel Hope...
...or you will lose your job and face various other recriminations.

Or at least that is what Daniel Hope would like to happen, if this following open letter is to be believed. But from the top:
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2018/01/daniel_hope14cNicolas_Zonvi.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/17/trouble-in-berlin-whatever-you-do-dont-make-a-shred-video-of-superstar-violinist-daniel-hope/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on January 17, 2018, 01:16:39 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on December 05, 2017, 04:56:51 AM



Review: Oh, Only The Best Schöne Müllerin Ever!
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2017/12/Forbes_CD-Review_Schubert_Gerhaher-Huber_GerhaherHuber_Muellerin_SONY_Laurson_960.jpg?width=960)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/05/review-oh-only-the-best-schone-mullerin-ever/#535b615f632c (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/12/05/review-oh-only-the-best-schone-mullerin-ever/#535b615f632c)

The last thing I need is another Mullerin. I culled my collection a few years ago, to get it down to a stupidly large number. It was the first lieder I ever heard, and still my favorite. You didn't mention my preference though: Olaf Bär.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Christabel on January 17, 2018, 06:00:25 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 17, 2018, 12:56:36 PM
a.) Is it? b.) Anyone but Lebrecht report anything substantial on this?


In other news:


Trouble In Berlin: Whatever You Do, Don't Make A Shred Video Of Superstar Violinist Daniel Hope...
...or you will lose your job and face various other recriminations.

Or at least that is what Daniel Hope would like to happen, if this following open letter is to be believed. But from the top:
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2018/01/daniel_hope14cNicolas_Zonvi.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/17/trouble-in-berlin-whatever-you-do-dont-make-a-shred-video-of-superstar-violinist-daniel-hope/)

Press release just in from Sony:

New York / Berlin, January 17, 2018

When bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff announced his retirement from public performance as a Lieder singer in 2012, he left a hole in both the jazz and the classical worlds, which until today has not been filled. But the three-time Grammy Award-winning artist was sure that the time was right because he had no other choice.  "It  is no secret  that extreme feelings make you speechless. After the death of my brother, my voice literally left me and I felt that I could no longer fulfill the expectations I had of myself and my artistry. That's why I gave up my career as a classical singer. Luckily, my voice came slowly back to me, and today I stand here as a very happy person and  I dedicate this new album to my brother Michael."

Sony Classical is proud to be able to join Thomas Quasthoff on his return to the recording studio. The first album, due for release in May 2018, will be a diverse programme of jazz classics with the celebrated NDR Bigband – The Hamburg Radio Jazz Orchestra and his trio partners Frank Chastenier, Dieter Ilg and Wolfgang Haffner.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 18, 2018, 12:14:10 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 17, 2018, 12:56:36 PM

Trouble In Berlin: Whatever You Do, Don't Make A Shred Video Of Superstar Violinist Daniel Hope...
...or you will lose your job and face various other recriminations.

Or at least that is what Daniel Hope would like to happen, if this following open letter is to be believed. But from the top:
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2018/01/daniel_hope14cNicolas_Zonvi.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/17/trouble-in-berlin-whatever-you-do-dont-make-a-shred-video-of-superstar-violinist-daniel-hope/)

For a while I was thinking: maybe Lücker was already on thin ice at the Berliner Konzerthaus and this was the last straw.

But the comment from Der Herr Intendant makes it clear that his firing non-retention was indeed primarily for this video, which apparently hardly anybody saw anyway. Nice touch to fixate on the distinction between "fired" and "did not retain," which surely must have been greatly appreciated by all of the employment lawyers reading "Bad Blog of Musick." I guess that's one way to do damage control.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 18, 2018, 01:05:40 AM
Quote from: Pat B on January 18, 2018, 12:14:10 AM
Nice touch to fixate on the distinction between "fired" and "did not retain," which surely must have been greatly appreciated by all of the employment lawyers reading "Bad Blog of Musick." I guess that's one way to do damage control.

;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on January 18, 2018, 02:02:42 PM
The latest outrage of omission to catch my attention.

[asin]B00FETUPN4[/asin]

What happened to Mozart Symphony No 32 (KV318)?

I assume they decided that it is not a real "symphony." (It has a peculiar form and musicologists have been arguing what theatrical piece it is supposed to be the overture for.) Grrrr!  I like the piece.  What harm would there be in recording it.

Even a worse offense than the Mosaiques omitting the revised finale of the Beethoven Quartet Op 130. (Not that the revised finale of Op 130 isn't a fine piece, but the Quatuor Mosaiques recording is a turd, so who cares what they record or don't record?)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 20, 2018, 09:11:43 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 17, 2018, 12:56:36 PM



Trouble In Berlin: Whatever You Do, Don't Make A Shred Video Of Superstar Violinist Daniel Hope...
...or you will lose your job and face various other recriminations.

Or at least that is what Daniel Hope would like to happen, if this following open letter is to be believed. But from the top:
(https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jenslaurson/files/2018/01/daniel_hope14cNicolas_Zonvi.jpg?width=960) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/17/trouble-in-berlin-whatever-you-do-dont-make-a-shred-video-of-superstar-violinist-daniel-hope/)

This story got more interesting: Van Magazine claimed that it was DG Prez. himself who asked for Luecker to be removed from his writing job at Neue Musikzeitung.

Forbes piece edited to quote that segment. Universal VP of Comm. quickly commented (well, he didn't mean to comment, he meant to tell) that Clemens Trautmann did NOT ask the NMZ to fire Luecker. Friendly tone and all... after all, he had a point. (Quote wasn't sourced by VAN Magazine... not that it needs to be for me to quote it... but as a matter of courtesy, one might refrain from multiplying such quotes.)

Forbes piece edited to impart to the readers that DG denied that story in that specific way. Universal VP of Comm.right back: This time no longer friendly. Not with the hammer, yet, just the hand behind their back, suggesting that they might not be holding candy.

I'm not sure the story is wrong, just more muddy and complicated and decidedly not 'official', as friendships and backroom channels are involved.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 21, 2018, 08:14:34 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 20, 2018, 09:11:43 AM
This story got more interesting: Van Magazine claimed that it was DG Prez. himself who asked for Luecker to be removed from his writing job at Neue Musikzeitung.

Forbes piece edited to quote that segment. Universal VP of Comm. quickly commented (well, he didn't mean to comment, he meant to tell) that Clemens Trautmann did NOT ask the NMZ to fire Luecker. Friendly tone and all... after all, he had a point. (Quote wasn't sourced by VAN Magazine... not that it needs to be for me to quote it... but as a matter of courtesy, one might refrain from multiplying such quotes.)

Forbes piece edited to impart to the readers that DG denied that story in that specific way. Universal VP of Comm.right back: This time no longer friendly. Not with the hammer, yet, just the hand behind their back, suggesting that they might not be holding candy.

I'm not sure the story is wrong, just more muddy and complicated and decidedly not 'official', as friendships and backroom channels are involved.

Last year, Van Magazine published a piece called "The Decline of Deutsche Grammophon," which apparently spawned a backlash. I'm assuming there is some lingering resentment, probably in both directions.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 12:19:38 AM
Quote from: Pat B on January 21, 2018, 08:14:34 PM
Last year, Van Magazine published a piece called "The Decline of Deutsche Grammophon," which apparently spawned a backlash. I'm assuming there is some lingering resentment, probably in both directions.

I remember that hazily. Not a particularly clever or balanced essay, I thought at the time. DG is clearly trying to be both, commercially successful in the old model (which you can't be with total highbrow) and, well, "DG". It's tough. Just an example: Among the 250 commercially most successful classical recordings in the UK over the last quarter century, the first arguably "serious" classical recording that registers is Nigel Kennedy's 4 Seasons and it comes in at No.100!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 06:51:53 AM
Quote from: The One on January 22, 2018, 03:00:26 AM
How can I get an access to that? Is it full of Rieu, Bocelli and sorts?

Excatly. And then some Three Tenors and a surprising amount of Bryn Terfel. Charlotte Church, of course... and especially soundtracks! Oh, and this Katherine Jenkins woman.

Titanic. Russell Watson "The Voice". Hayley Westenra "Pure". Church "Voice of an Angel". Katherin Jenkins "Living A Dream". Katherin Jenkins "Second Nature". "Voices of the Valley". Rieu "Moonligth Serenade". "The Priests". Katherine Jenkins "Serenade" et al.

http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/classic-fm-reveals-best-selling-classical-albums-past-25-years/ (http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/classic-fm-reveals-best-selling-classical-albums-past-25-years/)
-> http://halloffame.classicfm.com/ultimate-chart/ (http://halloffame.classicfm.com/ultimate-chart/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on January 22, 2018, 07:01:15 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 06:51:53 AM
Charlotte Church, of course...

Lawd, I had succeeded in forgetting about her . . . .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 09:05:22 AM
Quote from: The One on January 22, 2018, 07:19:19 AM
That is one pathetic list. There aren't any whole compositions until Kennedy's Four seasons at #100, then #133 du Pre's Elgar and #176 Summerly's Faure...and Vanessa Mae is still alive  :laugh:

I know. It just makes you cry. Both at what gets defined as "classical" and at just how low proper classical sales are. (Between 250 and 1000 for a good release.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on January 22, 2018, 09:42:40 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 09:05:22 AM
I know. It just makes you cry. Both at what gets defined as "classical" and at just how low proper classical sales are. (Between 250 and 1000 for a good release.)

Curious that there are so many classical releases when sales are so low. Seems to imply that profit is not the primary motivation. Perhaps for ensembles and performers classical recordings function as more of a promotional tool than a revenue generator.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 10:23:05 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on January 22, 2018, 09:42:40 AM
Curious that there are so many classical releases when sales are so low. Seems to imply that profit is not the primary motivation. Perhaps for ensembles and performers, classical recordings function as more of a promotional tool than a revenue generator.

That is precisely it. The idea of making a profit on producing a CD has gone out of the window. Except for a handful of exclusive artists or productions made in conjunction with state radio stations, there's no money to be made from recording. (Naxos, I think, also pays a fee to their artists, but it is small. And no royalties, of course, which is standard now.) Most productions are paid for by the artists or sponsors or a combination thereof; sometimes the label contributes some of the cost. Some labels, like Sony, will do it for free but take a cut of the artist's concert fees for the next year! In any case, monetization works differently now than it used to. The whole business has changed in almost every single aspect (consumer behavior, monetization, production, the medium itself... everything) -- and yet it has thrived at the same time. Amazing, if you think about it. Every other industry would probably have gone belly up.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 22, 2018, 10:40:00 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 12:19:38 AM
I remember that hazily. Not a particularly clever or balanced essay, I thought at the time. DG is clearly trying to be both, commercially successful in the old model (which you can't be with total highbrow) and, well, "DG". It's tough.

I re-read it. While certainly not glowing, it did not read like a hit-piece to me. It touted Daniil Trifonov, Cho Seong-Jin, Lisa Batiashvili, and a few other DG artists; it repeatedly acknowledged the increasing difficulty of selling serious classical recordings; and it politely omitted the fact that DG and fellow UMG corporate underling Decca divested their recording facilities long ago.

The elephant in the room is that with production outsourced, and manufacturing and licensing presumably handled by the parent corporation, DG and Decca have become little more than marketing outfits. Obviously UMG wants them each to maximize profits, but surely UMG also wants them to have well-defined, complementary brands. As a consumer right now, I don't really know what the current forms of DG and Decca (and the half-heartedly resurrected Mercury) are supposed to represent. I also wonder whether the typical crossover customer knows or cares what the Yellow Label traditionally stood for. My expectation is that the next reorg will put one staff in charge of whatever remains of both/all classical labels. In that scenario the DG logo could go on prestige products without carrying the pressure to pay for any dedicated staff.

Oops! Sorry for the digression.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on January 22, 2018, 11:22:16 AM
Quote from: Pat B on January 22, 2018, 10:40:00 AM
I re-read it. While certainly not glowing, it did not read like a hit-piece to me. It touted Daniil Trifonov, Cho Seong-Jin, Lisa Batiashvili, and a few other DG artists; it repeatedly acknowledged the increasing difficulty of selling serious classical recordings; and it politely omitted the fact that DG and fellow UMG corporate underling Decca divested their recording facilities long ago.

The elephant in the room is that with production outsourced, and manufacturing and licensing presumably handled by the parent corporation, DG and Decca have become little more than marketing outfits. Obviously UMG wants them each to maximize profits, but surely UMG also wants them to have well-defined, complementary brands. As a consumer right now, I don't really know what the current forms of DG and Decca (and the half-heartedly resurrected Mercury) are supposed to represent. I also wonder whether the typical crossover customer knows or cares what the Yellow Label traditionally stood for. My expectation is that the next reorg will put one staff in charge of whatever remains of both/all classical labels. In that scenario the DG logo could go on prestige products without carrying the pressure to pay for any dedicated staff.

Oops! Sorry for the digression.

Part of it is technology. Making an good classical recording used to very difficult and expensive. It required extremely expensive hand-made microphones, tape recorders, electronics, cutting lathes, etc. The record labels used to build their own custom amplifiers, mixing consoles, lathe drivers to produce their 'house sound.'  People would become fans of a label because of the house sound. Now you can make, mix, master and distribute a good recording with a laptop and some relatively inexpensive hardware. There is nothing to differentiate the sound from different labels, and the barrier to entering the market is very low.

DG tried to hold it off as long as possible. I remember how they plugged their supposedly advanced "4D" system, which was supposed to differentiate them from other labels. They were trying so hard to sound 'state of the art', but those recording sounded horrible to me.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 22, 2018, 02:43:53 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 22, 2018, 09:05:22 AM
I know. It just makes you cry. Both at what gets defined as "classical" and at just how low proper classical sales are. (Between 250 and 1000 for a good release.)

The makeup of that best-seller list is not really shocking. The market for, say, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is divided among more than a hundred recordings, while everybody wanting the soundtrack from The Phantom Menace all buy the same single product.

I've heard those numbers before, not just from you. Where do they come from? And what is your idea of "a good release?"

A couple of years ago Melodiya put out a Richter box, purportedly limited to 1000, with an exorbitant price tag, and it sold out immediately. I'm not claiming that's a representative release, but the pricing — high enough that I, a moderate Richter fan, did not even consider it — and the speed made me think that maybe 1000 isn't so difficult to achieve. And I would think that no recording that sold less than 1000 copies would ever get repressed or reissued.

With that said, obviously everything is moving towards streaming. Supposedly Billboard equates 1500 track plays to one album sale. I picked out Amandine Beyer as a current artist who I like but is not backed by the promotional muscle of Sony/UMG/Warner. Several of her recent albums, by my math, add up to 400-900 album sale equivalents from spotify alone, with other streaming platforms and actual CD sales on top of that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 23, 2018, 12:33:39 AM
Quote from: Pat B on January 22, 2018, 02:43:53 PM

I've heard those numbers before, not just from you. Where do they come from?

For me, at least, it's just what I pick up from talking to artists and labels...

QuoteAnd what is your idea of "a good release?"

A serious-minded release on a half-way decent, well-distributed label... very exact idea, very difficult to explain it exactly. Something that isn't too obviously a vanity recording. Something with contents of interest. Well performed. Something not too obscure or modern. Something like this (http://a-fwd.to/44RSbhT) or this (http://a-fwd.to/26d88Tk) or this (http://a-fwd.to/5vX9040) or this (http://a-fwd.to/4wX1WfO).

QuoteA couple of years ago Melodiya put out a Richter box, purportedly limited to 1000, with an exorbitant price tag, and it sold out immediately. I'm not claiming that's a representative release, but the pricing — high enough that I, a moderate Richter fan, did not even consider it — and the speed made me think that maybe 1000 isn't so difficult to achieve.

If you can get media interest (such as here) and create a head-turner... you can get sales. But it's not the average, such a box. The high price might even have helped, actually.

QuoteAnd I would think that no recording that sold less than 1000 copies would ever get repressed or reissued.

Sure they will. If an initial run is, say, 1000 or 800, more will be printed again (maybe 100, 200) if it sold out. Eventually, at least. Depends on the company. Repressing is as cheap as the packaging is, basically. (Which makes re-issuing of the wallet-type boxes less likely, because those are fairly expensive to produce and are really only worth it if your run is >1000.

QuoteWith that said, obviously everything is moving towards streaming. Supposedly Billboard equates 1500 track plays to one album sale. I picked out Amandine Beyer as a current artist who I like but is not backed by the promotional muscle of Sony/UMG/Warner. Several of her recent albums, by my math, add up to 400-900 album sale equivalents from spotify alone, with other streaming platforms and actual CD sales on top of that.

Which would be/is very cool. Except that 1500 track-plays don't amount to 1 album sale financially.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 23, 2018, 10:56:34 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 23, 2018, 12:33:39 AM
A serious-minded release on a half-way decent, well-distributed label... very exact idea, very difficult to explain it exactly. Something that isn't too obviously a vanity recording. Something with contents of interest. Well performed. Something not too obscure or modern. Something like this (http://a-fwd.to/44RSbhT) or this (http://a-fwd.to/26d88Tk) or this (http://a-fwd.to/5vX9040) or this (http://a-fwd.to/4wX1WfO).

Okay, I can see that.

Quote
Sure they will. If an initial run is, say, 1000 or 800, more will be printed again (maybe 100, 200) if it sold out. Eventually, at least. Depends on the company. Repressing is as cheap as the packaging is, basically. (Which makes re-issuing of the wallet-type boxes less likely, because those are fairly expensive to produce and are really only worth it if your run is >1000.

Okay, that also makes sense, with the "depending on the company" proviso. I knew subsequent runs were relatively cheap but had forgotten they can have such small volumes.

Quote
Which would be/is very cool. Except that 1500 track-plays don't amount to 1 album sale financially.

Well, that depends.

Spotify, from what I have found online, pays between $0.006 and $0.008 per play to the label and artist. 1500 plays works out to about $10.5.

Artists who sell CDs at concerts, or directly online, surpass that on those sales.

Going through retail channels is a different matter. Amazon 3rd-party sellers are selling that Pachelbel album for $13+shipping. Amazon charges a closing fee of $1.8 plus a referral fee of $2.4. Even if the seller's entire profit comes from the difference between charged and actual shipping, the money is down to $8.8. Subtract $1 for manufacturing and at least $1 for distribution and the label-and-artist share is down to under $7.

It would be more efficient for the manufacturer to be the seller, cutting out another middleman (and shipment). AFAIK only Naxos is doing that — but AFAICT they are not consistently passing any of those savings to either the artist or the customer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 24, 2018, 07:04:44 AM
A Brief History of the Composer (+ CD Review)

Classical CD Of The Week: Krystian Zimerman And A Brush With Grażyna
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F01%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BACEWICZ_Zimerman_DG_ChamberMusic_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson_960-1200x469.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)

A Brush With Grażyna

I had my first brush with the music of Grażyna Bacewicz at a Krystian Zimerman recital at Baltimore's Shriver Hall that opened their 40th Anniversary Piano Celebration in 2006. Concluding a very fine recital (albeit marred by Zimerman's gratuitous political ranting; see: "Political Piano at Shriver Hall"), he played Grażyna Bacewicz' Piano Sonata No.2. After that, he was off, commendably encore-less, despite wildest ovations. At the time I described the impression thus: "Music that has its home in a black pool of deep sounds all the way on the left of the keyboard, it jumps to life, repeatedly, into the higher register. Every one of its three movements ends contemplatively. It was delivered with panache [...], it is a work obviously close to his heart, and he won many new ears for it with his performance."... (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/01/24/classical-cd-of-the-week-krystian-zimerman-and-a-brush-with-grazina/#180d8d237fc1)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on January 24, 2018, 11:19:52 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on January 22, 2018, 11:22:16 AM
Part of it is technology. Making an good classical recording used to very difficult and expensive. It required extremely expensive hand-made microphones, tape recorders, electronics, cutting lathes, etc. The record labels used to build their own custom amplifiers, mixing consoles, lathe drivers to produce their 'house sound.'  People would become fans of a label because of the house sound. Now you can make, mix, master and distribute a good recording with a laptop and some relatively inexpensive hardware. There is nothing to differentiate the sound from different labels, and the barrier to entering the market is very low.

DG tried to hold it off as long as possible. I remember how they plugged their supposedly advanced "4D" system, which was supposed to differentiate them from other labels. They were trying so hard to sound 'state of the art', but those recording sounded horrible to me.

Interesting point. How much of "house sound" was that now-obsolete custom gear, and how much was mic selection/placement, studio acoustics, and various EQ/reverb/dynamic tricks (or lack thereof)? A lot of decisions still have to be made even if everybody is feeding the signal through off-the-shelf DACs into ProTools. But now those decisions have been outsourced, detached from the branding — and many of the physical facilities have been repurposed or demolished.

The waters are getting muddy even with old recordings, with Philips recordings now branded as Decca, EMI as Warner, Virgin as Erato, and both Columbia and RCA as Sony.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on January 25, 2018, 08:13:48 AM
Quote from: Pat B on January 24, 2018, 11:19:52 AM
Interesting point. How much of "house sound" was that now-obsolete custom gear, and how much was mic selection/placement, studio acoustics, and various EQ/reverb/dynamic tricks (or lack thereof)? A lot of decisions still have to be made even if everybody is feeding the signal through off-the-shelf DACs into ProTools. But now those decisions have been outsourced, detached from the branding — and many of the physical facilities have been repurposed or demolished.


I wish I could find it, but I read an article by one of the children of the Mercury team describing some of the behind the scenes stuff, like the difficulty of getting the M201 microphone that they preferred for making orchestral recordings (supposedly only 36 had ever been made and they needed six--3 + 3 spares for a job). Basically those microphones were very sensitive with low distortion, but also had a frequency response which was far from flat, with a peak in the upper middle range. The "sound" had to do with getting the distance right so that the microphone response curve complemented the tendency of high frequencies to decay faster with distance than low frequencies to produce a sound which was 'just right.' At that time what they could do to process the signal was limited and editing was done with a razor blade.

Also, I recall that some of the old Decca releases had information about the recording equipment ("Decca Legends" or "The Classic Sound") which listed customers built mixing consoles which they used for the "Decca Tree" plus "Outriggers" configuration.

Now, I was at a concert of the San Francisco Symphony which was being recorded for a release on SACD. Looked like there were at least 100 microphones suspended above the orchestra by wires. They were no doubt recorded on individual tracks, with the ability to individually adjust the gain and equalization of each microphone and and substitute tracks from other takes (the program was repeated at 3 concerts) to fix any problems. The ability to manipulate is almost infinite. It is primarily a cost thing, because you don't have to sit there with the orchestra getting the microphone placement just right. Everything is fixed in the digital manipulation of the recording post-production.

QuoteThe waters are getting muddy even with old recordings, with Philips recordings now branded as Decca, EMI as Warner, Virgin as Erato, and both Columbia and RCA as Sony.

Yes, that drives me crazy. The disappearance of Erato was a great loss, and to see Virgin recordings branded as Erato (with a red logo instead of green) adds insult to injury.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 08, 2018, 03:58:36 PM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on January 25, 2018, 08:13:48 AM
Yes, that drives me crazy. The disappearance of Erato was a great loss, and to see Virgin recordings branded as Erato (with a red logo instead of green) adds insult to injury.

How so? Erato was dead in the water after Warner stopped meaningfully producing new classical recordings somewhere around 2002. Or they stopped in 04/05 but closed down Erato as early as 2002, using the label only for a few re-issues. Its goal was to produce French classical music, with an emphasis -- though only a slight one -- on early music.

Virgin, meanwhile, was alive and well -- quite independent under EMI Classics... also French-run (Erato's founder and Virgin's head know each other well) and had set out to do exactly the same thing.

Makes total sense that post-Parlophone sale, Virgin was folded into Erato, while the whole company (Warner) is revitalized and run by the former head of Virgin.

Meanwhile CLICK-BAIT alarm:


Classical CD Of The Week: A Starry-Fantastical Contemporary American Piano Concerto
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F01%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CLAUDE-BAKER_Piano-Concerto_Marc-Andre-Hamelin_NAXOS_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-starry-fantastical-contemporary-american-piano-concerto/#9f6d7a0392a4 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-starry-fantastical-contemporary-american-piano-concerto/#9f6d7a0392a4)

...In recommending Claude Baker's From Noon to Starry Night as well as Aus Schwanengesang, I'd like to say that the music stands on its own; that it can be judged on its own, intrinsically individual merits... But perhaps that is not quite true: the quotation-aspect is too strong as to be able to ignore it. Which is strange, in a way: In the visual arts we judge a collage very easily on its own merits. That's probably because we are not familiar with the parts that make up the whole; the ingredients are often anonymous or at best symbolic and not the smile of the Mona Lisa pasted onto the face of Quentin de La Tour's Louis XV of France set in Henri Rousseau's Exotic Landscape. In music meanwhile, the famous quotes – even the faint ones that appear and disappear on the horizon – stick out and determine our perception more definitely. The way we appreciate Kurt Schwitters is not analogue to the way we appreciate Hans Zender...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 08, 2018, 04:09:15 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 08, 2018, 03:58:36 PM
How so? Erato was dead in the water after Warner stopped meaningfully producing new classical recordings somewhere around 2002. Or they stopped in 04/05 but closed down Erato as early as 2002, using the label only for a few re-issues. Its goal was to produce French classical music, with an emphasis -- though only a slight one -- on early music.

Virgin, meanwhile, was alive and well -- quite independent under EMI Classics... also French-run (Erato's founder and Virgin's head know each other well) and had set out to do exactly the same thing.

Makes total sense that post-Parlophone sale, Virgin was folded into Erato, while the whole company (Warner) is revitalized and run by the former head of Virgin.

Makes about as much sense to me as it would if Warner Brothers bought the 20th Century Fox catalog and rebranded Marilyn Monroe films as Lana Turner to reinforce their "blond bombshell" brand.

The labels had their own identities. An Erato recording does not sound like a Virgin recording. To have look at a release and have to ask myself, is that Erato Erato, or is that Erato really Virgin, is that Warner Teldec, or is that Warner EMI? I find it vaguely alienating.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 09, 2018, 12:56:06 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 08, 2018, 04:09:15 PM
Makes about as much sense to me as it would if Warner Brothers bought the 20th Century Fox catalog and rebranded Marilyn Monroe films as Lana Turner to reinforce their "blond bombshell" brand.

The labels had their own identities. An Erato recording does not sound like a Virgin recording. To have look at a release and have to ask myself, is that Erato Erato, or is that Erato really Virgin, is that Warner Teldec, or is that Warner EMI? I find it vaguely alienating.

I suppose that makes it difficult to navigate for releases between 1992 and 2002, during which both labels were making recordings. But I don't really hear the "label" thumbprint as you apparently do.
In any case, they didn't have much choice, since as part of the deal they were not allowed to continue use any part of the Virgin or EMI brands.

Same as Universal -- whose right to use the "Philips" name had run out... so folding it into Decca seemed a logical-enough choice. But those recordings are not hard to pick out, I find.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 10, 2018, 12:36:03 PM
This is a surprise, Andre Rieu, conducting Telemann with Gustav Leonhardt, recorded in the 60's. Before he turned to the dark side, I suppose.  ???

[asin]B000000SII[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on February 10, 2018, 12:43:10 PM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 10, 2018, 12:36:03 PM
This is a surprise, Andre Rieu, conducting Telemann with Gustav Leonhardt, recorded in the 60's. Before he turned to the dark side, I suppose.  ???
Maybe it's Andre Rieu senior, the father of that infamous one?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: kishnevi on February 10, 2018, 07:59:45 PM
Quote from: North Star on February 10, 2018, 12:43:10 PM
Maybe it's Andre Rieu senior, the father of that infamous one?

Indeed. Andre Sr also shows up among the performers in the Teldec Bach box. (I am not in the mood to look to see what exactly he did there.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 11, 2018, 12:37:42 AM
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on February 10, 2018, 07:59:45 PM
Indeed. Andre Sr also shows up among the performers in the Teldec Bach box. (I am not in the mood to look to see what exactly he did there.)

And isn't there a Sony Haydn Trumpet concerto recording on which that chap conducted?

Ah, ORGAN concertos (http://a-fwd.to/3uYZdOR) it was.

I know how I blanched when I first realized (or thought I had realized) that I had an Andre Rieu CD among my posessions.  ;D

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51c-r0KR3tL.jpg)
Concertos for Organ & Orchestra
André Rieu (Künstler),‎ Joseph Haydn (Komponist),‎ Georg Friedrich Händel (Komponist)  (http://a-fwd.to/3uYZdOR)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 12, 2018, 03:13:23 PM
Must be the father (who was a conductor according to wikipedia). Seems unlikely that a guy born in 1949 would be recording Bach and Telemann for Telefunken in the 1960's.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on February 15, 2018, 08:59:16 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 09, 2018, 12:56:06 AM
I suppose that makes it difficult to navigate for releases between 1992 and 2002, during which both labels were making recordings. But I don't really hear the "label" thumbprint as you apparently do.
In any case, they didn't have much choice, since as part of the deal they were not allowed to continue use any part of the Virgin or EMI brands.

Same as Universal -- whose right to use the "Philips" name had run out... so folding it into Decca seemed a logical-enough choice. But those recordings are not hard to pick out, I find.

It's not a huge deal to me, but I think the clean way to handle that would have been to create new imprints for those Philips/EMI/Virgin recordings that now can't be sold under those names.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 16, 2018, 02:18:08 PM
I have the notion to listen to something by Ives.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mahlerian on February 16, 2018, 06:02:10 PM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 16, 2018, 02:18:08 PM
I have the notion to listen to something by Ives.

Maybe one of the violin sonatas would do?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 17, 2018, 06:15:22 AM
Latest on Forbes.com

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F01%2FFORBES_Classical-CD-of-the-MONTH_2017-02_Hypersuites_Berlin-Classica_Marina-Baranova.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Classical CD of the Month: The Jazzy Space Chicken Baroque Hypersuite (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/17/classical-cd-of-the-month-the-jazzy-space-chicken-baroque-hypersuite/#7974f72f7bab)

Literally every click counts to support continued arts coverage on Forbes.com
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 17, 2018, 07:08:33 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on February 16, 2018, 06:02:10 PM
Maybe one of the violin sonatas would do?

My choices are the symphonies on a Double Decca (Dohnanyi, Blomstedt?) Piano sonata no 1 on EMI, Three Scenes from New England (?) on Mercury, some filler on EMI with Metzmacher.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 21, 2018, 04:49:11 AM

Latest on Forbes.com

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FValery_Gergiev_Signs_Contract_Extension_w-Munich-Philharmonic_OBReiter_Kueppers_Mueller_c_Michael-Nagy_Classical_Critic_Jens-F-Laurson.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Valery Gergiev Stays In Munich, Extends Contract To 2025

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/valery-gergiev-stays-in-munich-extends-contract-to-2025/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/valery-gergiev-stays-in-munich-extends-contract-to-2025/#388e077e2222)

Literally every click counts to support continued arts coverage on Forbes.com
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 21, 2018, 04:57:20 AM
Done 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on February 21, 2018, 04:58:58 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 21, 2018, 04:57:20 AM
Done 8)

Me too!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 22, 2018, 01:42:27 AM
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on February 21, 2018, 04:58:58 PM
Me too!

;D Thanks, guys!

I've got another one for you, too:

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F01%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_VASKS_String-Quartets_WERGO_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Classical CD Of The Month: Consoling, Questioning, Scratching -- Pēteris Vasks String Quartets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/#d4b09ec18aa8 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/#d4b09ec18aa8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Crudblud on February 22, 2018, 06:10:10 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on February 17, 2018, 07:08:33 AM
My choices are the symphonies on a Double Decca (Dohnanyi, Blomstedt?) Piano sonata no 1 on EMI, Three Scenes from New England (?) on Mercury, some filler on EMI with Metzmacher.
Dohnányi does a very fine 4th.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 22, 2018, 07:45:54 AM
Quote from: Crudblud on February 22, 2018, 06:10:10 AM
Dohnányi does a very fine 4th.

Maybe I'll start with that, then. Thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on February 23, 2018, 05:56:51 AM
Started the 4th, within a minute there was a chorus. That was the end of that.

Switched to the 1st Symphony. Based on reputation I was expecting something distinctive. Seemed like slightly off-kilter Dvorak.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 24, 2018, 08:35:59 PM
With this concert, I was looking forward to the Cantata by von Einem. And a fine work, well performed it was. But it turned out that the Bruckner Zeroth was a show-stealer!

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FAnton_Bruckner_II_ORF-RSO__laurson_960.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)

Review: Anton Bruckner's Zeroth Symphony, A Viennese Miracle

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/24/review-anton-bruckners-zeroth-symphony-a-viennese-miracle/#6b44363c14a1 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/24/review-anton-bruckners-zeroth-symphony-a-viennese-miracle/#6b44363c14a1)

Literally every click counts to support continued arts coverage on Forbes.com
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on February 26, 2018, 10:52:48 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 24, 2018, 08:35:59 PM
Review: Anton Bruckner's Zeroth Symphony, A Viennese Miracle (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/24/review-anton-bruckners-zeroth-symphony-a-viennese-miracle/#6b44363c14a1)

Quote
I want to spell and pronounce it "Zeroëth"; I can't be alone in this...?

I'd rather put an umlaut over the r (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Spinal_Tap_logo.jpg).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 26, 2018, 10:58:25 AM
It's a poser!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 28, 2018, 10:13:14 AM
Quote from: Pat B on February 26, 2018, 10:52:48 AM
I'd rather put an umlaut over the r (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Spinal_Tap_logo.jpg).

;D

But you don't pronounce it "Zero-ETH" (rather than Zee-ROTH) in your head?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on February 28, 2018, 08:47:40 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 28, 2018, 10:13:14 AM
But you don't pronounce it "Zero-ETH" (rather than Zee-ROTH) in your head?

3 syllables, accent on the first. ZEE-roe-əth.

But mostly, those dots look, like, really wicked. >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 01, 2018, 04:39:49 AM
(* chortle *)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 01, 2018, 11:39:28 PM
A few recent articles on Forbes:

Literally every click supports classical music coverage on Forbes...

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_MAX-RICHTER_VIVALDI_Recomposed_Francisco-Fullana_ORCHID_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Classical CD Of The Week: A Second, Intriguing Take On Max Richter's "Four Seasons Recomposed"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-second-intriguing-take-on-max-richters-four-seasons-recomposed/#3537d5b61d50 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-second-intriguing-take-on-max-richters-four-seasons-recomposed/#3537d5b61d50)


(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FAnton_Bruckner_II_ORF-RSO__laurson_960.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Review: Anton Bruckner's Zeroth Symphony, A Viennese Miracle
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/24/review-anton-bruckners-zeroth-symphony-a-viennese-miracle/#7467e18714a1 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/24/review-anton-bruckners-zeroth-symphony-a-viennese-miracle/#7467e18714a1)


(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F01%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_VASKS_String-Quartets_WERGO_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
Classical CD Of The Month: Consoling, Questioning, Scratching -- Pēteris Vasks String Quartets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/#2b37e9a318aa (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/#2b37e9a318aa)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWlxFxGW0AAwljW.jpg)
Valery Gergiev Stays In Munich, Extends Contract To 2025
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/valery-gergiev-stays-in-munich-extends-contract-to-2025/#7ea7fa682222 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/valery-gergiev-stays-in-munich-extends-contract-to-2025/#7ea7fa682222)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Spineur on March 05, 2018, 12:50:54 PM
Nice article in the New Yorker about Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques and baroque music at Versailles

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/26/the-overpowering-beauty-of-music-at-versailles
(https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/26/the-overpowering-beauty-of-music-at-versailles)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 06, 2018, 08:40:43 AM
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FSQUARE_Bavarian-State_Opera_Serge-Dorny_Jurowski_-bw-DoubleClassical-Critic_Forbes.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)
New Bavarian State Opera Directors Have Been Announced In Munich
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/06/new-bavarian-state-opera-directors-have-been-announced-in-munich/#571e614a7a39 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/06/new-bavarian-state-opera-directors-have-been-announced-in-munich/#571e614a7a39)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 07, 2018, 10:26:47 AM
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BRUCKNER_HONECK_PITTSBURG_REFERENCE_RECORDINGS_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960)

Classical CD Of The Week: A Gaggle Of Bruckner Fourths, Led By Manfred Honeck

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-gaggle-of-bruckner-fourths-led-by-manfred-honeck/#13189eee37da (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/07/classical-cd-of-the-week-a-gaggle-of-bruckner-fourths-led-by-manfred-honeck/#13189eee37da)

(Literally every click helps to convince Forbes not to dismiss classical music coverage)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 11, 2018, 06:06:09 PM
Here's a parlor game of sorts: Pick your Bruckner First Eleven. How does that work? Easy enough -

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FBruckner-Forbes-PERFECT-First-Eleven_11_Classical-Critici_Jens-F-Laurson_SQUARE.jpg)
My Bruckner First Eleven: A Dream-Team Fantasy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/11/my-bruckner-first-eleven-a-dream-team-fantasy/#4301d0dd6e0e (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/11/my-bruckner-first-eleven-a-dream-team-fantasy/#4301d0dd6e0e)

Every click helps to convince Forbes.com to continue bothering with classical music coverage. Even silly articles like these.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 14, 2018, 07:05:25 AM
Latest on Forbes. (Every click helps!)


Classical CD Of The Week: An Imaginary Orchestral Journey With Haydn And The LSO
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HAYDN_ORCHESTRAL-JOURNEY_RATTLE_LSO-LIVE_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/14/classical-cd-of-the-week-an-imaginary-orchestral-journey-with-haydn-and-the-lso/#1079b6b277d6 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/14/classical-cd-of-the-week-an-imaginary-orchestral-journey-with-haydn-and-the-lso/#1079b6b277d6)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 15, 2018, 09:37:21 AM
My interview with Christa Ludwig (in German, alas) for Crescendo Magazine:


https://www.youtube.com/v/C8St0mt6V6E
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 20, 2018, 01:32:04 PM

Classical CD Of The Month: Festive Telemann Cantatas

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FFORBES_Classical-CD-of-the-MONTH_2017-03_TELEMANN_Cantatas_Bad-Homburg_CHRISTOPHERUS_Classical-Critic_jens-f-laurson_960.jpg)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/19/classical-cd-of-the-month-festive-telemann-cantatas/#1410c37b2dc6 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/19/classical-cd-of-the-month-festive-telemann-cantatas/#1410c37b2dc6)

Every click helps and is appreciated.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 21, 2018, 11:25:21 AM
On Bach's 333rd Birthday:

Classical CD Of The Week: Anton Batagov's Bach Is For Tripping

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BACH_PARTITAS_BATAGOV_MELODIYA_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/21/classical-cd-of-the-week-anton-batagovs-bach-is-for-tripping/#4e7c39192767)

Every click helps keeping classical music coverage (of which I am sadly the only exponent) alive on Forbes.com. Which, even if you don't like it much or think me an ass, is better than it not being there, right?

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 22, 2018, 02:43:16 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on March 21, 2018, 11:25:21 AM
On Bach's 333rd Birthday:

Classical CD Of The Week: Anton Batagov's Bach Is For Tripping

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BACH_PARTITAS_BATAGOV_MELODIYA_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/21/classical-cd-of-the-week-anton-batagovs-bach-is-for-tripping/#4e7c39192767)

Every click helps keeping classical music coverage (of which I am sadly the only exponent) alive on Forbes.com. Which, even if you don't like it much or think me an ass, is better than it not being there, right?



Nicely done.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 22, 2018, 04:24:58 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on March 22, 2018, 02:43:16 AM
Nicely done.

Thanks! (I hope you refer to the article itself, not the shameless plugging.) It's an astounding recording. A writer/conductor friend drove me home late last year or so and wouldn't let me leave the car until we had heard this recording.  ;D It's something special. Also great for playing at night; lights out (alas, my better half isn't into night-music, so opportunity is limited) and being adrift in this music. Works like Einstein on the Beach.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 22, 2018, 05:30:23 AM
The article, of course.

0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 22, 2018, 07:55:42 AM
For those keeping score: BIS just released a single CD with total timing 86:48, might be the new record. (Vanska Mahler 6)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: mc ukrneal on March 23, 2018, 07:05:31 AM
Apparently, physical cd and vinyl sales are ahead of downloads, because of streaming:
https://www.techspot.com/news/73849-physical-music-sales-surpassed-digital-download-revenue-2017.html (https://www.techspot.com/news/73849-physical-music-sales-surpassed-digital-download-revenue-2017.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Sousa and Mozart As Bug Spray!
Post by: Cato on March 23, 2018, 02:08:14 PM
Why is it always Classical Music that drives teenagers and 20-somethings away?

In Miami Beach, in an effort to tame stoonts high on marijuana, booze, pills, and possibly banana peels, a local politician offered an old idea as "something radical" :

Quote (Kristen) Rosen Gonzalez, a Congressional candidate, made another suggestion: Blasting music that spring breakers would hate to break up the party on the sand. Perhaps marches by John Philip Sousa or some Mozart.

"I think we should do something radical," she said.
::) ::) ::)

See:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article206321904.html (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article206321904.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Sousa and Mozart As Bug Spray!
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 23, 2018, 03:20:20 PM
Quote from: Cato on March 23, 2018, 02:08:14 PM
Why is it always Classical Music that drives teenagers and 20-somethings away?


I'd like to think that, faced with perfection, they feel guilty before their maker.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Sousa and Mozart As Bug Spray!
Post by: Mahlerian on March 23, 2018, 03:27:56 PM
Quote from: Cato on March 23, 2018, 02:08:14 PMWhy is it always Classical Music that drives teenagers and 20-somethings away?

It doesn't have a beat, that's why!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Sousa and Mozart As Bug Spray!
Post by: Cato on March 23, 2018, 06:33:18 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on March 23, 2018, 03:20:20 PM
I'd like to think that, faced with perfection, they feel guilty before their maker.

Amen!   0:)

Quote from: Mahlerian on March 23, 2018, 03:27:56 PM
It doesn't have a beat, that's why!

1/1 time (THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD etc.) or 128/128 (I am talking about you, Techno!  :D   ) is a rarity in Beethoven and friends!  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Sousa and Mozart As Bug Spray!
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 24, 2018, 01:56:08 AM
Quote from: Cato on March 23, 2018, 06:33:18 PM
128/128 (I am talking about you, Techno!  :D   ) is a rarity in Beethoven and friends!  ;)

We nearly get that in BWV 8.


http://www.youtube.com/v/Hfkq-S7Vis8
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 25, 2018, 03:38:32 AM
Latest on Forbes:


Review: Debussy vs. Debussy -
Complete Works By Warner Classics And Deutsche Grammophon Compared

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FDebussy-VS-Debussy960-3_Jens-f-Laurson_classical-critic.jpg) (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZH9j43WsAEIZE_.jpg)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/25/review-debussy-vs-debussy-complete-works-by-warner-and-deutsche-grammophon-compared/#60a1cdcd5e60 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/25/review-debussy-vs-debussy-complete-works-by-warner-and-deutsche-grammophon-compared/#60a1cdcd5e60)

Every click helps to convince Forbes that classical music coverage of some sort is worth the bother.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 29, 2018, 04:13:57 AM

The Vienna Symphony Names Its New Chief Conductor
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FOROZCO-ESTRADA_Portrait_c_Martin-Sigmund__Jens-f-Laurson_Sound-Advice_Classical-Critic_Forbes.jpg)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/29/the-vienna-symphony-names-its-new-chief-conductor/#2c76f8bf2cdf (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/29/the-vienna-symphony-names-its-new-chief-conductor/#2c76f8bf2cdf)

QuoteThe Vienna Symphony Orchestra has announced today that the successor to Philippe Jordan will be Columbian-born Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He will officially start his tenure with the 2021/22 season while working closely with the orchestra in the 2020/21 season as the 'Chief Conductor Designate'. Philippe Jordan had recently been appointed the next music director of the Vienna State Opera (which had been struggling to fill that position) and just crosses the street to continue his steep career-path.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been living in Vienna for the last 20 years, making the connections necessary to work your way up in that unique city. In 2009 he had become the principal conductor of the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra, ...

(Every click helps -- and every comment, correction, or criticisism is welcome)


Classical CD Of The Week: Szymanowski's Works For Violin And Piano
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_SZYMANOWSKI_Brilliant_Monteiro-Santos_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg)
Karol Szymanowski is one of the great, usually underrated, often overlooked composers of the 20th Century; case in point his works for violin and piano.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-szymanowskis-works-for-violin-and-piano/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/28/classical-cd-of-the-week-szymanowskis-works-for-violin-and-piano/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 30, 2018, 11:51:34 PM
Happy Easter Weekend, everyone.


Music For Easter: Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FHAYDN_hair_signature_Sound-Advice_Classical-Critic_Jens-F-laurson_960.jpg)
The Different Versions & Recommended Recordings
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/30/music-for-easter-joseph-haydns-seven-last-words/#1bf638e435db (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/03/30/music-for-easter-joseph-haydns-seven-last-words/#1bf638e435db)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 09, 2018, 04:34:12 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 07, 2018, 05:16:57 AM

Parsifal At The Vienna State Opera: A Set In Lieu Of A Production
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FVienna-State-Opera_ActII_Flower-Maidens_Otto-Wagner_Spital_c_Michael_Poehn.jpg)
A portmanteau of Otto Wagner visuals and works of his Viennese Secession friends, the Vienna State Opera's Parsifal is often gorgeous to look at, and offers nothing to remember, except that vague sense of frustration and an opportunity widely missed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/05/parsifal-at-the-vienna-state-opera-a-set-in-lieu-of-a-production/#54ef3377705a (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/05/parsifal-at-the-vienna-state-opera-a-set-in-lieu-of-a-production/#54ef3377705a)

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_SCHUBERT_Zimerman_DG_Piano-Sonatas_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)
Classical CD Of The Week: Krystian Zimerman's New Schubert

Like a decennial musical Santa, Krystian Zimerman drops a solo record every ten-ish years. The anticipation is understandably great, the result, in this case, too! (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/04/classical-cd-of-the-week_krystian_zimerman_dg_schubert/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on April 10, 2018, 01:24:18 PM
Is it considered cheating to use both hands when playing Ravel's Concerto for the left hand?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 11, 2018, 03:12:13 AM
Great question.  I await enlightenment.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 17, 2018, 02:11:39 AM
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FFORBES_Classical-CD-of-the-MONTH_2017-04_SIBELIUS_BRSO_Jansons_BR-KLASSIK-960.jpg)

Classical CD Of The Month:
Mariss Jansons And Sibelius In Shostakovich's Clothing


In the Sibelius desert that is Central Europe, this is an oasis – generally excellent and especially noteworthy for its absolutely astounding Finlandia.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/14/classical-cd-of-the-month-mariss-jansons-and-sibelius-in-shostakovichs-clothing/#38b1e79055f9
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/14/classical-cd-of-the-month-mariss-jansons-and-sibelius-in-shostakovichs-clothing/#38b1e79055f9)

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_WEINBERG_Piano-Sonatas_DIVINE-ART_v9_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)

Classical CD Of The Week:
Murray McLachlan, The Early Weinberg-Champion, Still Shines


...my Weinberg-boat is most clearly rocked by wonderfully gruff McLachlan.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/11/classical-cd-of-the-week-murray-mclachlan-the-early-weinberg-champion-still-shines/#ef59236cec01 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/11/classical-cd-of-the-week-murray-mclachlan-the-early-weinberg-champion-still-shines/#ef59236cec01)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 18, 2018, 05:45:22 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbEVry6WkAANONB.jpg:large)

Classical CD Of The Week: Baermann -- A Clarinet Miracle Out Of Nowhere

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/18/classical-cd-of-the-week-clarinet-miracle-out-of-nowhere/#405cbdfe2fb5 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/18/classical-cd-of-the-week-clarinet-miracle-out-of-nowhere/#405cbdfe2fb5)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Cato on April 18, 2018, 11:44:04 AM
Here is my comment on one of the recent Pulitzer Prizes for Music  going to a "rapper": DACHAU DITHYRAMB!   0:)

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22661.msg769734.html#msg769734 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22661.msg769734.html#msg769734)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on April 18, 2018, 12:49:07 PM
Quote from: Cato on April 18, 2018, 11:44:04 AM
Here is my comment on one of the recent Pulitzer Prizes for Music  going to a "rapper": DACHAU DITHYRAMB!   0:)

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22661.msg769734.html#msg769734 (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22661.msg769734.html#msg769734)

Hmmmm. 

Philip Glass, Music in 12 Parts

>:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 24, 2018, 07:23:42 AM

latest on Surprised by Beauty:


(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/classical-critic_decca-gold_curtain_logo_400x400.jpg?w=748)

Curtain Up For Decca Gold
Ludwig and the New Yorkers

https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/curtain-up-for-decca-gold/ (https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/curtain-up-for-decca-gold/)

QuoteChange must be affected if classical music industry doesn't want to be enwrapped in a golden cocoon, but ideological fumes will not likley help and quotas only do harm.

QuoteCertainly going with Beethoven is going against the grain, somehow, in a time where critics and social media Zeitgeist-surfers all around are clamoring for classical music to become something, anything, else...

QuoteBeethoven 5 & 7? This is so full-throttle anachronistic, it's almost provocative. It must be a deliberate choice:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 25, 2018, 07:27:20 AM


(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CAN-ATILLA_Symphony-Gallipoli_NAXOS_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)
Classical CD Of The Week: "Elgarcıoğlu" - Elgar Goes Atatürk
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-elgarcioglu-senfoni-elgar-goes-ataturk/#2f990a56e169 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-elgarcioglu-senfoni-elgar-goes-ataturk/#2f990a56e169)


Thanks for all the clicks and the support. Alas, Forbes has decided to discontinue cultural and classical music coverage. This is the anteprepenultimate such post on Forbes.com.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mahlerian on April 25, 2018, 07:32:41 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 25, 2018, 07:27:20 AM

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_CAN-ATILLA_Symphony-Gallipoli_NAXOS_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)
Classical CD Of The Week: "Elgarcıoğlu" - Elgar Goes Atatürk
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-elgarcioglu-senfoni-elgar-goes-ataturk/#2f990a56e169 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/04/25/classical-cd-of-the-week-elgarcioglu-senfoni-elgar-goes-ataturk/#2f990a56e169)


Thanks for all the clicks and the support. Alas, Forbes has decided to discontinue cultural and classical music coverage. This is the anteprepenultimate such post on Forbes.com.

Quick, publish a clickbaity post on the recent Pulitzer decision!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 05:29:02 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 25, 2018, 07:27:20 AMThanks for all the clicks and the support. Alas, Forbes has decided to discontinue cultural and classical music coverage. This is the anteprepenultimate such post on Forbes.com.

Sorry to hear that. I couldn't imagine a person producing more informative or attractive classical music coverage. A sign of the times, I suppose.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 26, 2018, 07:14:36 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 05:29:02 AM
Sorry to hear that. I couldn't imagine a person producing more informative or attractive classical music coverage. A sign of the times, I suppose.

Wow. You're pouring it on thick, but I love it. I'm still a bit raw about it, but I hope that something better will emerge... or at least a descent new home for the column...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 07:34:22 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 26, 2018, 07:14:36 AM
Wow. You're pouring it on thick, but I love it. I'm still a bit raw about it, but I hope that something better will emerge... or at least a descent new home for the column...

Not a bit, I think your "production values" are very high, and you've avoided the stuffy/snooty vibe. I hope you find a new home for your column.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 26, 2018, 07:53:38 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 07:34:22 AM
Not a bit, I think your "production values" are very high, and you've avoided the stuffy/snooty vibe. I hope you find a new home for your column.
+1, a real shame.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2018, 08:26:24 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 25, 2018, 07:27:20 AM
Thanks for all the clicks and the support. Alas, Forbes has decided to discontinue cultural and classical music coverage. This is the anteprepenultimate such post on Forbes.com.

Very sorry to learn so, Jens.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 26, 2018, 08:27:00 AM
Quote from: North Star on April 26, 2018, 07:53:38 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 07:34:22 AM
Not a bit, I think your "production values" are very high, and you've avoided the stuffy/snooty vibe. I hope you find a new home for your column.
+1, a real shame.

+1
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Sergeant Rock on April 26, 2018, 08:28:39 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 25, 2018, 07:27:20 AM
Thanks for all the clicks and the support. Alas, Forbes has decided to discontinue cultural and classical music coverage. This is the anteprepenultimate such post on Forbes.com.

Jens, this news literally hurts. I will dearly miss your Forbes articles. I honestly think you are the greatest classical music critic we have today, and the most amusing. I mean who else would end a review this way: First Beethoven One through Nine and now a cow, snout to tail—what an evening, what a week!

You are one of a kind, and irreplaceable.

Sarge, whose bad week just got worse
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: aukhawk on April 27, 2018, 12:36:08 AM
Very sad.  Your links and writings have led me down some interesting roads, for which I thank you.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on April 27, 2018, 12:51:48 AM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on April 26, 2018, 07:34:22 AM
Not a bit, I think your "production values" are very high, and you've avoided the stuffy/snooty vibe. I hope you find a new home for your column.

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on April 26, 2018, 08:28:39 AM
You are one of a kind, and irreplaceable.

+ 3
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 27, 2018, 05:39:12 AM
Wow, this thread is quickly becoming my new favorite!!!   :-[  :-*

It looks like I might have found an outlet for part of my output, namely some of my CD reviews. Not going to jinx it, so I'll wait until I see my own on-line, before I blurt.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 27, 2018, 06:05:48 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 27, 2018, 05:39:12 AM
Wow, this thread is quickly becoming my new favorite!!!   :-[  :-*

It looks like I might have found an outlet for part of my output, namely some of my CD reviews. Not going to jinx it, so I'll wait until I see my own on-line, before I blurt.

Conquer!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on April 28, 2018, 01:07:06 AM
It should be high time for some positive discrimination...
https://www.youtube.com/v/BsfPS7pXg1E
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 02, 2018, 05:27:48 AM
Anteprepenultimate CD of the Week on Forbes:


Classical CD Of The Week: Baroque Swing From Up North With Buxtehude And Friends
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BUXTEHUDE-and-his-Circle_Hillier_DACAPO_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)
A better introduction to (choral) Buxtehude could scarcely be imagined, although (or because?) he shares friends, teachers and colleagues as disc-mates.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-baroque-swing-from-up-north-with-buxtehude-and-friends/#155eb9544fcd (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-baroque-swing-from-up-north-with-buxtehude-and-friends/#155eb9544fcd)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 07, 2018, 03:01:32 AM

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DclrcZBWsAAJIa_.jpg)
RAMEAU, JEAN-PHILIPPE:
Pygmalion; Les Fêtes de Polymnie
(https://t.co/RYJI2jFnd9)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 09, 2018, 08:57:14 AM
(Pre?-)Penultimate CD of the Week on Forbes:

(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BORTKIEWICZ_Divine-Art_SOLDANO_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)

Classical CD Of The Week: Hop On The Bortkiewicz Bandwagon!
Ukrainian composer Bortkiewicz can evoke Grieg or Chopin or his great Russian contemporaries. From the soft touch to unbridled romantic-pianistic fireworks, he has all on offer. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-hop-on-the-bortkiewicz-bandwagon/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 11, 2018, 11:43:22 PM
And the latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc8HTuKXkAAQ16n.jpg)

Latest on #ClassicsToday: Terrific Bruckner from the @SWRClassic archives with #HansRosbaud!

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rosbaud-from-the-archives-a-collectors-near-complete-bruckner-cycle/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rosbaud-from-the-archives-a-collectors-near-complete-bruckner-cycle/)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: GioCar on May 13, 2018, 12:46:03 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 27, 2018, 05:39:12 AM

It looks like I might have found an outlet for part of my output, namely some of my CD reviews. Not going to jinx it, so I'll wait until I see my own on-line, before I blurt.
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on May 07, 2018, 03:01:32 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DclrcZBWsAAJIa_.jpg)
RAMEAU, JEAN-PHILIPPE:
Pygmalion; Les Fêtes de Polymnie
(https://t.co/RYJI2jFnd9)
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on May 11, 2018, 11:43:22 PM
And the latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc8HTuKXkAAQ16n.jpg)

Latest on #ClassicsToday: Terrific Bruckner from the @SWRClassic archives with #HansRosbaud!

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rosbaud-from-the-archives-a-collectors-near-complete-bruckner-cycle/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rosbaud-from-the-archives-a-collectors-near-complete-bruckner-cycle/)


So?  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 17, 2018, 07:59:27 AM
Latest on Forbes:


Classical CD Of The Week: Swedish Symphonic Exercises With Kurt Atterberg
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_ATTERBERG_Symphony-3_v4_Jaervi_CHANDOS_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)

Classical CD Of The Week: Swedish Symphonic Exercises With Kurt Atterberg
Exploring, discovering and rediscovering great music in new recordings and old music in great recordings.
Kurt Atterberg (1887-1974) is one of the most gorgeous symphonists you have never heard of.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-swedish-symphonic-exercises-with-kurt-atterberg/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-swedish-symphonic-exercises-with-kurt-atterberg/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 22, 2018, 08:25:20 AM
And the latest on good Rosetti.


Mixing Up The Classical Classical Diet
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdzyBQaV4AEw8ay.jpg)
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mixing-up-the-classical-classical-diet/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mixing-up-the-classical-classical-diet/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 22, 2018, 09:37:32 PM
Hmm, not sure if this is the right thread to bring up this topic, but here goes...

GMG has a nice folder for different composer with an excellent index. Why don't we have an similar folder for conductors and one for performers? Right now everything seems to be spread out across the forum based on themes, but would it not make sense to create (over time) a similar index specifically for conductors and performers? Just an idea....  0:)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on May 22, 2018, 09:38:58 PM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 22, 2018, 09:37:32 PM
Hmm, not sure if this is the right thread to bring up this topic, but here goes...

GMG has a nice folder for different composer with an excellent index. Why don't we have an similar folder for conductors and one for performers? Right now everything seems to be spread out across the forum based on themes, but would it not make sense to create (over time) a similar index specifically for conductors and performers? Just an idea....  0:)

When do you start?   :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 22, 2018, 09:52:21 PM
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on May 22, 2018, 09:38:58 PM
When do you start?   :laugh:

You mean, when do we start?   >:D

(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/spiritedaway/images/a/af/TheSootballs.png/revision/latest?cb=20120724170540)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 23, 2018, 02:03:34 AM
Quote from: Moonfish on May 22, 2018, 09:37:32 PM
Hmm, not sure if this is the right thread to bring up this topic, but here goes...

GMG has a nice folder for different composer with an excellent index. Why don't we have an similar folder for conductors and one for performers? Right now everything seems to be spread out across the forum based on themes, but would it not make sense to create (over time) a similar index specifically for conductors and performers? Just an idea....  0:)

Do you mean an index that would collect mentions of said performers or conductors? Or just for threads that are already dedicated to specific performers or conductors?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on May 23, 2018, 02:08:19 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on May 23, 2018, 02:03:34 AM
Do you mean an index that would collect mentions of said performers or conductors? Or just for threads that are already dedicated to specific performers or conductors?

As a separate folder in the "Music Room" (just like we have the folder 'Composer Discussion' right now) but devoted to threads focusing on conductors and/or performers.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 23, 2018, 03:39:07 PM
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_HANDEL_Imeneo_Europa-Galante_Biondi_GLOSSA_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)
Classical CD Of The Week: Imeneo - A Case Of Lightly Pleasing, Pirate-Hunting Handel
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-imeneo-a-case-of-pirate-hunting-lightly-pleasing-handel/#362d48a06298 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/23/classical-cd-of-the-week-imeneo-a-case-of-pirate-hunting-lightly-pleasing-handel/#362d48a06298)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Baron Scarpia on May 24, 2018, 11:40:49 AM
It annoys me that most melodie can be sung by male or female voice, but when you buy "complete melodie of so-and-so" each work is more or less arbitrarily assigned to a male or female performer. I'd like to buy the complete melodie of so-and-so where all songs that can be sung by a female are sung by a female. (This thought occurred while looking at my complete Melodie of Faure edition.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 26, 2018, 12:45:09 AM
Latest review on #ClassicsToday:
Erkki-Sven Tüür's Whistling Desert-Fowl
on @OndineRecords w/@TSinfonietta
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeGsPIpXkAAl5Pd.jpg)
Symphony 8, Viola Concerto & Flute Concertino (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/erkki-sven-tuurs-whistling-desert-fowl/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on May 26, 2018, 08:04:50 AM
Nice!

Quote[...] the treacherous shallows of "crossover". Collage–yes; elevator music–no.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 26, 2018, 03:18:27 PM
This is something I've long wanted to do, and of course it took several OTHER projects that I should be working on right now for me to finally do that, namely the cleaning, updating, and generally sprucing-up of the Recommended Recordings Sections of the Surprised By Beauty website.

I've started with my favorite-among-favorites, Othmar Schoeck:


Othmar Schoeck - Recommended Recordings
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeKJz3JWAAA-MIT.jpg)
https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/othmar-schoeck-recommended-recordings/
(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/othmar-schoeck-recommended-recordings/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 27, 2018, 07:55:30 AM
And the latest:


Franz Schmidt - Recommended Recordings
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeNskuAW4AUWFC_.jpg)
https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/franz-schmidt-recommended-recordings/ (https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/franz-schmidt-recommended-recordings/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on May 30, 2018, 02:03:22 PM
Latest and second-to-last on Forbes.com:

Classical CD Of The Week: Lera Auerbach Around the Circle Of Fifths In 24 Preludes
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F04%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_AUERBACH_Arcanum_Shostakovich_ECM_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960.jpg)

Dmitri Shostakovich / Lera Auerbach, 24 Preludes op.34 (transcribed for viola and piano), Arcanum, Kim Kashkashian (viola), Lera Auerbach (piano), ECM (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/05/30/classical-cd-of-the-month-lera-auerbach-around-the-circle-of-fifth-in-24-preludes/#fba655750afc)

And latest on ClassicsToday:

Level-Headed Beethoven From Leipzig
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeebRNXWsAAgIDL.jpg)
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/level-headed-beethoven-from-leipzig/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on June 06, 2018, 07:02:19 AM
The Grand Finale:

My last column for Forbes.com

Thanks everyone for your support by reading. It's been fun -- and the fun will soon be continued on Andante.com.tr (https://www.andante.com.tr/en/homepage)! (In English, nobody worry.)

Classical CD Of The Week: From Switzerland With Bach - Cantatas To Grip You
(https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fjenslaurson%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F03%2FForbes_Classical-CD-of-the-Week_BACH_Stiftung_Cantatas_No-22_Classical-Critic-Jens-F-Laurson-960_.jpg)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/06/06/classical-cd-of-the-week-from-switzerland-with-bach-cantatas-to-grip-you/#5bd97d6c40bf (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/06/06/classical-cd-of-the-week-from-switzerland-with-bach-cantatas-to-grip-you/#5bd97d6c40bf)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on June 07, 2018, 09:08:54 AM

This is something I've long wanted to do, and of course it took several OTHER projects that I should be working on right now for me to finally do that, namely the cleaning, updating, and generally sprucing-up of the Recommended Recordings Sections of the Surprised By Beauty website.

Now I've tackled Ahmad Saygun (https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/ahmed-saygun-recommended-recordings/) & Erich Wolfgang Korngold (https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/erich-wolfgang-korngold-recommended-recordings/):


Ahmed Saygun – Recommended Recordings
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeKJz3JWAAA-MIT.jpg)
(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/saygun_profile-870x_surprised-by-beauty_classical-critic_jens-f-laurson.jpg?w=748)
https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/ahmed-saygun-recommended-recordings/
(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/ahmed-saygun-recommended-recordings/)



Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Recommended Recordings
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeKJz3JWAAA-MIT.jpg)
(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/korngold_profile-870x290_surprised-by-beauty_classical-critic_jens-f-laurson.jpg?w=748)
https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/erich-wolfgang-korngold-recommended-recordings/
(https://surprisedbybeautyorg.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/erich-wolfgang-korngold-recommended-recordings/)


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on June 11, 2018, 04:09:28 AM
(https://scontent.fhel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/34962551_1713057472145146_1850439595229970432_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=0fd161513838ccf65b19f488bfd711ca&oe=5BB02840)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: geralmar on June 23, 2018, 05:20:45 PM
I recently watched the $40 million horror/mystery, "A Cure for Wellness" (2016).  The soundtrack included music by Beethoven (specifically movements from symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 6).  Raiding Beethoven for music was not much of a surprise.  What was a surprise was that the recordings were all from the 1960 Joseph Krips/London Symphony cycle originally on Everest.  Given the dozens of Beethoven symphony cycles issued in the intervening half century it is interesting that one of the first two or three stereo symphony cycles was tapped.  It's also a cycle never rated particularly high by critics or listeners; so it may have been chosen for nonmusical reasons.  (Ignorance?, lack of concern?, cheap?).  Anyway, since the Krips was MY first Beethoven symphony set purchase, I was a little gratified see a name from my distant youth onscreen instead of Karajan, Bernstein or some other big name-- or no name.

(https://s22.postimg.cc/bbxw4gptt/41_VK9_AYMWCL._SX300.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

(https://s22.postimg.cc/dt9nbrrqp/a_cure_for_wellness_movie_poster-628x468.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on June 25, 2018, 02:21:15 AM
Quote from: geralmar on June 23, 2018, 05:20:45 PM
I recently watched the $40 million horror/mystery, "A Cure for Wellness" (2016).  The soundtrack included music by Beethoven (specifically movements from symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 6).  Raiding Beethoven for music was not much of a surprise.  What was a surprise was that the recordings were all from the 1960 Joseph Krips/London Symphony cycle originally on Everest.  Given the dozens of Beethoven symphony cycles issued in the intervening half century it is interesting that one of the first two or three stereo symphony cycles was tapped.  It's also a cycle never rated particularly high by critics or listeners; so it may have been chosen for nonmusical reasons.  (Ignorance?, lack of concern?, cheap?).  Anyway, since the Krips was MY first Beethoven symphony set purchase, I was a little gratified see a name from my distant youth onscreen instead of Karajan, Bernstein or some other big name-- or no name.

(https://s22.postimg.cc/bbxw4gptt/41_VK9_AYMWCL._SX300.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

(https://s22.postimg.cc/dt9nbrrqp/a_cure_for_wellness_movie_poster-628x468.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

I think it was a rights issue. And the fact that the Krips, which must hold the record for most re-issued LvB Symphony set of all times, is absolutely omnipresent. Every crap-re-issue (cheap yellow box for $6.99, metal box for 8.99, included in "1000 GREATEST CLASSICAL HITs" for 10.99 etc. was the Krips cycle. So, for a quality rights-free version of the LvB-Nine... seems a logical first choice for anyone, at least, who is not going to bother to invest much time in that choice. (I am fairly sure that the producers of that fine cinematic masterpiece did not invest much time in discussing the finer interpretative nuances of the various Beethoven symphony cycles.)

It was, however, always a well-considered cycle... and I remember that my standard-phrase at Tower Records was: "...well, actually, it isn't a bad cycle at all..."  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread: Google Celebrates Kurt Masur
Post by: Cato on July 18, 2018, 10:10:14 AM
I just noticed that the Google page today honors Kurt Masur.  Take a look!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 18, 2018, 11:37:05 AM
A few pictures of the 1766 Riepp Organ at Ottobeuren. (Unfortunately I didn't make my way to the console which, in any case, is no longer the manual one that Richter still played on, back in the days.)

Ottobeuren was the last stop on our biking-through-SW-Germany (Black Forest, Alsace, Allgaeu) holiday. At one point, in Bad Waldsee, we got close to Weingarten again... and I toyed with the idea of biking down and back up to have another look at that organ... but the 60 extra K, just for kicks on a morning, didn't look reasonable to undertake.

Last picture is the rather humble organ in beautiful Bad Waldsee.

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03029.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i2.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03028.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i2.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03026.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03025.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i2.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03024.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i2.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03020.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03018.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03017.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03015.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03014.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03009.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc03006.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02985.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02990.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02972.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 18, 2018, 11:38:18 AM
1750 Aichgasser Organ of St. Bernhard, Wald

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02930.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i1.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc029311.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

And St. Michael, Altshausen

(Joseph Martin, Haying; prospect a couple decades older, by Joachim Fruehholz [Weingarten])

(https://i0.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02947.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)

(https://i2.wp.com/surprisedbybeautyorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/dsc02946.jpg?ssl=1&w=450)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:40:36 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dh_34rjX4AMVjAf.jpg)
Latest on @ClassicsToday: Big Boxes: Rostropovich On @WarnerClassics

After lavish and huge boxed sets for Callas and Perlman, Warner Classics–drawing on its combined EMI, Warner, and Erato back-catalogues–set its sights on Rostropovich...

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/big-boxes-rostropovich-on-warner/ ...
[INSIDER] (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/big-boxes-rostropovich-on-warner/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:41:10 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dh_4tQtX0AIkR4q.jpg)

First "10/10" review of mine for @ClassicsToday goes to "Vivaldi for drunken Sailors" w/ @MusSaintJulien on @alpha_classics:

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/vivaldi-bagpipes-and-drunken-sailors/ ...
[INSIDER] (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/vivaldi-bagpipes-and-drunken-sailors/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:41:45 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DizK2bkXUAAOEaO.jpg)

Latest on @classicstoday: Tüür's Splendid New Wine In Old Wineskins [Insider]

There's still much left in the old form and modes if only a composer can muster sufficient imagination. Tüür does!

@erkkisven / @OndineRecords / @HelsinkiPhil / @OlariElts

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/major-discoveries-tuurs-splendid-new-wine-in-old-wineskins/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/major-discoveries-tuurs-splendid-new-wine-in-old-wineskins/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:43:04 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DizW4AAXUAEnDqF.jpg)

Latest on @ClassicsToday: A Martinů Double Sister Act [Insider]

"Downright mandatory Martinů package in state-of-the-art sound."

w/#LawrenceFoster #DeborahNemtanu #SarahNamtanu #BohuslavMartinů #MariKodama & @MomoKodama88 @operamarseille

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/a-martinu-double-sister-act/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/a-martinu-double-sister-act/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:43:35 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Djm0WJTXoAo1ECC.jpg)

Latest on @ClassicsToday: Appreciating Einojuhani Rautavaara–Cello & Piano

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/appreciating-einojuhani-rautavaara-cello-piano/ ...

@OndineRecords #TanjaTetzlaff #GunillaSüssmann (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/appreciating-einojuhani-rautavaara-cello-piano/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 03, 2018, 10:44:05 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjqNeJvXgAAqt3Y.jpg)

Latest on ClassicsToday: Under The Radar: The Very First Opera? Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione

[Insider content]

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/under-the-radar-the-very-first-opera/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/under-the-radar-the-very-first-opera/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 14, 2018, 08:29:05 PM
Can't believe I haven't listened to Mozart's string quintets in so many years. They're delectable works and I recall always appreciating them more than his string quartets (which are also due for another listen soon.) What do you guys think of these works?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71af904VdbL._SX355_.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 14, 2018, 08:44:33 PM
I listened to two performances of the Diabelli Variations in the past 24 hours -- Claudio Arrau and Daniel Varsano.

The Diabelli Variations are the one highly regarded Beethoven work I still haven't entirely come to love. One curious thing about LvB's works is how different they are from each other despite having the same voice behind them, and it could be the nature of the Diabelli Variations that to get the full impact of their artistry one has to be a pianist or simply have a deeper level of musical knowledge and experience. I have however been at this spot quite a few times before, where I don't quite appreciate a late LvB work only to come to be obsessed with it a couple of months later; regardless, it's clear that pianists love this work more than listeners, and I'm reminded of this bit from Artur Schnabel's wiki page:

QuoteSchnabel was known for championing the then-neglected sonatas of Schubert and, even more so, Beethoven, including his more challenging late works. While on a tour of Spain, Schnabel wrote to his wife saying that during a performance of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations he had begun to feel sorry for the audience. "I am the only person here who is enjoying this, and I get the money; they pay and have to suffer," he wrote.

:laugh:

A few more listens should do the trick for me...though I do already adore variation 31:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0BhEEvrdJQ
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on August 15, 2018, 05:24:46 AM
Quote from: -abe- on August 14, 2018, 08:29:05 PM
Can't believe I haven't listened to Mozart's string quintets in so many years. They're delectable works and I recall always appreciating them more than his string quartets (which are also due for another listen soon.) What do you guys think of these works?

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71af904VdbL._SX355_.jpg)
Better than the string quartets. The quintets of various shape are his greatest chamber music. With the big trio divertimento.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: lisa needs braces on August 15, 2018, 10:28:17 AM
I also really dig his two piano quartets.  8)

I've stumbled upon a cool youtube channel with recent interviews of classical musicians -- Emmanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, etc. Deserves more subscribers imo.

https://www.youtube.com/user/peterjhobbs1/videos
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 22, 2018, 01:50:13 AM
Some of my recent ClassicsToday reviews:

Big Boxes: Anatol Ugorski, The Great Bewilderer

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlCdaoaW0AULD10.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/big-boxes-anatol-ugorski-the-great-bewilderer/)

(Insider content, alas... Then again, what an opportunity to subscribe and shower David Hurwitz with wealth, please, so that he may continue to do his good/evil, whichever you prefer!  ;D)

The Deluxe Magic Flute Standard. Overrated or timeless?

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkeABOoX0AAdqae.jpg)
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-deluxe-magic-flute-standard/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-deluxe-magic-flute-standard/)

Under The Radar: Cavalli's Should-I-Die-Before-I-Wake Requiem

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkeEFiFXcAA5bQS.jpg) (https://t.co/dsd0kvDKJL)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 31, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Random, but as a person who does not know the answer, why is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau so controversial?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mahlerian on August 31, 2018, 04:02:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 31, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Random, but as a person who does not know the answer, why is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau so controversial?

He has a very distinctive voice and a delivery that some experience as impassioned, others as mannered and hammy.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on August 31, 2018, 04:03:54 PM
I'm in the mannered and hammy camp. More like bologna than ham, really.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on August 31, 2018, 04:09:11 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 31, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Random, but as a person who does not know the answer, why is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau so controversial?

Also because he recorded such a wide swathe of music, leading to the idea that he was a Hans of all lieder but Meister of none.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on August 31, 2018, 05:04:50 PM
Quote from: JBS on August 31, 2018, 04:09:11 PM
Also because he recorded such a wide swathe of music, leading to the idea that he was a Hans of all lieder but Meister of none.
Excellent analogy!

So from these comments, I presume he couldn't help having an unusual voice, but his, uh, extremely emotionally invested interpretation is divisive? Does he also get criticized for treating all genres/composers similarly?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 01, 2018, 02:40:05 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 31, 2018, 03:43:58 PM
Random, but as a person who does not know the answer, why is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau so controversial?

Controversial as what? A singer? Probably not. An opera singer? Because he was not considered to have a natural dramatic/acting talent... a certain stiff intellectualism that didn't necessarily go well with the roles he sung.

As a Lieder-singer, he's still, rightly uncontroversial -- although the universal adoration has worn off a little; he phoned a number of Schubert songs in... and there was a phase in his life where he was more mannered than necessary (but never as bad as Schwarzkopf!) and there have been singers, since, who have surpassed his achievements. None of those, however, could or would have done what they do had it not been for him.

Wish to read more on him? Here's my (reasonably short) portrait of him:

Portrait of a Baritone - An Appraisal of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (http://www.listenmusicculture.com/recommended/portrait-of-a-baritone)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 09, 2018, 11:36:03 PM
My latest on ClassicsToday


St. Gallen's Lovely, Lively Bach Continues

(https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41522458_10155981361192989_3941877785487736832_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=1efff72699c755ea1fdae75c7aeaa133&oe=5C22136C) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/st-gallens-lovely-lively-bach-continues/)

And:


Mozart And The Sound Of Nepotism

(https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41401624_10155981372797989_1735679709758357504_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=783303ed07b21164582660ced0353262&oe=5C3BAA7A) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mozart-and-the-sound-of-nepotism/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 14, 2018, 10:50:56 AM
So I get this e-mail, earlier this week:


/Dear Mr. Laurson; read your review of our CD with interest; happy that you liked it.
I would, however, aks you to remove the part about my headgear, as it is irrelevant
to the topic of the review and a personal matter. Thanks in advance and best regards...


...making me instantly regret that I reviewed the CD in the first place... assuring also that I'll never review that group again... and being once again re-assured that either 1.) they have a 'free press understanding deficiency in Austria [where the left is just as fascist as the right] or 2.) classical music journalism simply isn't taken for full but as a service industry, instead.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Roasted Swan on September 14, 2018, 11:15:01 AM
so what was the headgear that deserved comment and demanded removal!?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: knight66 on September 14, 2018, 01:27:32 PM
Quote from: Brian on August 31, 2018, 05:04:50 PM
Excellent analogy!

So from these comments, I presume he couldn't help having an unusual voice, but his, uh, extremely emotionally invested interpretation is divisive? Does he also get criticized for treating all genres/composers similarly?

When young his voice was very beautiful and he made a number of his best recordings. There is some very fine Bach and Schubert, also superb Mahler orchestral songs, Haydn Creation. I have read that he smoked heavily and perhaps that partly caused the dryness of the tone in later years. He could bark a bit and break lines up. But he remained a considerable singer and was influential.

In opera he seemed not to be suited to the 19th century Italian repertoire, though he recorded quite a bit of it. In German language operas as a baritone he took on the likes of Rheingold Wotan and Hans Sachs, Dutchman. In each he is admired for his approach, though the voice was not heavy enough for these parts.

In later years he took up conducting. He recorded some terrific recitals with his then wife Julia Varady, those are well worth exploring for her voice and his very good support. He also taught. His last pupil, Benjamin Appl, is making a big splash in the concert platform repertoire.

Lastly, I have read that whilst much admired, his recordings are eagerly bought then sit unloved on shelves. There may be something to that, though there are a number of his discs I both admire and thoroughly enjoy.

Mike
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 17, 2018, 03:27:25 AM
Quote from: Roasted Swan on September 14, 2018, 11:15:01 AM
so what was the headgear that deserved comment and demanded removal!?

The skullcap of a violinist that features prominently on all the instrumentalist's publicity shots. Bit of a throw-away comment, granted (like the throwaway jokes in a Sunday cartoon), but certainly not meriting removal. The temerity, too.

Meanwhile a distraction from this distraction:

Latest on ClassicsToday:


The Reference: The Takács Quartet's Beethoven Cycle
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnStu_JW0AAo2FV.jpg)
At the Freer Gallery, or at the Corcoran Gallery (when it was still a chamber music oasis in Washington, DC), or at the more humble Landon School Mondzac Performing Arts Center, the Takács Quartet made my life better with their performances of Bartók, Beethoven, Haydn,... Continue Reading (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-reference-the-takacs-quartets-beethoven-cycle/) [Insider Content, sound clips]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 17, 2018, 11:33:14 AM

Major Discovery: Orff's Surprising Gisei
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnUG1cFW0AI6cM_.jpg)
Carl Orff is–just behind Johann Pachelbel, who dominated my unscientific Twitter poll on the topic–the quintessential one-hit composer. It's Carmina-or-bust with him. He hits all the criteria: His one hit is very famous and the fame-disparity between that hit and his next-best-known work (Die Kluge?... Continue Reading (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/major-discovery-orffs-surprising-gisei/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 17, 2018, 12:15:36 PM
From CPO's liner notes to the new recording of Johann Strauss Jr.'s unfinished ballet "Cinderella":

"The commission quickly decided in favour of 'Cinderella', a topic that left Strauss unconvinced. True, the material was realistic, but it was hardly new: Berlin had mounted a ballet on the Cinderella theme by G. A. Schneider in 1821; a work by W. Mühldörfer featured in the Leipzig repertoire in 1870; and a version choreographed by the incomparable Marius Petipa had been running in St Petersburg since 1893. Not to mention the operas by Rossini, Prokofiev and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari based on the same material."

Yes, I'm sure Johann Strauss was mightily intimidated by the Prokofiev "opera" which was definitely written before 1898!!!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on September 17, 2018, 01:48:50 PM
Quote from: Brian on September 17, 2018, 12:15:36 PM
From CPO's liner notes to the new recording of Johann Strauss Jr.'s unfinished ballet "Cinderella":

"The commission quickly decided in favour of 'Cinderella', a topic that left Strauss unconvinced. True, the material was realistic, but it was hardly new: Berlin had mounted a ballet on the Cinderella theme by G. A. Schneider in 1821; a work by W. Mühldörfer featured in the Leipzig repertoire in 1870; and a version choreographed by the incomparable Marius Petipa had been running in St Petersburg since 1893. Not to mention the operas by Rossini, Prokofiev and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari based on the same material."

Yes, I'm sure Johann Strauss was mightily intimidated by the Prokofiev "opera" which was definitely written before 1898!!!
And the Wolf-Ferrari was premiered in 1900.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 24, 2018, 02:09:51 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:


Loving Langgaard: Chamber Music Edition
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dn2VWI9XcAAxfG4.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/loving-langgaard-chamber-music-edition/)


An Audiophile Bach-On-Guitar Delight
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dn2ep64WsAAU_Ap.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/an-audiophile-bach-on-guitar-delight/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 25, 2018, 01:18:03 AM

Latest on ClassicsToday:


Major Discovery: Henri Marteau's Intriguing Works for String Quartet
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dn7UTTiXkAA7kad.jpg)

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/major-discovery-henri-marteaus-intriguing-works-for-string-quartet/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/major-discovery-henri-marteaus-intriguing-works-for-string-quartet/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 02, 2018, 11:32:45 PM
Latest on ClassicsToday:


A Charismatic Bartók-Surprise From Munich
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DogarukXoAEngQ-.jpg)
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/a-charismatic-bartok-surprise-from-munich/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 05, 2018, 01:20:55 PM
I'm sort-of proud of these. They take quite a while... and it's a hurdle to overcome starting them. But when I am finished, I'm sort of self-satisfiedly pleased, I must admit.


Just finished one of my labor-of-love discographies:

A Survey of Shostakovich String Quartet Cycles

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTHWL9-17hU/W7e1s89d37I/AAAAAAAAKns/zb2DrgsORkYCajhx1l4Vu0R1_wpY_OXZQCLcBGAs/s1600/Shostakovich_old3_laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-survey-of-shostakovich-string-quartet.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-survey-of-shostakovich-string-quartet.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 17, 2018, 04:55:37 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:

Rilling's Budget #Mendelssohn; A Reference St. Paul Oratorio At The Center
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpnqxLpXcAAFEDM.jpg) (https://t.co/axq4B1qA9x)
(insider)


Re-revisiting the Reference: #RichardStrauss' Rosenkavalier with Karajan
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpnqeZmXgAIdSru.jpg) (https://t.co/2gqhYNc3pF)
(insider)


"Kaleidoscopic" - Gorecki, Pärt, and Rääts for Clarinet, Cello & Piano
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpnqIP1W0AAnkV_.jpg) (https://t.co/EpdmDNgZ9d)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 21, 2018, 07:29:32 AM
And more from ClassicsToday:

Joy in the Mourning

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqCjFw8W4AEakxj.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/joy-in-the-mourning-josquin-des-prez-funeral-motets/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 29, 2018, 11:17:41 AM
My first CD from Hell:

Latest on @classicstoday: On paper, this is great: Bruckner rarities and a favorite artist! The pianism is faultless. But it's a #CDfromHell!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqsYj2OWoAEyhEM.jpg) (https://t.co/4u778EVxBU)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 30, 2018, 09:02:52 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 08:40:28 AM
I will say it, John Williams is a very talented classical composer.

I agree that he is very talented.  And, more than that, he is said to be a very nice chap.

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 08:40:28 AMYou will say the score to Star Wars is all "derivative." I will grant you that. Find me some music that is not derivative of something.

This is not really the meat of my quarrel.  But, I'll call it a low bar.

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 08:40:28 AMIt is brilliantly executed orchestral music that has a sound all it's own.

It often earns its own sound.  The Mars scarfing, yes, let us allow that he comes close to making the adaptation his own.  The Le sacre pilfering, less so.

But, overall, certainly I agree that the Star Wars soundtrack is a signal success, and what is more, contributed greatly to the success of the movie (and therefore, to a franchise).  It is an admirable accomplishment, and makes the movie worth revisiting in a way which we cannot say is true of Lucas's screenplay.

My point really is that the two pieces of John Williams's "concert music" which I have heard performed live by the Boston Symphony suffered from both poor execution (sloppy, amateurish scoring—which ought not to be, right? Since we all know how well he uses the orchestra for Star Wars) and vapid content.  They were music which did not earn its place at the table.

They were not the work of a very talented classical composer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 30, 2018, 09:06:34 AM
Quote from: 71 dB on October 30, 2018, 09:03:45 AM
It's not supposed to be original.

That remark does Williams less of a favor than you may suppose.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 09:16:49 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 30, 2018, 09:02:52 AMMy point really is that the two pieces of John Williams's "concert music" which I have heard performed live by the Boston Symphony suffered from both poor execution (sloppy, amateurish scoring—which ought not to be, right? Since we all know how well he uses the orchestra for Star Wars) and vapid content.  They were music which did not earn its place at the table.

They were not the work of a very talented classical composer.

Eh, I assume he was trying to be deep, and it's not his métier. You snobs shamed him into it. :)

I don't see why the fact that his music plays during a movie precludes it from being classical. They played Finlandia during a Bruce Willis movie I saw. Does that strike it from the repertoire? Does the fact that some idiots were dancing preclude Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe from being classical music? Or Sibelius' incidental music?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 30, 2018, 10:38:55 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 09:16:49 AM
Eh, I assume he was trying to be deep, and it's not his métier. You snobs shamed him into it. :)

I don't see why the fact that his music plays during a movie precludes it from being classical. They played Finlandia during a Bruce Willis movie I saw. Does that strike it from the repertoire? Does the fact that some idiots were dancing preclude Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe from being classical music? Or Sibelius' incidental music?

I think I speak for most of those who insinuate a qualitative difference between the two when I say that the cutoff is arbitrary and according to our whim. We all know whom we consider "film composers" and whom we consider "proper composers" (double quotation marks for that one) and only because they cross over into the other's territory -- actively or passively (as in Sibelius' case) -- doesn't mean we don't know how to still make the distinction for ourselves.

When there are real borderliner cases, we either make exceptions (Rosza, Herrmann) or categorize them according to our preference (Korngold) or ignore their film output altogether (Prokofiev, DSCH).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: relm1 on October 30, 2018, 04:17:11 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 30, 2018, 09:02:52 AM
I agree that he is very talented.  And, more than that, he is said to be a very nice chap.

This is not really the meat of my quarrel.  But, I'll call it a low bar.

It often earns its own sound.  The Mars scarfing, yes, let us allow that he comes close to making the adaptation his own.  The Le sacre pilfering, less so.

But, overall, certainly I agree that the Star Wars soundtrack is a signal success, and what is more, contributed greatly to the success of the movie (and therefore, to a franchise).  It is an admirable accomplishment, and makes the movie worth revisiting in a way which we cannot say is true of Lucas's screenplay.

My point really is that the two pieces of John Williams's "concert music" which I have heard performed live by the Boston Symphony suffered from both poor execution (sloppy, amateurish scoring—which ought not to be, right? Since we all know how well he uses the orchestra for Star Wars) and vapid content.  They were music which did not earn its place at the table.

They were not the work of a very talented classical composer.

I would be happy to debate you on this topic.  Pick the thread for it to happen.  So far i've heard nothing substantial from you on your premise other than gross simplification.   
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 31, 2018, 01:28:53 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 30, 2018, 09:16:49 AM
I don't see why the fact that his music plays during a movie precludes it from being classical.

Of course that is a point.  I did not specifically acknowledge that I can have no objection to calling him a classical composer.  My observation was mostly that the work I have heard in the concert hall shows the limitations of his craft.

Quote from: relm1 on October 30, 2018, 04:17:11 PM
So far i've heard nothing substantial from you on your premise other than gross simplification.   

You were inattentive, possibly selectively so.  The two pieces I have heard at Symphony were perfectly specific.  If Shostakovich or Hindemith had scored pieces so poorly, your opinion of them would diminish.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: relm1 on October 31, 2018, 06:10:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 31, 2018, 01:28:53 AM
You were inattentive, possibly selectively so.  The two pieces I have heard at Symphony were perfectly specific.  If Shostakovich or Hindemith had scored pieces so poorly, your opinion of them would diminish.

Yawn.  This topic has already grown old.  But I'll take the bite.  What pieces are you referring to?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on October 31, 2018, 07:31:14 AM
Quote from: relm1 on October 31, 2018, 06:10:00 AM
Yawn.  This topic has already grown old.

So much for being happy to discuss it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 31, 2018, 09:19:01 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 31, 2018, 01:28:53 AM
Of course that is a point.  I did not specifically acknowledge that I can have no objection to calling him a classical composer.  My observation was mostly that the work I have heard in the concert hall shows the limitations of his craft.

And what piece was it? I would think it makes sense to evaluate a composers skill by the best work they produce, not the worst. With the latter criteria almost every composer I can think of would fair poorly. I would be inclined to evaluate Williams based on his Star Wars Suite, and find him quite effective in his way. By no means a visionary artist, of course.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: relm1 on November 01, 2018, 06:29:50 AM
Quote from: Pat B on October 31, 2018, 07:31:14 AM
So much for being happy to discuss it.

I was happy to discuss it briefly.  That feeling was fleeting.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 01, 2018, 07:19:53 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on October 31, 2018, 09:19:01 PM
And what piece was it? I would think it makes sense to evaluate a composers skill by the best work they produce, not the worst. With the latter criteria almost every composer I can think of would fair poorly. I would be inclined to evaluate Williams based on his Star Wars Suite, and find him quite effective in his way. By no means a visionary artist, of course.

It's certainly not merely reasonable but only fair to discount the worst work.  I agree with your entire post.  Consider this a footnote rather than a rebuttal . . .

Jens raised the point that many have (in a word) pretended that Prokofiev and Shostakovich did not write film soundtracks, because that activity does not fit their image of A Serious Classical Composer.  Myself, and probably because the Kizhe and Nevsky suites have always been favorites, in Shostakovich's case, I simply sought out and explored other genres first.  I sort of 'backed into' some of the film scores . . . difficult for me to report accurately at this remove, but perhaps I started with the music for the great Kozintsev Shakespeare films;  and (while there are many of his soundtracks still unknown to me, and – as Time is not an inexhaustible resource – I rather doubt that I should ever manage to hear all of them) I have listened to Hamlet, King Lear, New Babylon, Alone, The Fall of Berlin, and others.  Much of it is brilliant, all of it is at least good, and none of it is a discredit to the composer.

Does Shostakovich fare poorly if we judge him by his worst work?  Well, what is his worst work?  Not any of the film soundtracks that I have heard.  If pressed, probably the worst Shostakovich piece I know is the Twelfth Symphony.  Yet even this piece is technically flawless, it is competently constructed (and better than competently).

The Song of the Forests is not his worst work, though the first I learnt of it was, people writing and poo-poo-ing it, some of them without having listened to it.

There is the problem I find, with settling on Shostakovich's "worst work" (in a way comparable to these concert turkeys by JW):  it would, for example, be unfair or even ridiculous to castigate the Polka from The Golden Age as Bad Music, when in fact it is light music, serves its purpose brilliantly in context, and is in any event well made – and well made to its purpose.

I have got to applaud John Williams, because he is able to have world-class musical organizations commission him substantial sums of money, to write slipshod concert music.  Nice work, if you can get it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 01, 2018, 07:45:53 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 01, 2018, 07:19:53 AM
It's certainly not merely reasonable but only fair to discount the worst work.  I agree with your entire post.  Consider this a footnote rather than a rebuttal . . .

Jens raised the point that many have (in a word) pretended that Prokofiev and Shostakovich did not write film soundtracks, because that activity does not fit their image of A Serious Classical Composer.  Myself, and probably because the Kizhe and Nevsky suites have always been favorites, in Shostakovich's case, I simply sought out and explored other genres first.  I sort of 'backed into' some of the film scores . . . difficult for me to report accurately at this remove, but perhaps I started with the music for the great Kozintsev Shakespeare films;  and (while there are many of his soundtracks still unknown to me, and – as Time is not an inexhaustible resource – I rather doubt that I should ever manage to hear all of them) I have listened to Hamlet, King Lear, New Babylon, Alone, The Fall of Berlin, and others.  Much of it is brilliant, all of it is at least good, and none of it is a discredit to the composer.

Does Shostakovich fare poorly if we judge him by his worst work?  Well, what is his worst work?  Not any of the film soundtracks that I have heard.  If pressed, probably the worst Shostakovich piece I know is the Twelfth Symphony.  Yet even this piece is technically flawless, it is competently constructed (and better than competently).

The Song of the Forests is not his worst work, though the first I learnt of it was, people writing and poo-poo-ing it, some of them without having listened to it.

There is the problem I find, with settling on Shostakovich's "worst work" (in a way comparable to these concert turkeys by JW):  it would, for example, be unfair or even ridiculous to castigate the Polka from The Golden Age as Bad Music, when in fact it is light music, serves its purpose brilliantly in context, and is in any event well made – and well made to its purpose.

I have got to applaud John Williams, because he is able to have world-class musical organizations commission him substantial sums of money, to write slipshod concert music.  Nice work, if you can get it.

Now you're getting into the subjective. I love Shostakovich Symphonies 4, 5, 9, 10, 15. Maybe 6.  And maybe the one that starts with the militaristic Bolero, is that 7? The others I think of as dreck. Just my personal preference, of course. (The chamber music and concertos are generally superb.) If you asked me to rank Shostakovich based on any of the other symphonies, I'd put him at von Dittersdorf level.

You still haven't named the Williams piece that was so bad.

I'm detecting animus for Williams. I'm willing to wager that the ticket sales for those slipshod Williams commissions financed many a Shostakovich concert.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 01, 2018, 07:46:57 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 01, 2018, 07:45:53 AMAnd maybe the one that starts with the militaristic Bolero, is that 7?
It is.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 01, 2018, 08:38:15 AM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 01, 2018, 07:45:53 AM
You still haven't named the Williams piece that was so bad.

Correct.

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 01, 2018, 07:45:53 AM
I'm detecting animus for Williams.

Incorrect.

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 01, 2018, 07:45:53 AM
I'm willing to wager that the ticket sales for those slipshod Williams commissions financed many a Shostakovich concert.

I take that at 12:7 depending on our agreeing what many means here.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 12, 2018, 02:53:56 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 01, 2018, 07:19:53 AM

Jens raised the point that many have (in a word) pretended that Prokofiev and Shostakovich did not write film soundtracks, because that activity does not fit their image of A Serious Classical Composer.  Myself, and probably because the Kizhe and Nevsky suites have always been favorites... Much of it is brilliant, all of it is at least good, and none of it is a discredit to the composer.

Does Shostakovich fare poorly if we judge him by his worst work?  Well, what is his worst work?  Not any of the film soundtracks that I have heard.  If pressed, probably the worst Shostakovich piece I know is the Twelfth Symphony.  Yet even this piece is technically flawless, it is competently constructed (and better than competently).


I agree with you... but would double down on my argument that these films are, to a western audience, either unknown or known as art-films or in any case as something quite different from "MOVIES". And that the disconnect still works, all the same. His less music for lesser films and series and such has by now been recorded, to some extent, is good (good enough, so it is said, to have saved his life because Stalin was majorly digging it)... but hardly known at all, except by a few enthusiasts.

What's his worst (serious) work, you ask? I'd posit Symphony No.2 and, above all, the Festive Overture in all its bloated pomposity*. And there must be a few other sheer propaganda works that are trash, partly because he was churning them out less than half-hearted.

QuoteMusic as Propaganda in Washington and New York
by jfl | Tuesday, March 27, 2007,

...A trite, pompous, never-altering 8-minute all-out fake orgasm that might impress at first, but is, at best, a musical Potemkin's Village (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/03/music-as-propaganda-in-washington-and.html)...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 13, 2018, 04:58:43 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 12, 2018, 02:53:56 PM
What's his worst (serious) work, you ask? I'd posit Symphony No.2 and, above all, the Festive Overture in all its bloated pomposity*. And there must be a few other sheer propaganda works that are trash, partly because he was churning them out less than half-hearted.

I see your point.  Personally, I find the Second of great interest—which may not be quite the same thing as disagreeing with you.

I doubt I could respond absolutely cool-headedly viz. the Festive Overture.  In its band version, it is the first Shostakovich piece I ever played in, back when I was a sprout in high school;  and in that context, the piece can hold its head high.  Cannot say that the fake orgasm simile would have occurred to me, back in that era of my life.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 30, 2018, 03:16:08 PM
Somebody gets it.

The music industry sells classical as soothing background music — robbing a great art of its power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/11/30/feature/classical-music-is-sold-as-soothing-background-music-thats-a-problem/?utm_term=.db8e10ccd572

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 18, 2018, 10:47:29 AM
How political should opera be? And, at a minimum, how good?

(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uB09FiMVafo/XBk5zflIvkI/AAAAAAAAKvY/3qZbccZSLGg0XrGtgtNoJ7c3WKPSU5veQCLcBGAs/s640/Johannes-Maria-Staud_Die-Weiden_Canoe_Frankel_%2528c%2529Michael_Poehn.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/12/johannes-maria-stauds-opera-die-weiden.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/12/johannes-maria-stauds-opera-die-weiden.html)

&

World-Premiere of Johannes Maria Staud's Die Weiden: Opera from the Echo Chamber (https://www.classicstoday.com/world-premiere-of-johannes-maria-stauds-die-weiden-opera-from-the-echo-chamber/) (ClassicsToday)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on December 30, 2018, 04:36:25 PM
It is done!

The Schubert Symphony Cycle Survey stands. (Few more additions to come.)

A Survey of Schubert Symphony Cycles

(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xounXDatr_4/XCH8uCjNcII/AAAAAAAAK2k/hF60-ZL4uLcvUKlwpCpQX81IHepxisTVQCPcBGAYYCw/s640/Schubert-Glasses_ionarts_jens-f-laurson_1200.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-survey-of-schubert-symphony-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-survey-of-schubert-symphony-cycles.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 05, 2019, 11:20:03 AM
The latest discography is up:

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GKMSuHU-Hm8/XDCdq3uln9I/AAAAAAAALAY/xQ7bmyKofvwkwmfyA596tHLRXxI9kBlDgCLcBGAs/s320/MARTINU-Bohuslav_Banner_ClassicalCritic_Symphony-Discography_laurson_600.jpg)


A Survey of Martinů Symphony Cycles


http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-survey-of-martinu-symphony-cycles.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-survey-of-martinu-symphony-cycles.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 12, 2019, 11:39:31 PM
Latest on ClassicsToday (InsiderContent):

A Lady Macbeth From Hell
by Jens F. Laurson
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwvajGIX4AAWwHB.jpg)

The idea of Verdi's Macbeth (in the original, dramatically taut 1847 version) performed by a period instrument ensemble is, generously viewed, intriguing–at least when Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi are involved, with all their creditable expertise in Italian music. Granted, Verdi is not Vivaldi and... Continue Reading (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/a-lady-macbeth-from-hell/)

Also:

Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 08, 2019, 11:47:31 PM
The #Shostakovich String Quartet Cycle #Discography has been updated as I have been made aware of - and found - the @QuatuorDebussy's 1998-2004 cycle on Arion:


A Survey of Shostakovich String Quartet Cycles

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTHWL9-17hU/W7e1s89d37I/AAAAAAAAKns/zb2DrgsORkYCajhx1l4Vu0R1_wpY_OXZQCLcBGAs/s1600/Shostakovich_old3_laurson_600.jpg)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-survey-of-shostakovich-string-quartet.html (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-survey-of-shostakovich-string-quartet.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 16, 2019, 05:46:24 AM

Newsish items:


Record Label BIS Goes Green (You Had Me at "Turtles")
(http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/01/record-label-bis-goes-green-you-had-me.html)

New Home For Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra (https://www.classicstoday.com/new-home-for-amsterdams-concertgebouw-orchestra/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on January 18, 2019, 04:06:27 PM
Fazil Say makes the news
https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/erdogan-graham-discuss-syria-safe-zone-attend-fazil-say-s-concert-23436
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on January 18, 2019, 04:09:30 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 18, 2019, 04:06:27 PM
Fazil Say makes the news
https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/erdogan-graham-discuss-syria-safe-zone-attend-fazil-say-s-concert-23436

I guess Graham will have to return to the U.S. by boat, since Trump has banned travel by U.S. aircraft by members of Congress.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 20, 2019, 11:52:47 AM
CD From Hell: Peter Gregson Banalizes Bach
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DxYd8YFX0AISUyb.jpg)

(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-peter-gregson-banalizes-bach/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 21, 2019, 06:54:20 AM

Sigiswald Kuijken's Zany Bach of Wonders Boxed
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DxcY7ytWoAA7N4X.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/sigiswald-kuijkens-zany-bach-of-wonders-boxed/)
[insider content]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 21, 2019, 07:15:04 AM
 Best Recordings of 2018 (Re-Releases)
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aAJwjG98eV0/XBl-qqvgOWI/AAAAAAAAKwc/lOENDUrfz7EdtRw2Y156gJi96rJveKFsQCLcBGAs/s640/Best_Recordings_of_2018_laurson_classical-critic_600_flat.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/01/best-recordings-of-2018-re-releases.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on January 21, 2019, 10:31:15 AM
You'll need to clean up some typos, but more importantly, the Karajan Sibelius was included in the EMI Remastered set.  They form the first three CDs of this
[asin]B00JDB4ASA[/asin]
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 21, 2019, 02:53:41 PM
Quote from: JBS on January 21, 2019, 10:31:15 AM
You'll need to clean up some typos, but more importantly, the Karajan Sibelius was included in the EMI Remastered set.  They form the first three CDs of this


Thanks much. (Also would be super helpful if you mentioned some of those typos you noticed. The reason they're in there is that i managed to gloss over them four times, already.  ??? :P
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on January 21, 2019, 03:32:07 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on January 21, 2019, 02:53:41 PM
Thanks much. (Also would be super helpful if you mentioned some of those typos you noticed. The reason they're in there is that i managed to gloss over them four times, already.  ??? :P
"premable" & "lest" before the list.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 21, 2019, 03:55:44 PM
Quote from: North Star on January 21, 2019, 03:32:07 PM
"premable" & "lest" before the list.

Super. Much appreciated. I must have lost my pre-marbles to not catch those!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on January 27, 2019, 09:10:02 AM
Interview about Bruckner. Probably so basic that few on this forum would learn anything new.

https://avemariaradio.net/audio-archive/church-and-culture-january-26-2019-hour-2/?fbclid=IwAR3ilhtj28aJdY4JT9NJ33v3ICWiC3t8S7wj6G0E27zD82lmhukvVUh8j4c (https://avemariaradio.net/audio-archive/church-and-culture-january-26-2019-hour-2/?fbclid=IwAR3ilhtj28aJdY4JT9NJ33v3ICWiC3t8S7wj6G0E27zD82lmhukvVUh8j4c)

Latest interview on Ave Maria Radio where Deal Wyatt Hudson invited me to speak about #Bruckner. Which of course is a thing I love to do.

Excerpts from Symphonies 3, 7, 9 (w/ Rémy Ballot/ GRAMOLA) & 5 (Jochum/ Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, 1986) & the Os justi Motet.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 07, 2019, 03:35:01 AM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyzI-LyXcAEmRDT.jpg)

As @ionarts resumes a regular schedule of #CDReviews, with Charles (#BrieflyNoted) on Saturdays and me on Wednesdays, here's my first contribution to the new routine: Dip Your Ears, No. 223 (Vadym Kholodenko's Scriabin)

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/02/dip-your-ears-no-223-vadym-kholodenkos.html ...

#DipYourEars (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/02/dip-your-ears-no-223-vadym-kholodenkos.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on February 08, 2019, 01:11:51 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 07, 2019, 03:35:01 AM
As @ionarts resumes a regular schedule of #CDReviews, with Charles (#BrieflyNoted) on Saturdays and me on Wednesdays

Glad to read this. I enjoy your writing but could never bring myself to click the links to that other website.

ETA: your "unfathomable tragedy" link points to a local file on your computer.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 09, 2019, 12:06:34 AM
Quote from: Pat B on February 08, 2019, 01:11:51 PM
Glad to read this. I enjoy your writing but could never bring myself to click the links to that other website.

ETA: your "unfathomable tragedy" link points to a local file on your computer.

That "other" website being ClassicsToday?  :D Have you experienced a Hurwitz-burn that left you scarred? [As most people, though not all, he becomes all the more pleasant on proximity. And I must say that I've found him incredibly open in my dealing with me... not only for taking me on, after Forbes ditched the column, but also for re-assessing recordings differently than he has judged them in the past (i.e. Bernstein's Beethoven).]

Thanks a lot for letting me know about the link; it's fixed now.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on February 10, 2019, 11:23:16 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 09, 2019, 12:06:34 AM
That "other" website being ClassicsToday?  :D Have you experienced a Hurwitz-burn that left you scarred? [As most people, though not all, he becomes all the more pleasant on proximity. And I must say that I've found him incredibly open in my dealing with me... not only for taking me on, after Forbes ditched the column, but also for re-assessing recordings differently than he has judged them in the past (i.e. Bernstein's Beethoven).]

I wouldn't say burned or scarred. I just eventually realized that I dislike his writing enough that I avoid his website altogether. One example occurred as I was reading an essay on vibrato. At first I didn't know who wrote it. The pdf did not state the author at the top. I read a few pages littered with straw men, ad hominem attacks, and hand-waving. By the time I got to the author's admission that he didn't know the meanings of terminology used in historical violin treatises, it was clear that behind the facade of a substantive analysis, the essay was really just a crude rationalization of the author's personal preferences and an attack on those with different preferences. Then I asked myself, "who wrote this junk, David Hurwitz?" I scrolled to the bottom, and guess who the author was? Blindly identifying an author by his writing's junky viciousness is a surprisingly powerful realization.

I similarly try to avoid Lebrecht's website, though less strictly.

I am not surprised that Hurwitz is more charming in person. For all I know, I would enjoy a conversation with him. But I avoid his website.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 10, 2019, 01:27:12 PM
Quote from: Pat B on February 10, 2019, 11:23:16 AM
I wouldn't say burned or scarred. I just eventually realized that I dislike his writing enough that I avoid his website altogether. One example occurred as I was reading an essay on vibrato. At first I didn't know who wrote it. The pdf did not state the author at the top. I read a few pages littered with straw men, ad hominem attacks, and hand-waving. By the time I got to the author's admission that he didn't know the meanings of terminology used in historical violin treatises, it was clear that behind the facade of a substantive analysis, the essay was really just a crude rationalization of the author's personal preferences and an attack on those with different preferences. Then I asked myself, "who wrote this junk, David Hurwitz?" I scrolled to the bottom, and guess who the author was? Blindly identifying an author by his writing's junky viciousness is a surprisingly powerful realization.

I similarly try to avoid Lebrecht's website, though less strictly.

I am not surprised that Hurwitz is more charming in person. For all I know, I would enjoy a conversation with him. But I avoid his website.

I hear you; perfectly respectable view. Although I think that Hurwitz', shall we say, 'unique flavor' (a selling point in-and-of-itself; at least he's consistent so he is helpful as a critic whether you agree with him or not) are quirks. But Lebrecht is an obnoxious clickbaiting, race-baiting, nationalism-baiting hack who spreads half-truths (on a good day) and is malicious at the core. And then there's the small detail that ClassicsToday is a multiplicity of voices (Distler, Vernier, Hurwitz, Levine, Carr Jr.), not a megaphone for just one.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 10, 2019, 11:57:27 PM
More from the forbidden site.  :D


A Fabulous Fauré Piano Music Primer
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzHGkaKWoAA_G3J.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/a-fabulous-faure-piano-music-primer/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 14, 2019, 02:14:10 AM

Dip Your Ears, No. 224 (CD of the Month)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzW8xhaW0AE0mEu.jpg)

Among the eight monthly #CDReviews that Charles & I are now putting up on @ionarts again, we'll have a #CDofTheMonth every month, alternating between him & myself. This month, it's my turn with #AllanPettersson on #BISRecords

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/02/dip-your-ears-no-224-ionarts-cd-of.html ... (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/02/dip-your-ears-no-224-ionarts-cd-of.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 17, 2019, 11:14:14 PM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzrFtvWWkAELo0g.jpg)

"Manntje, Manntje, Timpe Te / Buttje, Buttje inne See / myne Fru de Ilsebill / will nich so, as ik wol will"

Latest on @ClassicsToday: "The Fisherman and His Wife: Othmar Schoeck's Fine Dramatic Fairytale Cantata"

#OthmarSchoeck (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-fisherman-and-his-wife-othmar-schoecks-fine-dramatic-fairytale-cantata/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 18, 2019, 07:01:36 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 10, 2019, 01:27:12 PM
I hear you; perfectly respectable view. Although I think that Hurwitz', shall we say, 'unique flavor' (a selling point in-and-of-itself; at least he's consistent so he is helpful as a critic whether you agree with him or not) are quirks. But Lebrecht is an obnoxious clickbaiting, race-baiting, nationalism-baiting hack who spreads half-truths (on a good day) and is malicious at the core. And then there's the small detail that ClassicsToday is a multiplicity of voices (Distler, Vernier, Hurwitz, Levine, Carr Jr.), not a megaphone for just one.
As you know I'm on your team here... CT was the first review site I found back in the day, so it is still kind of my "default." It's very easy for me to read a Hurwitz review and figure out if I will like the CD or not. If he thinks it's great except for being HIP, I'll probably love it. If it's an hour long late romantic symphony with a 120-piece orchestra released by CPO and he gave it a 10/10, I'll probably fall asleep.  ;D

Lebrecht's website is a cesspit.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 18, 2019, 07:54:17 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 18, 2019, 07:01:36 AM
As you know I'm on your team here... CT was the first review site I found back in the day, so it is still kind of my "default." It's very easy for me to read a Hurwitz review and figure out if I will like the CD or not. If he thinks it's great except for being HIP, I'll probably love it. If it's an hour long late romantic symphony with a 120-piece orchestra released by CPO and he gave it a 10/10, I'll probably fall asleep.  ;D

Lebrecht's website is a cesspit.

Glad to hear it. Now if only you were to jump onto the right side of the paywall...  ;D 8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 19, 2019, 02:08:10 PM
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dzyz0XAXQAEFWYx.jpg)

Latest on @ClassicsToday: Sunday-Morning Mozart from Seong-Jin Cho and Yannick Nézet-Séguin

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/sunday-morning-mozart-from-seong-jin-cho-and-yannick-nezet-seguin/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/sunday-morning-mozart-from-seong-jin-cho-and-yannick-nezet-seguin/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 20, 2019, 07:29:09 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 18, 2019, 07:54:17 AM
Glad to hear it. Now if only you were to jump onto the right side of the paywall...  ;D 8)
Done!! Jumping in the archives now. I have a lot of reading to catch up on. Especially excited to see a special hidden section for Hurwitz's famous Harry Potter fanfiction.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 20, 2019, 07:50:28 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 20, 2019, 07:29:09 AM
Done!! Jumping in the archives now. I have a lot of reading to catch up on. Especially excited to see a special hidden section for Hurwitz's famous Harry Potter fanfiction.

(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MFDsGHQhugc/XG2FJF83_PI/AAAAAAAALIs/CJrK0jKiln0Gr8S-Oqrvz3uuDZiKvWm7gCLcBGAs/s1600/ThumbsUp_ClassicsToday.png)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Rinaldo on February 20, 2019, 12:45:01 PM
(https://i.nahraj.to/f/2exs.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 21, 2019, 11:38:36 AM
There it is, my first review in the US @CatholicHerald (https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/grand-motets-worthy-of-a-king/): Grand motets worthy of a king.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dz9EM-WWoAIbmSv.jpg)

DeLalande on #Glossa w/@collegium_M

https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/grand-motets-worthy-of-a-king/ ...

: http://a-fwd.to/6u10kZf  (http://a-fwd.to/6u10kZf)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on February 21, 2019, 12:01:39 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 21, 2019, 11:38:36 AM
There it is, my first review in the US @CatholicHerald (https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/grand-motets-worthy-of-a-king/): Grand motets worthy of a king.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dz9EM-WWoAIbmSv.jpg)

DeLalande on #Glossa w/@collegium_M

https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/grand-motets-worthy-of-a-king/ ...

: http://a-fwd.to/6u10kZf  (http://a-fwd.to/6u10kZf)

the music of de Lalande, who was about one generation older than his eventual royal chapel successor, Henry Madin (or JS Bach over in Leipzig), is invigorating and celebratory and not particularly cerebral for sacred middle-period baroque. In that, it is closer to Jan Dismas Zelenka than Heinrich Schütz – not surprising, since austerity wasn't really Louis XIV's thing, in music or otherwise.

I agree with everything you write, including the comparison(s) to Zelenka and Schuetz, but I would slightly modify the last sentence thus:

Not surprising, since austerity wasn't really Catholicism's thing, in music or otherwise.

Invigorating and celebratory --- Vivaldi, Haydn and \Mozart anyone? All of them more or less devout Catholics.

Long and thorny topic, I know, but I stand by it.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 21, 2019, 03:03:02 PM
Quote from: Florestan on February 21, 2019, 12:01:39 PM
the music of de Lalande, who was about one generation older than his eventual royal chapel successor, Henry Madin (or JS Bach over in Leipzig), is invigorating and celebratory and not particularly cerebral for sacred middle-period baroque. In that, it is closer to Jan Dismas Zelenka than Heinrich Schütz – not surprising, since austerity wasn't really Louis XIV's thing, in music or otherwise.

I agree with everything you write, including the comparison(s) to Zelenka and Schuetz, but I would slightly modify the last sentence thus:

Not surprising, since austerity wasn't really Catholicism's thing, in music or otherwise.

Invigorating and celebratory --- Vivaldi, Haydn and \Mozart anyone? All of them more or less devout Catholics.

Long and thorny topic, I know, but I stand by it.

I think that's certainly true; I'm not sure it is funnier, though.  ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on February 25, 2019, 04:29:10 AM
Most recent reviews on ClassicsToday:

Obsessed Rats: Wondrous Voices From Olden Times
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0PR6b7XQAEoowf.jpg) (http://a-fwd.to/2QB9L3K)

Latest on @classicstoday: Obsessed Rats: Wondrous Voices From Olden Times

Atmospheric excellence!

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/obsessed-rats-wondrous-voices-from-olden-times/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/obsessed-rats-wondrous-voices-from-olden-times/)

-

CD From Hell: Gardiner's Bloodless Mendelssohn Symphonies
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0QSCn8WwAAHWmu.jpg) (http://a-fwd.to/5BRXhAe)

Latest on @classicstoday: CD From Hell: Gardiner's Bloodless Mendelssohn Symphonies

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-gardiners-bloodless-mendelssohn-symphonies/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-gardiners-bloodless-mendelssohn-symphonies/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: king ubu on February 26, 2019, 12:31:58 AM
Considering attending this concert ... stumbled over it by checking out gigs by Marie-Claude Chappuis, who has released a gorgeous album of French music a couple of years ago. There is hardly any mention of André Caplet around these shores, and of Howard Arman mostly as conductor, so I'm not quite sure what to expect there ... any opinions?

Youth Philharmonic of Central Switzerland     
Akademiechor Luzern     
Howard Arman   
conductor
Marie-Claude Chappuis    mezzo-soprano

André Caplet (1878–1925)
Le Miroir de Jésus. Mystères du Rosaire for mezzo-soprano, women's chorus, strings, and harp 

Howard Arman (*1954)
The Cries of London for soloists, choir, and strings
Swiss premiere

More info:
https://www.lucernefestival.ch/en/program/youth-philharmonic-of-central-switzerland-akademiechor-luzern-howard-arman-marie-claude-chappuis/1079


The album - highly recommended:

[asin]B071GB32XC[/asin]

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 04, 2019, 11:56:49 AM
For those of you who like internet memes, a Twitter thread identifying classical composers (https://twitter.com/liorastrong/status/1090686217165959170) by what John Mulaney joke best fits their personality. The Tchaikovsky and Schumann ones seem especially apt!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on March 05, 2019, 07:16:33 PM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6773205/amp/Masterpiece-English-classical-composer-Edward-Elgar-heard-time-100-years.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 05, 2019, 10:51:54 PM
Latest reviews:


On ClassicsToday: Elijah @ Theater an der Wien with Calixto Bieito & Christian Gerhaher
(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bc0s0SxmBBc/XH8AwgAZkQI/AAAAAAAALJo/TWlEEQ5xf-UQe8Zed73K8jkt2L082KfuQCLcBGAs/s640/ELIAS_OHP_060%2B%25C2%25A9Werner%2BKmetitsch.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/tearing-through-wet-cardboard-calixto-bieito-christian-gerhaher-take-on-elijah-in-vienna/)

(Pictures here (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/on-classicstoday-elijah-theater-der.html))


Ionarts-at-Large: The Hagen Quartett in Shostakovich, Dvořák and Schubert
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jb-LgjOrXps/XH5hW4hUXlI/AAAAAAAALJM/ePJTJNjxXPgo_FRIBkqNqd7jJwWUFL7jACLcBGAs/s640/Hagen_Quartett_Wiener-Konzerthaus_Jens-f-Laurson_ClassicalCritic_2019.jpg) (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/ionarts-at-large-hagen-quartett-in.html)


Look Mom, No Conductor! Brilliant Enescu Octet With Vilde Frang & Friends
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0uF2O6WwAAF3y0.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/look-mom-no-conductor-brilliant-enescu-octet-with-vilde-frang-friends/)


On ClassicsToday: Drums and Dances - Gothenburg Symphony's Viennese Outing
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hPcm0NaNlp4/XHr3PHIG3ZI/AAAAAAAALI8/1W99SGWGjoYrYAyjG6ygR9Bs4IFMQqPPwCLcBGAs/s640/Gothenborg_Symfoniker_Konzerthaus_Sibelius_Rouvali_jens-f-laurson_ClassicalCritic_.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/drums-and-dances-gothenburg-symphonys-viennese-outing/)


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 06, 2019, 06:16:53 AM
Quote from: JBS on March 05, 2019, 07:16:33 PM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6773205/amp/Masterpiece-English-classical-composer-Edward-Elgar-heard-time-100-years.html

Wonderful
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 08, 2019, 12:36:18 PM
Had the immense pleasure of talking to Sandy Wilson, cellist from the Alexander Quartet (https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/things-to-do-in-dallas-alexander-string-quartet-at-moody-performance-hall-11591103), about the Alexanders' performance approach and how they've managed to keep together for 38 years with virtually no turnover (last time a new member joined was 2002). It's a lot like a good marriage, he says - the key is to be good at fighting!

Just for GMG, a "deleted scene": Sandy told me about some concert disasters that have happened to them, that he didn't necessarily want to see appear in a newspaper. Once after playing Beethoven's Op. 18 No. 6, they mingled with the audience and a woman said, "That was some lovely Haydn!" They said, oh no, that was early Beethoven, but it does sound like Haydn, doesn't it? Then she showed them the program... and they realized they'd played the wrong quartet...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 14, 2019, 06:43:11 AM
The latest:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1jddyrWkAAlpBr.jpg)
Wednesdays and Saturdays are #CDReview-day on @ionarts: Today it's my turn, with #DipYourEars, No. 228: Jean Muller's Starts Fine New #Mozart Sonata Cycle.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/dip-your-ears-no-228-jean-mullers.html ... (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/dip-your-ears-no-228-jean-mullers.html)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1cv4OkWoAAkMTi.jpg)
Latest on @ClassicsToday: The Stamic Quartet's Great Weinberg & Bloch Combo

: http://a-fwd.to/646WuV7
On @SupraphonCZ sublabel (?) AnimalMusic #StamicQuartet (http://a-fwd.to/646WuV7)

Review: https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-stamic-quartets-great-weinberg-bloch-combo/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-stamic-quartets-great-weinberg-bloch-combo/) ...


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1Z0Oi7XcAIvlIt.jpg)
My latest on @ClassicsToday: Superbly Played Mendelssohn From The @sitkovetskytrio, But...

#BISrecords (https://amzn.to/2O1kKpW)

Review: https://www.classicstoday.com/review/superbly-played-mendelssohn-from-the-sitkovetsky-trio-but-somethings-missing/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/superbly-played-mendelssohn-from-the-sitkovetsky-trio-but-somethings-missing/)

: https://amzn.to/2O1kKpW  (https://amzn.to/2O1kKpW)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1A74kpX4AEDcPI.jpg)

Wednesdays are #CDReview days on @ionarts. My latest:
#DipYourEars, No. 227 (Te Deum for the Successful Sacking of Freiburg)

https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/dip-your-ears-no-227-te-deum-for.html ... (https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/03/dip-your-ears-no-227-te-deum-for.html)

: https://amzn.to/2ET1Kqw  (https://amzn.to/2ET1Kqw)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 16, 2019, 03:54:35 PM
Latest interview on "Church and Culture" is all about Bach!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D10R5SvXcAAYqAQ.jpg)
https://t.co/m6jBvZSoD1 (https://t.co/m6jBvZSoD1)

First half about transcriptions, second about the Matthew Passion -- all about why Bach is the Alpha and Omega... and tried to squeeze in a tribute to the beloved and much missed Enoch zu Guttenberg.

Apologies - to anyone who might actually listen - about the bad SQ. Don't know why that is myself... trying to make them work on it.


Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Rinaldo on March 21, 2019, 02:26:58 AM
Not sure where to put this but Google's current Bach doodle (https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach) is pure joy.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mirror Image on March 22, 2019, 06:49:07 AM
All of this talk about Classics Today and I figured I would put my two cents in. I don't read Hurwitz's reviews and I just don't like the guy's writing style. Outside of Hurwitz, I do enjoy reading Jens' reviews in recordings that I'm interested in, but also Jed Distler who seems to mostly stick to solo piano recordings.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: king ubu on March 23, 2019, 03:50:15 AM
Clarinetist Wolfgang Meyer (brother of Sabine's, and sometimes her playing partner) has died a few days ago:
https://bnn.de/lokales/karlsruhe/klarinettist-wolfgang-meyer-ist-gestorben
https://www.swr.de/swr2/musik/klarinettist-wolfgang-meyer-gestorben/-/id=661124/did=23658546/nid=661124/1b70iii/index.html
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 23, 2019, 12:05:50 PM
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xSpMjDocL._SX425_.jpg)


Whilst hunting for bargain discs, I found this.  I enjoy Kempe, but this disc seems like it was cobbled together from items discarded from collections of leftovers.  This would have been full-price at some point, too.  Not everything needs to be reissued.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on March 25, 2019, 08:46:34 AM
Mightily Superfluous Excellence: Saraste and Beethoven Cycle No. 176
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2gd6IwX4Ac5Lty.jpg)

Raise your hand if you really, truly need another, a new set of the nine Beethoven symphonies—the 176th* such cycle? (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mightily-superfluous-excellence-saraste-and-beethoven-cycle-no-176/)

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mightily-superfluous-excellence-saraste-and-beethoven-cycle-no-176/ (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/mightily-superfluous-excellence-saraste-and-beethoven-cycle-no-176/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 04, 2019, 11:26:23 AM
Latest in the US Catholic Herald: Protestant Bach!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1113824128635691010/9ygzhMe8?format=jpg&name=600x314)
'Truly this was the Son of God' (https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/truly-this-was-the-son-of-god/)

(not my headline, but hey...)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 08, 2019, 05:53:04 AM
Jens - is the Hurwitzer on vacation this week, or unwell?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 08, 2019, 06:28:24 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 08, 2019, 05:53:04 AM
Jens - is the Hurwitzer on vacation this week, or unwell?

Why? Did someone sneak a positive Thielemann review through?  ;D :P

There's been a bit of a lag in uploading, hasn't there?! I think D.Vernier does the uploading, though.
D.H. is not incommunicado, at least... so I have no reason to fear for unwellness.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 08, 2019, 10:37:28 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 08, 2019, 06:28:24 AM
Why? Did someone sneak a positive Thielemann review through?  ;D :P

There's been a bit of a lag in uploading, hasn't there?! I think D.Vernier does the uploading, though.
D.H. is not incommunicado, at least... so I have no reason to fear for unwellness.
I am used to the "everything posts on Sundays" schedule now, I was just surprised when there wasn't any Hurwitz this week - just extra helpings of Jens and Jed. (Which is fine by me...I like Jens and Jed  ;) )
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 08, 2019, 01:16:38 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 08, 2019, 10:37:28 AM
I am used to the "everything posts on Sundays" schedule now, I was just surprised when there wasn't any Hurwitz this week - just extra helpings of Jens and Jed. (Which is fine by me...I like Jens and Jed  ;) )

True. I noticed now. Hmpf.

Meanwhile, speaking of those extra helpings:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D3o4WMhW0AAnxQl.jpg)
Leave No Cliché Behind: Luna Pearl Woolf's Be Still My Bleeding Angel Heart
Nothing sells records, the statistics tell us, like a damning review. Well, I've tried my best! Latest #CDReview on @ClassicsToday: Angel Heart—"A little Gesamtkunstwerk in post-Goth fairytale look... the feel-good factor is high..."

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/leave-no-cliche-behind-luna-pearl-woolfs-be-still-my-bleeding-angel-heart/ ... (https://t.co/1PRjqfMveT)
https://amzn.to/2D1c1zw  (https://amzn.to/2D1c1zw)

Maybe the first review with an artistic rating of "1"? Highly subjective, of course.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D3qMlf3WAAAr5Uy.jpg)

Rachel Podger Plays Bach's—Wait For It—Cello Suites!
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rachel-podger-plays-bachs-wait-for-it-cello-suites/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on April 15, 2019, 02:19:43 AM
BBC Four broadcast a documentary/interview with Janet Baker last night. For those who can access it, it is available on Iplayer :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00048q7/janet-baker-in-her-own-words (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00048q7/janet-baker-in-her-own-words)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 16, 2019, 04:05:53 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:


Becoming Darkness: A Bass Lied Recital
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4RYRtcWwAEm4gq.jpg)

Latest on @ClassicsToday: Becoming Darkness: A Bass Lied Recital from the ideal, foremost Ochs and most menacing Marke  of our time: Günther Groissböck (@GGboeck) on @deccaclassics

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/becoming-darkness-a-bass-lied-recital/ ... (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/becoming-darkness-a-bass-lied-recital/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on April 18, 2019, 04:01:41 PM
My first review in a while, constr. crit. welcome

http://www.earrelevant.net/2019/04/cd-review-untrammeled-reflects-wilderness-inspirations/?fbclid=IwAR36wVHJtDrqwiAPoFhrNgxowBE8izSH83PT_sI4riY64pGPJWlGix_ns-o
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on April 26, 2019, 07:50:32 PM
https://medium.com/world-of-music/pergolesis-stabat-mater-the-solution-to-elgar-s-enigma-variations-5f1f7dd2158a
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 29, 2019, 06:31:29 AM
Latest on ClassicsToday:


The Reasonably Splendid And The Ho-Hum in LSO-Beethoven
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5UcM5cXoAAM34m.jpg)

Latest on ClassicsToday: Big Names in LSO Beethoven (...but what does it all amount to?)

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-reasonably-splendid-and-the-ho-hum-in-lso-beethoven/ ...
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/the-reasonably-splendid-and-the-ho-hum-in-lso-beethoven/)
https://amzn.to/2XVHNWW (https://amzn.to/2XVHNWW)

Neave Trio Does Astor Piazzolla Proud
(https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p75x225/58745071_10156465633387989_6849812202430398464_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_ht=scontent-vie1-1.xx&oh=44f12cb6693ed276ddbcd768bf47d5a6&oe=5D64C11C)
[insider content]
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/neave-trio-does-astor-piazzolla-proud/)
https://amzn.to/2XVJVho (https://amzn.to/2XVJVho)

Stölzel: Good Enough for Bach, Definitely Good Enough for Us
(https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p75x225/59286184_10156465608972989_4263486749088415744_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=scontent-vie1-1.xx&oh=695c6c6e36352af1cc5e2dbe8010cc96&oe=5D2E775E)
[insider content] #BestOf2019 material! (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/stolzel-good-enough-for-bach-definitely-good-enough-for-us/)

https://amzn.to/2GPlv36 (https://amzn.to/2GPlv36)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 29, 2019, 08:17:09 AM
Quote from: JBS on April 26, 2019, 07:50:32 PM
https://medium.com/world-of-music/pergolesis-stabat-mater-the-solution-to-elgar-s-enigma-variations-5f1f7dd2158a
This might be the most persuasive argument I've seen yet - certainly more so than some of the silly solutions like Rule Britannia. I always had the secret pet theory that it was the Westminster bell tune that old clocks play at the top of every hour, but then, I didn't know about the clue that Elgar's theme was supposed to be in counterpoint to the original.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 29, 2019, 12:50:03 PM
Just received this press release:

DALLAS, TX (April 29, 2019)—The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) announces the winners of the eighteenth annual Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, which took place on Saturday, April 27, 2019, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Megan Lin, 18, was awarded First Prize and $3,500 for her performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto No. 1.

[snip]

Honorable Mention was awarded to Matthew Ho, 15, who performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto No. 1.

-


Sounds like a major musicological discovery is about to happen!!  ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 30, 2019, 11:14:13 AM
BTW, Jens, Lars Vogt has since recorded the Triple Concerto in studio with the Fightin' Tetzlaff Siblings on Ondine and that recording is gooood. For the first time in quite some time, the Triple Concerto started popping up in my head and I actually deliberately listened to it multiple times in a month, on purpose and everything.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on April 30, 2019, 11:53:00 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 30, 2019, 11:14:13 AM
BTW, Jens, Lars Vogt has since recorded the Triple Concerto in studio with the Fightin' Tetzlaff Siblings on Ondine and that recording is gooood. For the first time in quite some time, the Triple Concerto started popping up in my head and I actually deliberately listened to it multiple times in a month, on purpose and everything.

Yes, that's on my radar. Thanks.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on May 02, 2019, 06:58:15 PM
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-disquieting-power-of-wilhelm-furtwangler-hitlers-court-conductor/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on May 10, 2019, 05:07:51 PM
This is the best thing you will see all week.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRhgERhMcGg (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRhgERhMcGg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on May 14, 2019, 09:09:03 AM
Quote from: Ken B on May 10, 2019, 05:07:51 PM
This is the best thing you will see all week.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRhgERhMcGg (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRhgERhMcGg)

So the Mozart Effect is true after all.  :laugh:

Seriously now, poor kid! I feel for him and his parents. But then again, how many functional adults are (1) wowed by Mozart's Funeral Masonic Music, and (2) willing to express it publicly and unabashedly?

Suppose he yelled Wow! right in the middle of the piece. I've no doubts he'd have been hissed and shhhted.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 29, 2019, 01:16:30 PM
Looking through the Chopin Institute CD catalog, it occurred to me that possibly no artist has ever released more different recordings of the same work on CD than Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic have done Chopin piano concertos. By my count:

Concerto No. 1 - Francois Dumont (NIFC), Yulianna Avdeeva (NIFC), Ingolf Wunder (NIFC), Lukas Geniusas (NIFC), Nikolai Demidenko (Accentus Blu-Ray), Olga Kern (Harmonia Mundi)
Concerto No. 2 - Pawel Wakarecy (NIFC), Evgeny Kissin (Accentus Blu-Ray)
Both - Eldar Nebolsin (Naxos), Kun Woo Paik (Decca)

In other words, there are Warsaw/Wit recordings of the Chopin First Concerto featuring EIGHT different pianists.

The only artist/work combo I can think of that's more prolific is that CD where Christian Zacharias plays the same Scarlatti sonata a billion times.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ritter on May 29, 2019, 01:27:36 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 29, 2019, 01:16:30 PM
Looking through the Chopin Institute CD catalog, it occurred to me that possibly no artist has ever released more different recordings of the same work on CD than Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic have done Chopin piano concertos. By my count:
....
The only artist/work combo I can think of that's more prolific is that CD where Christian Zacharias plays the same Scarlatti sonata a billion times.
Well, someone should tell Martha Argerich that Beethoven composed 5 piano concertos, and that she really could record them all, instead of just recording the first two over and over again... ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 29, 2019, 01:39:30 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 29, 2019, 01:16:30 PM
Looking through the Chopin Institute CD catalog, it occurred to me that possibly no artist has ever released more different recordings of the same work on CD than Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic have done Chopin piano concertos. By my count:

Concerto No. 1 - Francois Dumont (NIFC), Yulianna Avdeeva (NIFC), Ingolf Wunder (NIFC), Lukas Geniusas (NIFC), Nikolai Demidenko (Accentus Blu-Ray), Olga Kern (Harmonia Mundi)
Concerto No. 2 - Pawel Wakarecy (NIFC), Evgeny Kissin (Accentus Blu-Ray)
Both - Eldar Nebolsin (Naxos), Kun Woo Paik (Decca)

In other words, there are Warsaw/Wit recordings of the Chopin First Concerto featuring EIGHT different pianists.

The only artist/work combo I can think of that's more prolific is that CD where Christian Zacharias plays the same Scarlatti sonata a billion times.

I thought I had you, but Karajan only recorded Brahms 3 seven times that I know of. WPO '49, Philharmonia '55, Berlin '63, WPO '67, Berlin '73, Berlin '78, Berlin '86. There's also Sony '86 (DVD) but I think it is the same "Telemondial" production as the DG. He also did Beethoven 7 seven times.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 29, 2019, 01:41:55 PM
Quote from: ritter on May 29, 2019, 01:27:36 PM
Well, someone should tell Martha Argerich that Beethoven composed 5 piano concertos, and that she really could record them all, instead of just recording the first two over and over again... ;D

How many times has she recorded that Mother Goose thing?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Jo498 on May 29, 2019, 01:45:20 PM
Isn't this because they simply were on duty for the Chopin competition?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 29, 2019, 02:16:56 PM
Quote from: Jo498 on May 29, 2019, 01:45:20 PM
Isn't this because they simply were on duty for the Chopin competition?
Yes, most are competition releases. Paik and Nebolsin are studio and Kissin and Demidenko are live from other concerts.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on May 29, 2019, 02:24:13 PM
Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 29, 2019, 01:39:30 PM
I thought I had you, but Karajan only recorded Brahms 3 seven times that I know of. WPO '49, Philharmonia '55, Berlin '63, WPO '67, Berlin '73, Berlin '78, Berlin '86. There's also Sony '86 (DVD) but I think it is the same "Telemondial" production as the DG. He also did Beethoven 7 seven times.

I think Takashi Asahina recorded something like 9 Bruckner cycles.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on May 29, 2019, 02:32:42 PM
I'm sure Neeme Jarvi recordings things more than once by accident.

(On the Podium)
"Gee, this sounds familiar, as though I've heard it before. Get von Bahr on the phone, I think we already did this one."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on May 30, 2019, 08:35:10 AM
There are at least 10 Bruckner 8s led by Gunter Wand on legit labels.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 13, 2019, 12:09:59 AM
A little collection of my latest on ClassicsToday since the last post:


One-To-A-Part Bach Harpsichord Concertos: Great In Detail But Big-Picture Pale
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-89hiBXoAA-8cU.jpg) (https://t.co/JRr728pz30)



Back in Print: Peter Hurford's Seminal Bach Survey On Argo/Decca [insider]
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_Vx0fhXoAEzIaR.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/back-in-print-peter-hurfords-seminal-bach-survey-on-argo-decca/)


Budapest Bruckner: Unimpressive Sublime
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9ztZXcW4AA2tft.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/budapest-bruckner-unimpressive-sublime/?search=1)


Bruckner From Switzerland, Handicapped And Below Par
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9FudVIUwAEkwLo.jpg) (https://t.co/h8iFAKUh4s)

And concert reviews:

A Magnificent Budapest Ring: Prelude and Rheingold (https://www.classicstoday.com/a-magnificent-budapest-ring-prelude-and-rheingold/)

A Magnificent Budapest Ring, Part 2: Walküre, Siegfried, & Götterdämmerung (https://www.classicstoday.com/a-magnificent-budapest-ring-part-2-walkure-siegfried-gotterdammerung/)

Mariss Jansons Delivers AM-Berlioz in Vienna (https://www.classicstoday.com/mariss-jansons-delivers-am-berlioz-in-vienna/)

Vienna Aroused: Mahler's Eighth Still Does the Trick (https://www.classicstoday.com/vienna-aroused-mahlers-eighth-still-does-the-trick/)

Haefliger's Scrupulous Bartók with the Vienna Symphony Stands Out (https://www.classicstoday.com/haefligers-scrupulous-bartok-with-the-vienna-symphony-showing/)

Vienna Radio Orchestra In Austrian Premieres Of (Post-)Soviet Classics (https://www.classicstoday.com/vienna-radio-orchestra-in-austrian-premieres-of-post-soviet-classics/)

The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra's Mahler Cure (https://www.classicstoday.com/the-gustav-mahler-youth-orchestras-mahler-cure/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 14, 2019, 03:12:37 PM
New exec at the ASO

http://www.earrelevant.net/2019/07/atlanta-symphony-names-elena-dubinets-as-chief-artistic-officer/?fbclid=IwAR0VOZmvzdPu1be__Njdh_xALWNUGXsmWafgCb1NVabhxTXJtK6_8cqb48Q
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 15, 2019, 06:00:04 AM
From what heritage/culture derives the name "Jory Vinikour"? I know he is born in Chicago but I've never heard of another Vinikour...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on July 15, 2019, 07:09:11 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 15, 2019, 06:00:04 AM
From what heritage/culture derives the name "Jory Vinikour"? I know he is born in Chicago but I've never heard of another Vinikour...

Google reveals a game designer named Mike Vinikour in Chicago... so that might be a brother.  And a lawyer named Debra Vinokour in Portland.  Perhaps we can ask Todd if he knows her, and if so,  would be mind asking?

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 17, 2019, 06:49:08 AM
I've discovered another artist named Olga Vinokur who is Russian-born. That may help narrow things down?!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on July 17, 2019, 08:25:59 AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinokur (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinokur)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: North Star on July 17, 2019, 09:26:54 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 17, 2019, 06:49:08 AM
I've discovered another artist named Olga Vinokur who is Russian-born. That may help narrow things down?!
Vinokur is an East Slavic-language occupational surname. The word "винокур" is an archaic name of the profession of spirit distilling. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinokur)

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a distiller, Russian vinokur, from vino 'wine', earlier used also to denote liquor of all kinds, including spirits, + kurit 'to distil'. (https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=vinokur)

Largest incidence: USA, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. Largest percentage: Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, USA (https://forebears.io/surnames/vinokur)

There are 9 Vinikours listed in USA, and 1 in France.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 17, 2019, 09:58:04 AM
Quote from: North Star on July 17, 2019, 09:26:54 AM
Vinokur is an East Slavic-language occupational surname. The word "винокур" is an archaic name of the profession of spirit distilling. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinokur)

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a distiller, Russian vinokur, from vino 'wine', earlier used also to denote liquor of all kinds, including spirits, + kurit 'to distil'. (https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=vinokur)

Largest incidence: USA, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. Largest percentage: Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, USA (https://forebears.io/surnames/vinokur)

There are 9 Vinikours listed in USA, and 1 in France.

Well done!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on July 17, 2019, 01:38:26 PM
In that case perhaps Jory is an Americanization of "Yuri"?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on July 17, 2019, 06:25:55 PM
Quote from: North Star on July 17, 2019, 09:26:54 AM
Vinokur is an East Slavic-language occupational surname. The word "винокур" is an archaic name of the profession of spirit distilling. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinokur)

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a distiller, Russian vinokur, from vino 'wine', earlier used also to denote liquor of all kinds, including spirits, + kurit 'to distil'. (https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=vinokur)

Largest incidence: USA, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. Largest percentage: Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, USA (https://forebears.io/surnames/vinokur)

There are 9 Vinikours listed in USA, and 1 in France.

Funny to read all this, because said Vinikour is performing the Goldberg Variations on harpsichord at Ravinia on August 30. I've never heard a complete live perf of this on harpsichord, so I'm planning to go, even though it's at the odd time of 6 PM on a Friday.

https://www.ravinia.org/ShowDetails/1667/jory-vinikour-goldberg-variations
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 23, 2019, 12:21:23 AM

My latest on ClassicsToday


Volume 26: St. Gallen's Bach Cantata Cycle Marches On
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAJWnivWsAEnk8d.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/volume-26-st-gallens-bach-cantata-cycle-marches-on/)


Karajan's 1970s Beethoven In Blu-ray Audio: A Controversial Set Revisited
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_hXRMOWwAAzyZq.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/karajans-1970s-beethoven-in-blu-ray-audio-a-controversial-set-revisited/)


Rubinsky & Bach: A Grand Suite of Dunces
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAD8caKWkAApKo7.jpg) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/rubinsky-bach-a-grand-suite-of-dunces/)

...and in the Catholic Herald:

The Saint who Brought the Best out of Dvořák
(https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1151979005874245635/VkCpTVhS?format=jpg&name=600x314)
(https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/the-saint-who-brought-the-best-out-of-dvorak/)
The setting: a pagan celebration of budding spring. Young Ludmila, still years away from becoming a patron saint of Bohemia, laps it up; the oceanic feeling stirs strongly within her...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 26, 2019, 01:20:55 PM
A world-class trombonist recovers from injury:

http://www.earrelevant.net/2019/07/cd-review-ash-reflects-upon-trombonists-recovery-from-injury/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mandryka on July 26, 2019, 01:35:14 PM
Very fair review of Rubinsky there, Jens.  I noticed that the CD's called Magna Sequentia I as if there's going to be a II and a III.

Does she get a chance to respond? I mean, does anyone send your review to her and ask her what she thinks? That would be very good.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on July 26, 2019, 04:17:09 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on July 26, 2019, 01:35:14 PM
Very fair review of Rubinsky there, Jens.  I noticed that the CD's called Magna Sequentia I as if there's going to be a II and a III.

Does she get a chance to respond? I mean, does anyone send your review to her and ask her what she thinks? That would be very good.

First of all, thanks for the kind words.

Secondly: I am not sure artists SHOULD be reading reviews. At least not of critics they don't somehow know and respect. There's too much nonsense out there for them to find it worthwhile troubling with some opinions... what does Mme. Rubinsky, for example, know whether I'm some prick with an agenda and tin cans for ears or a serious-minded fella with golden lobes. She would rightly dismiss it; after all, people she has trusted have gone along with this project so far.

It's rare that artists respond well to a critical review (plenty of them don't even manage to respond well to a good review. See this response, for example, from Stuart Skelton, after I praised his Siegmund very warmly, but mentioned something less flattering about his German in passing: https://twitter.com/StuartSkelton/status/1149898840448753664 (https://twitter.com/StuartSkelton/status/1149898840448753664)

That said, I do -- obviously -- think that my criticism has a point (otherwise why bother). And in this case it might reach her. Jed Distler is a very good acquaintance of hers, and who knows: they might end up making mention of it, at some point.

And yes, the title does suggest we're in for more of the same. Not that I think that's terrible. It's just -- as of yet -- not nearly what it could be.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on August 04, 2019, 11:42:04 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 26, 2019, 04:17:09 PM
I am not sure artists SHOULD be reading reviews.

The business of artists is to perform music. The business of critics is to review performances. In both cases, the audience is sovereign.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pat B on August 05, 2019, 10:05:43 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on July 26, 2019, 04:17:09 PM
I am not sure artists SHOULD be reading reviews. At least not of critics they don't somehow know and respect. There's too much nonsens out there for them to find it worthwhile troubling with some opinions... what does Mme. Rubinsky, for example, know whether I'm some prick with an agenda and tin cans for ears or a serious-minded fella with golden lobes. She would rightly dismiss it; after all, people she has trusted have gone along with this project so far.

I have mixed feelings about this. You are correct that there is a lot of nonsense out there. But it's often good to get feedback — and you can't always count on blunt honesty from friends and colleagues.

One time when my band was recording something, a friend from another band mentioned that we sped up slightly in one part of a song. In fact it was supposed to accelerate, and playing it felt like it did so significantly, but going back and listening after he said that, I could hear that it wasn't enough. We subsequently pushed it much harder, and it made that song better. So I was really glad he alerted me. But I remember he was apprehensive, maybe even apologetic, about making any critique, and I suspect many people would have found it easier to remain silent.

Obviously CD reviews are different — by that point it's too late to fix that particular recording — but attentive, thoughtful criticism could still be useful for future projects.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on August 19, 2019, 02:30:15 AM
Quote from: Pat B on August 05, 2019, 10:05:43 AM
I have mixed feelings about this. You are correct that there is a lot of nonsense out there. But it's often good to get feedback — and you can't always count on blunt honesty from friends and colleagues.

One time when my band was recording something, a friend from another band mentioned that we sped up slightly in one part of a song. In fact it was supposed to accelerate, and playing it felt like it did so significantly, but going back and listening after he said that, I could hear that it wasn't enough. We subsequently pushed it much harder, and it made that song better. So I was really glad he alerted me. But I remember he was apprehensive, maybe even apologetic, about making any critique, and I suspect many people would have found it easier to remain silent.

Obviously CD reviews are different — by that point it's too late to fix that particular recording — but attentive, thoughtful criticism could still be useful for future projects.

I don't disagree that it's good to get feedback. Indeed, I wish some artists got a lot more. As you point out, they tend to be surrounded largely by Yes-men and -women and adoring nitwits.
But I also don't think that feedback can be accepted and properly processed when it comes from a non-authoritative source or one that you are somehow positively pre-disposed to. (Like a friend.)
De-facto-anonymous feedback, like a review, esp. when it isn't a famous reviewer (i.e. if a Joachim Kaiser had written something about an aspiring pianist or a H.Schoenberg about an aspiring String Quartet), is largely useless because it doesn't have the power to alter perceived realities and attitudes... which is usually what it takes. Unless it happens to already be in line with a nagging suspicion on the performer's part.


Speaking of anonymous criticism eanwhile: Latest on ClassicsToday

Akeo Watanabe's Sibelius Cycle On Denon
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECUzToUWwAExcCM?format=jpg&name=small) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/akeo-watanabes-sibelius-cycle-on-denon/)



Herr Tesla's Adventures in Brabant"—Piotr Beczala's Lohengrin (Blu-ray)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAl4-3zWkAAASBS?format=jpg&name=small) (https://t.co/QXrcB4292j?amp=1)



World-Première Orchestral Songs From Ernő Dohnányi
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECU5T_JXsAEhiR_?format=jpg&name=small) (https://www.classicstoday.com/review/world-premiere-orchestral-songs-from-erno-dohnanyi/?search=1)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 05, 2019, 12:59:00 PM
Recent #CDReviews on ClassicsToday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDrzy9OXsAYY34l?format=jpg)

Karl Böhm's #AlpineSymphony Revisited

https://classicstoday.com/review/karl-bohms-alpine-symphony-revisited/ (https://classicstoday.com/review/karl-bohms-alpine-symphony-revisited/)

&

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDuqtkeXkAAm72g?format=jpg&name=medium)

A (Very!) Fine #Messiah From Václav Luks and Collegium 1704

https://classicstoday.com/review/a-fine-messiah-from-vaclav-luks-and-collegium-1704/ (https://classicstoday.com/review/a-fine-messiah-from-vaclav-luks-and-collegium-1704/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 24, 2019, 10:44:11 PM
I don't know where to post this actually. Why modern opera conductors suck, 20 minutes. Wonderfully mean spirited in places but I think it makes a strong case, especially about the futility of treating libretti like Shakespeare or Ibsen rather.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Moonfish on September 24, 2019, 11:18:20 PM
Quote from: Ken B on September 24, 2019, 10:44:11 PM
I don't know where to post this actually. Why modern opera conductors suck, 20 minutes. Wonderfully mean spirited in places but I think it makes a strong case, especially about the futility of treating libretti like Shakespeare or Ibsen rather.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU)

Ah, Ken. That is a fascinating exploration of voice and opera. Thanks for posting it.  For some reason I have been listening a bit to old voice recordings on the Nimbus label lately and your post was a perfect continuation. The sound is a bit muffled, but the voices are splendid!

Stuff like this:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-iHVMOI1L.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 25, 2019, 02:06:26 AM
Quote from: Ken B on September 24, 2019, 10:44:11 PM
I don't know where to post this actually. Why modern opera conductors suck, 20 minutes. Wonderfully mean spirited in places but I think it makes a strong case, especially about the futility of treating libretti like Shakespeare or Ibsen rather.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buhPaPRbppU)


Tebaldi speaks as someone who knows only Italian opera. I'm so glad I didn't have to live in an age when opera was more as she prefers it!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Ken B on September 25, 2019, 08:34:38 AM
Here's another one.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGaBEWDD_L0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGaBEWDD_L0)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on September 28, 2019, 07:47:22 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 10, 2019, 01:27:12 PM
I hear you; perfectly respectable view. Although I think that Hurwitz', shall we say, 'unique flavor' (a selling point in-and-of-itself; at least he's consistent so he is helpful as a critic whether you agree with him or not) are quirks. But Lebrecht is an obnoxious clickbaiting, race-baiting, nationalism-baiting hack who spreads half-truths (on a good day) and is malicious at the core. And then there's the small detail that ClassicsToday is a multiplicity of voices (Distler, Vernier, Hurwitz, Levine, Carr Jr.), not a megaphone for just one.

Lebrecht is disgusting, really

I enjoy ClassicsToday.  I don't always agree with them but the writers are consistent in their reasoning even if their reasoning and mine aren't always on the same page. 

Hurwitz and Carr, in particular both seem to be massive admirers of George Szell "Szellots" (as am I) which makes me happy
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 28, 2019, 10:04:42 AM
Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on September 28, 2019, 07:47:22 AM
Lebrecht is disgusting, really

I enjoy ClassicsToday.  I don't always agree with them but the writers are consistent in their reasoning even if their reasoning and mine aren't always on the same page. 

Hurwitz and Carr, in particular both seem to be massive admirers of George Szell "Szellots" (as am I) which makes me happy

"Szellots" is v. good!  ;D ;D I'll steal that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on September 28, 2019, 10:45:33 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on September 28, 2019, 10:04:42 AM
"Szellots" is v. good!  ;D ;D I'll steal that.

;D Please do! Anything I can do to promote this genius and his peerless ensemble is worthwhile
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 03, 2019, 07:50:31 AM
Does my heart good to see Lebrecht justly pilloried.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 03, 2019, 07:57:10 AM
Just for example:

Does my enjoyment of / admiration for / "loyalty to"  the HvK recording of Pelléas et Mélisande mean that I necessarily find other recordings, which will perforce differ in several respects, therefore "inferior."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 03, 2019, 09:02:12 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 03, 2019, 07:50:31 AM
Does my heart good to see Lebrecht justly pilloried.

He's a creep
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 04, 2019, 01:17:29 PM
I made a meme about Chicago Symphony conductors

(https://i.imgflip.com/3cew14.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 05, 2019, 12:27:55 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 04, 2019, 01:17:29 PM
I made a meme about Chicago Symphony conductors

(https://i.imgflip.com/3cew14.jpg)

bit mean? instead of becoming a tribute to Martinon, it just makes me think of the unfairness towards the others. Even Solti, who is also not my favorite (although there are of course exceptional recordings among his output... including a couple that Sarge had to push my nose into, before I realized it), deserves better than that.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vers la flamme on October 05, 2019, 03:56:35 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 04, 2019, 01:17:29 PM
I made a meme about Chicago Symphony conductors

(https://i.imgflip.com/3cew14.jpg)
I didn't even know Martinon ever conducted the Chicago Symphony. (I'm not very familiar with him, nor with the CSO to be honest). What are some of the great recordings he made with them that make you think this way? For what it's worth, I love some of Solti's CSO recordings, but I was under the impression that Reiner was the greatest of them all.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Biffo on October 06, 2019, 04:01:35 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 05, 2019, 03:56:35 PM
I didn't even know Martinon ever conducted the Chicago Symphony. (I'm not very familiar with him, nor with the CSO to be honest). What are some of the great recordings he made with them that make you think this way? For what it's worth, I love some of Solti's CSO recordings, but I was under the impression that Reiner was the greatest of them all.

Martinon was conductor of the CSO from 1963 - 68. He was allegedly sacked for conducting too much modern music. The same fate befell Kubelik. There is a box set (10 CDs) of Martinon's complete RCA recordings with the CSO. All the performances are very good and the Varese, Nielsen, Bartok and Hindemith are outstanding.  Some of this material has been repackaged in different combinations in single albums. The sound quality is also outstanding.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 06, 2019, 05:15:00 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 05, 2019, 03:56:35 PM
I didn't even know Martinon ever conducted the Chicago Symphony. (I'm not very familiar with him, nor with the CSO to be honest). What are some of the great recordings he made with them that make you think this way? For what it's worth, I love some of Solti's CSO recordings, but I was under the impression that Reiner was the greatest of them all.

He was.  Martinon did generally excel in the French repertoire though
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 06, 2019, 06:43:27 AM
Quote from: vers la flamme on October 05, 2019, 03:56:35 PM
I didn't even know Martinon ever conducted the Chicago Symphony. (I'm not very familiar with him, nor with the CSO to be honest). What are some of the great recordings he made with them that make you think this way? For what it's worth, I love some of Solti's CSO recordings, but I was under the impression that Reiner was the greatest of them all.
Quote from: Biffo on October 06, 2019, 04:01:35 AM
Martinon was conductor of the CSO from 1963 - 68. He was allegedly sacked for conducting too much modern music. The same fate befell Kubelik. There is a box set (10 CDs) of Martinon's complete RCA recordings with the CSO. (http://a-fwd.to/2lnsYKi) All the performances are very good and the Varese, Nielsen, Bartok and Hindemith are outstanding.  Some of this material has been repackaged in different combinations in single albums. The sound quality is also outstanding.

Martinon's Nielsen Sy4 (along with Sy2 which Morton Gould recorded (https://amzn.to/2okYJtt)) is an absolute classic! It used to be a cheapo disc that combined both (https://amzn.to/35cHjjm)... but now it's quite pricey. Old copies of the Classical Navigator series are still available (https://amzn.to/338lS10)... where it's coupled with Previn's very decent Nielsen 1.

It used to have a great cover on LP:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51c5s3lkfXL._AC_.jpg) (https://amzn.to/2AORtJ0)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 15, 2019, 09:18:51 AM
New reviews of mine on ClassicsToday since the last update.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EG2-ovGX0AARcfm?format=jpg&name=small)
Oddly Frustrating #Bach Motets From Bavarian Radio Chorus

https://classicstoday.com/review/oddly-frustrating-motets-from-bavarian-radio-chorus/
(https://classicstoday.com/review/oddly-frustrating-motets-from-bavarian-radio-chorus/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EG2_tPcWoAEoJoM?format=jpg&name=small)
Enjott Schneider's Latest: Cribbed Beethoven; Darling Schneider

https://classicstoday.com/review/enjott-schneiders-latest-cribbed-beethoven-darling-schneider/

Modern composers leaning on the greats from the past is all well and good. Until it's not...

...very well played (very fine brass!) by the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra under Simon Gaudenz...
(https://classicstoday.com/review/enjott-schneiders-latest-cribbed-beethoven-darling-schneider/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEkYAvyXsAE3QD9?format=jpg&name=small)
Slow Flow Beauty: A Tribute To Hans #Knappertsbusch (Blu-ray)

https://classicstoday.com/review/slow-flow-beauty-a-tribute-to-hans-knappertsbusch-blu-ray/
(https://classicstoday.com/review/slow-flow-beauty-a-tribute-to-hans-knappertsbusch-blu-ray/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFxjfxjWkAAa4Vy?format=jpg&name=small)
Bernhard Lang Fools Around With Parsifal

https://classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-bernhard-lang-fools-with-parsifal/

[Mean insider review; sound clips]
(https://classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-hell-bernhard-lang-fools-with-parsifal/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGcq0TIWsAEX3gi?format=jpg&name=small)
Icelandic #Bach With Heart and Panache

https://classicstoday.com/review/icelandic-bach-with-heart-and-panache/

10/10
(https://classicstoday.com/review/icelandic-bach-with-heart-and-panache/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEVL6IuVAAEGXkn?format=jpg&name=small)
Prosseda Splashes Sunshine Over Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos

https://classicstoday.com/review/prosseda-splashes-sunshine-over-mendelssohns-piano-concertos/

(https://classicstoday.com/review/prosseda-splashes-sunshine-over-mendelssohns-piano-concertos/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EE02NaPXsAcN8tT?format=jpg&name=360x360)
Filling In The Gaps: #Handel's Glorious Occasional Apple-Polish Oratorio

https://classicstoday.com/review/filling-in-the-gaps-handels-glorious-occasional-apple-polish-oratorio/

[Insider content]
(https://classicstoday.com/review/filling-in-the-gaps-handels-glorious-occasional-apple-polish-oratorio/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGWxmAhXYAILGZo?format=jpg&name=small)
CD From the Elevator to Hell: 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann

https://classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-the-elevator-to-hell-12-conversations-with-thilo-heinzmann/
(https://classicstoday.com/review/cd-from-the-elevator-to-hell-12-conversations-with-thilo-heinzmann/)


(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EG73l0AW4AAeajE?format=jpg&name=small)
Another #CDReview on @ClassicsToday: Filling In The Gaps: Dukas' Marvelous Ariane With Gary Bertini

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/dukas-marvelous-ariane-with-gary-bertini/?search=1

#ReferenceRecording?
(https://www.classicstoday.com/review/dukas-marvelous-ariane-with-gary-bertini/?search=1)

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 15, 2019, 10:39:53 AM
The CDs from hell are always fun though I think you guys missed the boat with Gergiev's Rite... yes, the playing is second-rate but the savagery is thrilling ... the other CD from hell reviews for Gergiev's many shitty recordings are well deserved, though
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 16, 2019, 01:12:58 PM
Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on October 15, 2019, 10:39:53 AM
The CDs from hell are always fun though I think you guys missed the boat with Gergiev's Rite... yes, the playing is second-rate but the savagery is thrilling ... the other CD from hell reviews for Gergiev's many shitty recordings are well deserved, though

Secretly, I like the slobbering-dog Rite of Gergiev's myself.  ;D It's in my Top-6 Rites, I'd say. Glad you're reading... and making CD reviews fun to read is just about the highest compliment we can get.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 16, 2019, 04:36:20 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on October 16, 2019, 01:12:58 PM
Secretly, I like the slobbering-dog Rite of Gergiev's myself.  ;D It's in my Top-6 Rites, I'd say. Glad you're reading... and making CD reviews fun to read is just about the highest compliment we can get.

It's just fun!  Slobbering dog is exactly right lol

I'm a happy subscriber to the site, keep up the great work!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on October 17, 2019, 02:32:18 AM
Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on October 16, 2019, 04:36:20 PM
It's just fun!  Slobbering dog is exactly right lol

I'm a happy subscriber to the site, keep up the great work!

Very grateful for your subscribing! I love being able to write exactly what I think and not to have to pull punches and it's really only Hurwitz's site that allows for that. Most other sites or magazines I write for or have written for, both professional and amateur (except in those few cases when I am/was my own editor) either explicitly or implicitly tell you to pull your punches. Exceptions being only ARG and Fanfare, the latter of which is, however, also plagued by the review-for-money and interviews-for-money bugbear... and come to think of it: They're not as much an exception as I'd like. After all, their Editor fired me after an artist complained that she didn't think an interview with her was as flattering as she had hoped it would be, when purchasing it. (Despite numerous reiterations on my - and agreements on her - part, prior to consenting to do this together, that I would not write a fluff-piece.) So yes, the liberty of writing for ClassicsToday is something I value and subscribers make it possible, hence my gratitude.

TD:

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x1hvVafQhH0/XaeCjHKWA-I/AAAAAAAALkI/Zm2oBhVkf4gQc0mVJ_0jxDDWFb3eWAaSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Rusalka06%2B%25C2%25A9Herwig%2BPrammer.jpg)
On ClassicsToday: Rusalka at Theater an der Wien (Review & Production Photos) (https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/on-classicstoday-rusalka-at-theater-der.html) (via ionarts)

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RCdY4-jD8OE/Xabg-H3yy8I/AAAAAAAALjo/zm1uQqlY6AEhFgl-ruPIEaink42OqqcgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/paavo-jaervi-efo-at-paernu-music-festival-2018-9446320.jpg)
Ionarts-at-Large: The 2018 Pärnu Music Festival (https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/ionarts-at-large-2018-parnu-music.html)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cNwCyr99Ke8/XZi-L45LNVI/AAAAAAAALiU/3n3qKaLvYVQnMplcVD-1S-luAothgs1ygCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Harpsichord_600_POINTS.jpg)
My Uncle, Harpsichordist: Session 005 (Jean Françaix)
(https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-uncle-harpsichordist-session-005.html)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 17, 2019, 04:00:32 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on October 17, 2019, 02:32:18 AM
Very grateful for your subscribing! I love being able to write exactly what I think and not to have to pull punches and it's really only Hurwitz's site that allows for that. Most other sites or magazines I write for or have written for, both professional and amateur (except in those few cases when I am/was my own editor) either explicitly or implicitly tell you to pull your punches. Exceptions being only ARG and Fanfare, the latter of which is, however, also plagued by the review-for-money and interviews-for-money bugbear... and come to think of it: They're not as much an exception as I'd like. After all, their Editor fired me after an artist complained that she didn't think an interview with her was as flattering as she had hoped it would be, when purchasing it. (Despite numerous reiterations on my - and agreements on her - part, prior to consenting to do this together, that I would not write a fluff-piece.) So yes, the liberty of writing for ClassicsToday is something I value and subscribers make it possible, hence my gratitude.

TD:

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x1hvVafQhH0/XaeCjHKWA-I/AAAAAAAALkI/Zm2oBhVkf4gQc0mVJ_0jxDDWFb3eWAaSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Rusalka06%2B%25C2%25A9Herwig%2BPrammer.jpg)
On ClassicsToday: Rusalka at Theater an der Wien (Review & Production Photos) (https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/on-classicstoday-rusalka-at-theater-der.html) (via ionarts)

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RCdY4-jD8OE/Xabg-H3yy8I/AAAAAAAALjo/zm1uQqlY6AEhFgl-ruPIEaink42OqqcgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/paavo-jaervi-efo-at-paernu-music-festival-2018-9446320.jpg)
Ionarts-at-Large: The 2018 Pärnu Music Festival (https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/ionarts-at-large-2018-parnu-music.html)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cNwCyr99Ke8/XZi-L45LNVI/AAAAAAAALiU/3n3qKaLvYVQnMplcVD-1S-luAothgs1ygCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Harpsichord_600_POINTS.jpg)
My Uncle, Harpsichordist: Session 005 (Jean Françaix)
(https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-uncle-harpsichordist-session-005.html)

Exactly the reasons I like the site ... there's never any BS
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 17, 2019, 09:03:44 AM
Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on October 15, 2019, 10:39:53 AM
The CDs from hell are always fun though I think you guys missed the boat with Gergiev's Rite... yes, the playing is second-rate but the savagery is thrilling ... the other CD from hell reviews for Gergiev's many shitty recordings are well deserved, though

"It's a train-wreck, but WHAT a train-wreck!"   8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on October 17, 2019, 10:32:00 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 17, 2019, 09:03:44 AM
"It's a train-wreck, but WHAT a train-wreck!"   8)

Exactly!  If you want to hear it so perfectly played that musically-trained bats would be hard-pressed to find mistakes, the Chailly/Cleveland version from the 80s will do nicely

But if you want to wonder if the orchestra actually sacrificed someone on stage (like a Violist or something), the Gergiev is the one!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on October 25, 2019, 11:30:52 AM
CD Review: Dance proves an exuberant, exhilarating album from Vieaux, Escher Quartet (http://www.earrelevant.net/2019/10/cd-review-dance-proves-an-exuberant-exhilarating-album-from-vieaux-escher-quartet/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 06, 2019, 10:41:49 AM
So, what is the Chinese chop on the Celibidache recordings?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 06, 2019, 03:07:03 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 06, 2019, 10:41:49 AM
So, what is the Chinese chop on the Celibidache recordings?

Well, which ones? All of them? Munich Phil/EMI? Stuttgart/Swedish RSO/DG? All composers? Bruckner?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 06, 2019, 04:35:58 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 06, 2019, 03:07:03 PM
Well, which ones? All of them? Munich Phil/EMI? Stuttgart/Swedish RSO/DG? All composers? Bruckner?

Bruckner Munich Phil
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: j winter on November 06, 2019, 06:47:04 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 06, 2019, 04:35:58 PM
Bruckner Munich Phil

Love 'em, but they are definitely unique -- I have to be in the right mood.  And I can't listen to more than one at a time, it's just too much....

Some of his other late Munich recordings are similar... his Beethoven 7 is just bizarre, enough to make a HIPster slit his wrists, but he brings out some of the inner voices in an really extraordinary way.  I have no idea how he holds it together at that speed, but he does.

Listening to some of those Munich Bruckner recordings is like a meditation; the way it slows down yet keeps coming at you wave upon wave, building, it's hypnotic, it can almost put you in a trance....
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 07, 2019, 12:54:21 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 06, 2019, 04:35:58 PM
Bruckner Munich Phil

Unique; broad (we know that); cultist-material. Lush; great supple but never brash horns. Parsifal-esque in their dealing with time. Overrated by one spectrum of listeners, unfairly dismissed by others. Part of every larger Bruckner collection. Venzaga-Antitodes.

Personally, I find his 3rd (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IG2Z/goodmusicguide-20), 5th (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IG31/nectarandambr-20), and 6th (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000246CT/nectarandambr-20) to be among the best - most convincing - recordings of these symphonies there are. (I also love Norrington's Stuttgart B6, so it's not a matter of tempi; it's more a matter of conviction and execution.)

I know a lot of people who heard lots of these performances live; they all love even the other Bruckner recordings intensely. I appreciate those, too, wouldn't be without them, but I don't think they work nearly as well. At least for me they don't. (Meanwhile I LOVE his Russian disc with the Pictures + R&J Ovt. (https://amzn.to/2Ck8H1J).)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 07, 2019, 04:57:11 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 07, 2019, 12:54:21 AM
Unique; broad (we know that); cultist-material. Lush; great supple but never brash horns. Parsifal-esque in their dealing with time. Overrated by one spectrum of listeners, unfairly dismissed by others. Part of every larger Bruckner collection. Venzaga-Antitodes.

Personally, I find his 3rd (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IG2Z/goodmusicguide-20), 5th (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IG31/nectarandambr-20), and 6th (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000246CT/nectarandambr-20) to be among the best - most convincing - recordings of these symphonies there are. (I also love Norrington's Stuttgart B6, so it's not a matter of tempi; it's more a matter of conviction and execution.)

I know a lot of people who heard lots of these performances live; they all love even the other Bruckner recordings intensely. I appreciate those, too, wouldn't be without them, but I don't think they work nearly as well. At least for me they don't. (Meanwhile I LOVE his Russian disc with the Pictures + R&J Ovt. (https://amzn.to/2Ck8H1J).)

Thanks. I've very much enjoyed this Bruckner box.

Do you know aught of the Chinese chop on the sleeve?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on November 07, 2019, 05:46:20 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 06, 2019, 10:41:49 AM
So, what is the Chinese chop on the Celibidache recordings?

The back page of the Bruckner EMI leaflet has the following, Karl :

Symbol of Longevity - Sergiu Celibidache's view of life and music was markedly influenced by Zen. A Japanese Zen Master once described Celibidache's conducting as "free music through free hands". Shou is a Chinese symbol for longevity. (snip) For this edition, the Shou has been chosen to symbolise Celibidache's ongoing musical and spiritual legacy.

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: j winter on November 07, 2019, 05:49:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 07, 2019, 04:57:11 AM
Thanks. I've very much enjoyed this Bruckner box.

Do you know aught of the Chinese chop on the sleeve?


And here I thought I had discovered some new piece of slang...  :laugh:
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on November 07, 2019, 07:00:09 AM
Quote from: j winter on November 07, 2019, 05:49:14 AM

And here I thought I had discovered some new piece of slang...  :laugh:

i had to look it up too.... Not as culinary as i had hoped either... ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 07, 2019, 07:02:05 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on November 07, 2019, 05:46:20 AM
The back page of the Bruckner EMI leaflet has the following, Karl :

Symbol of Longevity - Sergiu Celibidache's view of life and music was markedly influenced by Zen. A Japanese Zen Master once described Celibidache's conducting as "free music through free hands". Shou is a Chinese symbol for longevity. (snip) For this edition, the Shou has been chosen to symbolise Celibidache's ongoing musical and spiritual legacy.



Merci beaucoups!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 07, 2019, 08:09:25 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 07, 2019, 04:57:11 AM
Thanks. I've very much enjoyed this Bruckner box.

Do you know aught of the Chinese chop on the sleeve?

Oh, you meant LITERALLY!  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 22, 2020, 01:27:01 PM
I just had lunch with a retired horn player from a German opera orchestra, and he told me this story I think you'll like...

Once upon a time the orchestra was performing Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, and they began rehearsal with the very introduction. The bassoon player was a practical jokester, so when he made his entrance for his big gloomy solo, he came in forte, with big bouncing energy.

The conductor stopped the orchestra and said, "Bassoon, please play your solo more solemnly...veiled, as if a veil has been drawn before you."

The bassoonist answered, "Sir, this is a bassoon. It has only two settings: On, or Off!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 22, 2020, 03:38:23 PM
Nice!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on May 04, 2020, 12:37:05 AM
A spelling mistake that made me chuckle in an Article's FAQ about Tidal :

QuoteFrequently Asked Questions

Does Tidal offer classical music?

Yes. Tidal's music library has works from Puccino, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, and more.

https://www.soundguys.com/tidal-hifi-review-25846/ (https://www.soundguys.com/tidal-hifi-review-25846/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on May 11, 2020, 06:40:26 AM
Covid brings with it something new, video reviews by David Hurwitz: https://www.classicstoday.com/review/storgards-shostakovich-snooze-video-review/?utm_source=Classics+Today+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c6642adb4e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6ca671ff6a-c6642adb4e-84134585
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 12, 2020, 04:57:20 PM
I'm not sure how I feel about that turn of events. I prefer reading stuff to watching videos. He better be darn handsome.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 14, 2020, 11:05:13 AM
Quote from: Brian on May 12, 2020, 04:57:20 PM
He better be darn handsome.
(He looks like an 1800s evil sea captain.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 23, 2020, 05:34:56 AM
BIS CEO Robert von Bahr, in his eClassical "daily deal" writeup today, has yet another of the seemingly endless stories about Neeme Jarvi's [depending on if you love him or hate him] unflappable professionalism and dependability / soulless indifference to musical character.

"In every orchestra there is someone who has the respect of the rest and can dare to stand up against any conductor. In the Stockholm PO in those days it was Alf Nilsson, the first oboe, and one of the finest I have ever heard. His solo in Brahms can't be bettered. He was really feared by all conductors, because he was invariably right and had the integrity to speak out freely. He is also the soloist in the Strauss Concerto here, and I was very happy to be able to record him in this seminal piece.

"Also we have Der Bürger als Edelmann, a hopelessly difficult piece that I would call chamber music for an orchestra, where every participant is taken to the technical limits. Neeme Järvi conducts with his usual aplomb, in spite of having lost his score just prior to the recording. He had to conduct from a complete new score without any markings, the pages refusing to lie still when he turned page, but, for Neeme such small things don't matter. RvB"

(https://eclassical.textalk.se/shop/thumbnails/shop/17115/art15/h2998/4442998-origpic-6bebc3.jpg_0_0_100_100_250_250_0.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on June 23, 2020, 05:46:43 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 23, 2020, 05:34:56 AMBIS CEO Robert von Bahr, in his eClassical "daily deal" writeup today, has yet another of the seemingly endless stories about Neeme Jarvi's [depending on if you love him or hate him] unflappable professionalism and dependability / soulless indifference to musical character.


The world needs kapellmeisters.  Perhaps I am in a minority, but I neither love nor hate the elder Jarvi.  In core rep he is a kapellmeister; in rare rep he is a useful guide.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: amw on June 24, 2020, 06:29:59 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 23, 2020, 05:34:56 AM
BIS CEO Robert von Bahr, in his eClassical "daily deal" writeup today, has yet another of the seemingly endless stories about Neeme Jarvi's [depending on if you love him or hate him] unflappable professionalism and dependability / soulless indifference to musical character.
I'm neither a Järvi lover or hater but in some semi-blind personal listening explorations I found his recordings to be among the best for certain works: Shostakovich 11 & 14, his Dvořák cycle, his Martinů cycle and at least a few of the Prokofiev symphonies. (+ the Prokofiev piano concertos with Horacio Gutiérrez but obviously the soloist steals the show.) All of these stood up to recordings by the more critically acclaimed conductors out there. I haven't examined his output in any kind of detail so I don't know what other semi-standard rep he beats out the competition in, but even if all he does is orchestra management it does yield convincing results sometimes.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 28, 2020, 05:58:49 AM
Chefs in Texas love a local flour mill for its high quality - and the founder and miller is a former viola da gamba player and early music conductor (https://bartonspringsmill.com/pages/the-miller) who sold his gambas to buy a mill (and a banjo).
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on July 14, 2020, 12:48:35 PM
The BBC has an ongoing documentary series called Being Beethoven, 2 episodes so far.

Contributors include so far Marin Alsop, Ivan Fischer, Boris Giltburg, Viviana Sofronitsky, Takacs Qt, singing by Mark Padmore and apparently Paul Lewis on ep.2 as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000kqq4/being-beethoven (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000kqq4/being-beethoven)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 20, 2020, 06:51:20 AM
I like this new Rite of Spring "music video": https://twitter.com/_yshani/status/1285200892577316867
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on August 12, 2020, 04:55:13 AM
Can't play income generating concerts and recitals?  Jamina Gerl has a web-based alternative.  Leveraging Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/jaminagerl), for pre-figured monthly contribution amounts, she'll offer recognition, do Q&A, unlock recordings and videos, and even learn and record short pieces (under five minutes).  I wouldn't mind hearing her take on Nuages Gris.

Seems like a good idea.  I wish her all the success in the world.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on August 14, 2020, 06:12:37 AM
Julian Bream had died.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/14/julian-bream-british-classical-guitarist-dies-aged-87 (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/14/julian-bream-british-classical-guitarist-dies-aged-87)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on September 04, 2020, 08:04:52 AM
Some of you guys might enjoy my first ever article in Texas Monthly magazine (https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-weird-wonderful-story-of-texass-first-radio-station/), which is about a 100-year-old classical radio station that started in a fire station with fire marshals airing their classical records between calls.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on September 04, 2020, 08:18:51 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2020, 08:04:52 AM
Some of you guys might enjoy my first ever article in Texas Monthly magazine (https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-weird-wonderful-story-of-texass-first-radio-station/), which is about a 100-year-old classical radio station that started in a fire station with fire marshals airing their classical records between calls.

Well written, sir.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on September 04, 2020, 09:47:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on September 04, 2020, 08:04:52 AM
Some of you guys might enjoy my first ever article in Texas Monthly magazine (https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-weird-wonderful-story-of-texass-first-radio-station/), which is about a 100-year-old classical radio station that started in a fire station with fire marshals airing their classical records between calls.

Excellent work, amigo!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MusicTurner on September 04, 2020, 10:01:26 AM
Yes, enjoyable; the article was readily available here too.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Irons on September 05, 2020, 12:50:47 AM
A long shot - has anyone heard of the conductor Ernest Borsamsky? The name is possibly a pseudonym. There are a few uploads on YT including an impressive 1949 Mahler 1st Symphony. He seems to have come from nowhere and promptly disappeared without trace.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on September 06, 2020, 02:45:43 AM
Quote from: Irons on September 05, 2020, 12:50:47 AM
A long shot - has anyone heard of the conductor Ernest Borsamsky? The name is possibly a pseudonym. There are a few uploads on YT including an impressive 1949 Mahler 1st Symphony. He seems to have come from nowhere and promptly disappeared without trace.

Have you read Peter Gutmann's speculation / reporting that Ernest Borsamsky was the conducting nom-de-plume of polish violinist Ern(e)st Eichel's (who was from Sambor, Galicia)?

Strangely, he even shows up under Henri Pensis' Wiki-entry... but it's clear that this all comes from one source, which, as we know, is not suggesting top-reliability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Pensis
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Irons on September 07, 2020, 02:28:42 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on September 06, 2020, 02:45:43 AM
Have you read Peter Gutmann's speculation / reporting that Ernest Borsamsky was the conducting nom-de-plume of polish violinist Ern(e)st Eichel's (who was from Sambor, Galicia)?

Strangely, he even shows up under Henri Pensis' Wiki-entry... but it's clear that this all comes from one source, which, as we know, is not suggesting top-reliability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Pensis

I have not read Peter Gutmann but I think the link nails it. Borsamsky can be traced last to 1956 when he conducted the Dresden Orchestra after that he disappeared. My friend who is preparing a survey of Mahler's 1st Symphony for Musicweb International finished his review with - Ernest Borsamsky is by no means overshadowed by anyone in this survey - and that is a huge surprise, all things considered. 8/10
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on October 31, 2020, 12:36:28 PM
Learning interesting things about my girlfriend today. She described Ravel's "Miroirs" as boring and "it sounds like there are harps" and told me not to play it when she's around anymore, and now she's saying that the repeated notes in Beethoven's Op. 28 sonata make her hyper.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vandermolen on November 02, 2020, 02:39:27 AM
Am enjoying this new arrival:
(//)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 02, 2020, 04:10:02 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 31, 2020, 12:36:28 PM
Learning interesting things about my girlfriend today. She described Ravel's "Miroirs" as boring and "it sounds like there are harps" and told me not to play it when she's around anymore, and now she's saying that the repeated notes in Beethoven's Op. 28 sonata make her hyper.

My condolences. This is looking like a crisis. I hope you can overcome thins and grow stronger from it, together.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 02, 2020, 06:57:40 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 02, 2020, 04:10:02 AM
My condolences. This is looking like a crisis. I hope you can overcome thins and grow stronger from it, together.
;D ;D

She's just hard to predict. She has an infinite capacity for Haydn, loves Sibelius, and of Lutoslawski says, "You can play that one whenever you want!"
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 02, 2020, 11:51:20 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 02, 2020, 06:57:40 AM
;D ;D

She's just hard to predict. She has an infinite capacity for Haydn, loves Sibelius, and of Lutoslawski says, "You can play that one whenever you want!"

Oh, that bodes well, then! If she digs Bach Organ Music, that'd be the trifecta.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 02, 2020, 12:15:38 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on November 02, 2020, 11:51:20 AM
Oh, that bodes well, then! If she digs Bach Organ Music, that'd be the trifecta.
Not sure about Bach specifically but she loves the organ. She pursued oboe seriously enough to consider (and reject) conservatory, but her favorite instrument is the French horn. We definitely get along okay.  8)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 07, 2020, 04:26:44 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 02, 2020, 12:15:38 PM
Not sure about Bach specifically but she loves the organ. She pursued oboe seriously enough to consider (and reject) conservatory, but her favorite instrument is the French horn. We definitely get along okay.  8)
Glad that all is not amiss!  ;) :)

PD
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on November 21, 2020, 07:50:10 AM
I was wondering what on earth happened to a violinist who recorded one really good album for Naxos, signed a deal to record more for them, and then virtually disappeared, the promised future work unfulfilled. Indeed, he was never to record a commercial album again. Well, google found me his official website, and it's  probably the worst website I've seen in years (https://ernoe-rozsa-violin.com/), the kind of thing you usually associate with alien invasion conspiracy believers.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on November 21, 2020, 09:15:41 AM
Wow, that is a horribly-designed website!

I wonder what happened to him.  You could try and use the "Contact me" if there is one on there.

PD
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: SurprisedByBeauty on November 22, 2020, 11:42:00 AM
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on November 21, 2020, 09:15:41 AM
Wow, that is a horribly-designed website!

I wonder what happened to him.  You could try and use the "Contact me" if there is one on there.

PD

Oh, wow. An HTML-Elephant Graveyard... ca. 1996.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on November 25, 2020, 06:14:20 AM
https://www.earrelevant.net/2020/11/spektral-quartet-lives-into-the-juxtapositions/
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 12, 2021, 06:22:36 AM
I'm afraid from now on I'm going to have to refer to Beethoven's "Konig Stephan" overture as the "Stick Out Your Tush" overture, due to the main melody's close resemblance to the song "French Mistake" from Blazing Saddles.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 12, 2021, 06:54:09 AM
Quote from: Brian on March 12, 2021, 06:22:36 AM
I'm afraid from now on I'm going to have to refer to Beethoven's "Konig Stephan" overture as the "Stick Out Your Tush" overture, due to the main melody's close resemblance to the song "French Mistake" from Blazing Saddles.

Nice!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: MusicTurner on March 12, 2021, 07:31:49 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 21, 2020, 07:50:10 AM
I was wondering what on earth happened to a violinist who recorded one really good album for Naxos, signed a deal to record more for them, and then virtually disappeared, the promised future work unfulfilled. Indeed, he was never to record a commercial album again. Well, google found me his official website, and it's  probably the worst website I've seen in years (https://ernoe-rozsa-violin.com/), the kind of thing you usually associate with alien invasion conspiracy believers.

😄 ... the idea seems to be to collect all the information on one, successive page, rather than splitting it up into links and sub-pages. The result is a maybe-200-page-long, continous scroll of small articles etc., in rather ~dramatic colours and lettering ...
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on June 29, 2021, 02:22:26 AM
Sunday : I do a search on Ebay for some Bach cantatas by... Suzuki

Monday : Ebay recommends me some Honda motorcycles  ;D

Tuesday :...and some Yamaha too... and now some Nissan cars...  8)


Does a cantata journey equate to some sort of mid-life crisis at all ?   :laugh:
 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: steve ridgway on June 29, 2021, 07:34:12 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on June 29, 2021, 02:22:26 AM
Sunday : I do a search on Ebay for some Bach cantatas by... Suzuki

Monday : Ebay recommends me some Honda motorcycles  ;D

Tuesday :...and some Yamaha too... and now some Nissan cars...  8)


Does a cantata journey equate to some sort of mid-life crisis at all ?   :laugh:


Yes, you should sell everything and move to a Zen monastery. ;)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 25, 2021, 02:04:33 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 31, 2020, 12:36:28 PM
Learning interesting things about my girlfriend today. She described Ravel's "Miroirs" as boring and "it sounds like there are harps" and told me not to play it when she's around anymore, and now she's saying that the repeated notes in Beethoven's Op. 28 sonata make her hyper.
New one for the list: Nielsen's First Symphony also makes her hyper.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 07, 2022, 08:00:27 AM
Today I learned (via Wiki) that the first ever use of a xylophone in a western orchestral piece was Saint-Saens' Danse macabre in 1874. I learned this hearing the xylophone in Grieg's Peer Gynt and wondering whether Peer Gynt was the first - but no, it was commissioned in 1874 and premiered two years later.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 07, 2022, 10:02:19 AM
The Saint-Saëns would have had my guess, but I have the advantage of the formal ed.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 71 dB on February 08, 2022, 02:49:59 AM
As I have told here I have been struggling with classical music. I was intensively into classical music 20-25 years ago when I was new to it exploring it like a child in a toy store. The last 20 years has been varied interest into classical music, but not with the enthusiams I had in the beginning. I have had years with almost no classical music listening.

A few days ago I read the "unpopular opinions" thread and saw the Beethoven's Op. 70, No. 2 being better than No. 1 claima. So I listened to Ghost Trio. I was a bit bored and didn't even listen to No. 2 on the same Naxos disc. I wanted to hear more advanced/modern harmony. So, I listened to Alban Berg's String Quartet, Op. 3. and I liked that more. I have also been listening to David Maslanka's works on the Naxos Wind Band Classics discs and enjoying those. Contemporary classical music has been to my taste so maybe I should just "limit" myself mostly on that? It is not nice to listen to the greatest composers such as Beethoven and be bored. It gives the feeling of hopelessness and that nothing matters. Perhaps some day Beethoven is just the right thing for me, but at the moment I am much more into Maslanka's music for example.

Also, since I understand music theory much much better these days compared to just a few years ago, the things that interest me musically seems different. I am exploring music differently. Not just listening to music composed by others, but composing (at least trying! it is so difficult!) myself and creating my own music language. Some of the magic of music has been taken away when you know how it is done. Oh, it is not magic, it is just a 4-3 suspension! Oh, it is not magic, it is just a V-vi deceptive cadence! I seem to like music that doesn't pretent being anything else than a collection of these tricks...

The idea that we have to be into all classical music all the time is silly. Forums like this one tries to force us into this mode of thinking, because all kind of classical music is being discussed all the time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on February 08, 2022, 07:43:31 AM
Quote from: 71 dB on February 08, 2022, 02:49:59 AM
As I have told here I have been struggling with classical music. I was intensively into classical music 20-25 years ago when I was new to it exploring it like a child in a toy store. The last 20 years has been varied interest into classical music, but not with the enthusiams I had in the beginning. I have had years with almost no classical music listening.

A few days ago I read the "unpopular opinions" thread and saw the Beethoven's Op. 70, No. 2 being better than No. 1 claima. So I listened to Ghost Trio. I was a bit bored and didn't even listen to No. 2 on the same Naxos disc. I wanted to hear more advanced/modern harmony. So, I listened to Alban Berg's String Quartet, Op. 3. and I liked that more. I have also been listening to David Maslanka's works on the Naxos Wind Band Classics discs and enjoying those. Contemporary classical music has been to my taste so maybe I should just "limit" myself mostly on that? It is not nice to listen to the greatest composers such as Beethoven and be bored. It gives the feeling of hopelessness and that nothing matters. Perhaps some day Beethoven is just the right thing for me, but at the moment I am much more into Maslanka's music for example.

Also, since I understand music theory much much better these days compared to just a few years ago, the things that interest me musically seems different. I am exploring music differently. Not just listening to music composed by others, but composing (at least trying! it is so difficult!) myself and creating my own music language. Some of the magic of music has been taken away when you know how it is done. Oh, it is not magic, it is just a 4-3 suspension! Oh, it is not magic, it is just a V-vi deceptive cadence! I seem to like music that doesn't pretent being anything else than a collection of these tricks...

The idea that we have to be into all classical music all the time is silly. Forums like this one tries to force us into this mode of thinking, because all kind of classical music is being discussed all the time.

By all means listen to what you feel like listening to. I'm sure I do. And sometimes the discussion sets me to thinking, I'm curious to listen to x. This happened this week, in fact. I had listened to the Poulenc Organ Concerto, and posted to the effect that I like the piece, but I don't find myself especially wishing to listen to more Poulenc. Kyle expressed mild disappointment at this. I considered that I have (in the Louis Frémaux CBSO box) some more Poulenc, so I listened to Les biches last night (which I found great) and the Gloria right now. So be cool with wanting to listen to what you want to listen to, when you want to listen to it. I'm sure I am :) .
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: 71 dB on February 08, 2022, 09:10:14 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 08, 2022, 07:43:31 AM
By all means listen to what you feel like listening to. I'm sure I do. And sometimes the discussion sets me to thinking, I'm curious to listen to x. This happened this week, in fact. I had listened to the Poulenc Organ Concerto, and posted to the effect that I like the piece, but I don't find myself especially wishing to listen to more Poulenc. Kyle expressed mild disappointment at this. I considered that I have (in the Louis Frémaux CBSO box) some more Poulenc, so I listened to Les biches last night (which I found great) and the Gloria right now. So be cool with wanting to listen to what you want to listen to, when you want to listen to it. I'm sure I am :) .

I'll be doing that Karl. Now listening to your teacher, I believe, Joseph Schwantner...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 10, 2022, 08:13:40 AM
List of Symphonies That Start Off Sounding Like a Gentle Pastoral/Picturesque,
Then Gain Unexpected Emotional Depth Midway Through (Usually in the Slow Movement),
Then Build to a Surprising Tense/Dramatic/Heroic Finale That You Wouldn't Have Expected Given How They Started

Dvorak 5 (1875)
Mahler 1 (1888)
Sibelius 2 (1902)
Martinu 4 (1945)
Lloyd 5 (1947)

Any other examples of this rather peculiar, but clearly successful, symphonic structure?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 19, 2022, 07:15:55 AM
Sometimes I get the beginning of "Bolero" stuck in my head, but the good thing about that is then I can just mentally skip ahead to the ending and it goes right out of my head again. ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on January 31, 2023, 07:02:54 AM
(https://flashbackdallas.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/dorati_classified-ad_dmn_121345.jpg)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on February 04, 2023, 05:47:53 AM
The New Yorker print issue has a double-whammy from Alex Ross this week.  Both articles are well worth reading.

The Ageless Exuberance of Michael Tilson Thomas (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/the-ageless-exuberance-of-michael-tilson-thomas)

Hildegard of Bingen Composes the Cosmos (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/hildegard-of-bingen-composes-the-cosmos)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on March 06, 2023, 01:45:42 PM
Caught this in the listings shortly prior to broadcast last night and watched on the BBC - A documentary about classical music filmmaker Christopher Nupen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00109wm/listening-through-the-lens-the-christopher-nupen-films (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00109wm/listening-through-the-lens-the-christopher-nupen-films)

An unknown name to me but he made several films with Barenboim, Du Pré, Ashkenazy, Perlman, Kissin, Trifonov, etc..., and about various composers...

A fascinating watch with inputs from Barenboim, Perlman, Ashkenazy, David Attenborough, Donald McLeod, Norman Lebrecht.

Found out afterwards that this (re)broadcast was in tribute to his passing:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/05/christopher-nupen-obituary?CMP=twt_a-music_b-gdnclassical (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/05/christopher-nupen-obituary?CMP=twt_a-music_b-gdnclassical)   

Definitely worth the time.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Roasted Swan on March 07, 2023, 08:07:27 AM
Not sure which thread to use to post this..... From the UK Musician's Union today;

SO IT BEGINS.......

The MU is in urgent talks with the BBC to save musicians' jobs following the corporation's proposals to cut employed posts across BBC Singers and three orchestras.

Proposals include the closure of the BBC Singers and a voluntary redundancy programme for the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert and BBC Philharmonic orchestras aimed at cutting around 20% of employed jobs.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra appear unaffected.

As well as representing affected members and working with the BBC on alternative proposals, the union is urgently calling on MPs to:

    Support the union in its fight to save jobs and
    Lobby for an extension to the increased Orchestral Tax Relief beyond April

The MU calls on all members to email their MP urgently. The BBC is the single biggest employer of musicians in the UK. Any attack on their music provision – from orchestral music to BBC Introducing – affects us all.
Write to your MP using our template letter now  →

BBC Singers and Orchestras are a vital part of the BBC

MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl spoke out today: "The BBC is the biggest employer and engager of musicians in the UK and it plays a unique role in the eco-system of our music industry. From Glastonbury to the Proms, from Jools Holland to BBC Radio, its coverage, support and promotion of UK musical talent nationally and internationally is unrivalled. It is because we appreciate the BBC's role so much that these proposed cuts are so utterly devastating.



"The BBC Performing Groups are vital to the BBC. They are busy, they perform a wide range of roles across numerous high-profile programmes and events, and they also already contribute to music education.

"The hundreds of singers and musicians the BBC employs will be very concerned about their futures today. We will support them and stand with them to push back against these proposals. We will fight for every job. This will mean working with the BBC to look at alternative measures, representing affected individuals, and also calling on the Government to step in with more support.

"Musicians have suffered greatly during the pandemic and with the rising cost-of-living. As a profession and as an industry, we remain in crisis. The Government could protect organisations and jobs in the short term by extending the increased rate of orchestral tax relief beyond April. Going forward, they must also increase funding so that organisations can preserve jobs and continue to deliver the world-class music that Britain is renowned for."


The BBC is the single biggest employer of musicians in the UK


Jo Laverty, the MU's Orchestras Organiser, added:

"The BBC Performing Groups are a key asset that sets the BBC apart from commercial broadcasters, and the BBC's recent Classical Music Review gave the impression this was well understood and indicated a full commitment from the broadcaster to their ongoing employment. To now hear of potential redundancies across the BBC orchestras in England and the closure of the Singers as a performing group is unthinkable.

"The BBC Orchestras and Singers, and the exceptional quality of their live and broadcast output, ensure that the BBC remains one of the most significant players in the classical music industry, both in the UK and internationally.

"They also make a crucial contribution in meeting the public purposes of the BBC's royal charter by providing education and learning, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence whilst serving the UK's nations, regions and communities. This is achieved not just via broadcasting but by taking performances into communities and education settings the length and breadth of the UK.

"With the six Performing Groups all fully utilised in meeting the current broadcast volume requirement across the BBC, the MU does not think that these proposals are the answer to the BBC's need to find savings. The MU's key focus will be on talking regularly and working with the BBC to avoid any loss of jobs and challenging them to find alternative solutions."
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Roasted Swan on March 08, 2023, 04:06:32 AM
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0m6Npk2yeiZ7hRd79KApLzPiqpc7QBXsj3ixn1Lbqh7pCZ1wjDZKBXmiQypE8GQXel&id=675626485
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 08, 2023, 05:08:42 AM
I received an email survey from Eloquence.  It's fairly extensive.  I basically never fill out surveys, but I will fill out this one.  I will include a comment regarding reissuing Hyperion items, and will follow up with an email.  Eloquence does respond in my experience.  Maybe if enough people pepper them with similar requests, magic can happen sometime in 2024.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on March 12, 2023, 07:21:05 PM
I don't know what thread to put this in but: every time that Gordon Jacob shows up on a CD, I like his music, but I don't think he was major enough to have loads of CDs all to his own. He seems like a great compilation guy.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on March 23, 2023, 05:49:24 AM

The AP has a video story on female conductors in light of the flick Tár.  It caught my eye and I ended up watching because the pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell has apparently made the career move to stick waving.  I wish her the best and want to hear full recordings ASAP. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 02, 2023, 05:59:28 PM
I must confess my disappointment in the programming of the Pittsburgh Symphony, which in its 2023-24 season is performing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto twice! A weekend in October with Rudolf Buchbinder, and a weekend in June with Yefim Bronfman. Gosh, it sure is nice that they managed to program something else all the other weekends  ::)

BTW, they will be recording Bruckner 8 for Reference. Honeck and Pittsburgh are also performing (but not recording) Liszt's Dante Symphony, Mahler 5, Brahms' German Requiem (coupled with Eriks Esenvalds), and Rachmaninov Symphony 2.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 23, 2023, 12:57:07 PM
The Rossini crescendo needs to make a comeback in contemporary composition!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vers la flamme on April 23, 2023, 01:58:30 PM
Quote from: Brian on April 23, 2023, 12:57:07 PMThe Rossini crescendo needs to make a comeback in contemporary composition!

Excuse my ignorance; I have heard the term but do not know what it means exactly (though listening to his overtures, of course, I hear them). What makes a crescendo Rossinian?

Just back from an organ recital at the local Anglican cathedral, the soloist was one Emmanuel Duperrey. Very good stuff, including organ transcriptions of RVW's Seventeen Come Sunday and Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Lisztianwagner on April 23, 2023, 02:44:32 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on April 23, 2023, 01:58:30 PMExcuse my ignorance; I have heard the term but do not know what it means exactly (though listening to his overtures, of course, I hear them). What makes a crescendo Rossinian?
In the Rossinian crescendo, a theme is repeated for some lines, growing more and more in intensity and starting at the beginning with few instruments, which then increase progressively in number every time, to arrive at the climax of the crescendo at full orchestra.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 23, 2023, 02:53:26 PM
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on April 23, 2023, 02:44:32 PMIn the Rossinian crescendo, a theme is repeated for some lines, growing more and more in intensity and starting at the beginning with few instruments, which then increase progressively in number every time, to arrive at the climax of the crescendo at full orchestra.

Thanks for putting it perfectly - maybe the most famous example starts at 4:52 here and builds to 5:45 (and then repeats later).

Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on April 24, 2023, 11:44:20 AM
Quote from: DaveF on April 24, 2023, 08:09:32 AMto give moderate pleasure to lukewarm folk

This is the most quotable remark anyone's made here in months.  ;D  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: DaveF on April 25, 2023, 04:35:21 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 24, 2023, 11:44:20 AMThis is the most quotable remark anyone's made here in months.  ;D  ;D

Well, thank you, my dear fellow, but not half as clever as inserting a quote into a different thread - that requires serious IT technique.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Papy Oli on May 06, 2023, 01:30:03 PM
Menahem Pressler has died earlier today aged 99.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Franco_Manitobain on May 06, 2023, 01:45:19 PM
Quote from: Papy Oli on May 06, 2023, 01:30:03 PMMenahem Pressler has died earlier today aged 99.

Sad news but what a long life as a highly accomplished artist.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on May 14, 2023, 10:14:41 AM
Yo-Yo Ma Goes Underground with the Louisville Orchestra: Teddy Abrams, the ensemble's music director, has created a work about Mammoth Cave—and staged the piece inside its reverberating walls. (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/15/yo-yo-ma-music-review-mammoth-cave)

Yo-Yo Ma should garner eyeballs and clicks, but the article focuses on the history of the Louisville Orchestra and why Abrams is basically a perfect fit as music director. 
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 15, 2023, 06:29:48 AM
Not sure if we have any basketball fans here, but today the New York Times reported that Victor Wembanyama listens to classical music every night after 9pm to calm down after a day's work.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: ritter on May 15, 2023, 11:22:56 AM
I suppose he'll find Strauss' Elektra particularly soothing...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on May 15, 2023, 11:57:26 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 15, 2023, 11:22:56 AMI suppose he'll find Strauss' Elektra particularly soothing...  ;D
Speaking of which, the Dallas Opera is performing Elektra in early 2024. Perfect date night?  ;D  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vers la flamme on May 30, 2023, 11:49:48 AM
I don't know if this topic warrants its own thread, but it crossed my mind and I wanted to post about it, so here goes.

I have noticed that quite a number of great organists are blind. Some that come to mind are Louis Thiry, Helmut Walcha, Louis Vierne, Gaston Litaize, and Jean Langlais. Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille alphabet, was also a blind organist. This strikes me as a fascinating coincidence, especially considering that if I were to compile a list of the harder instruments to learn as a visually impaired individual, the organ would definitely be on it. Can anyone fill me in as to why there seems to be a tradition of great blind organists? What are some of your favorite recordings or compositions by great blind organists?
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: LKB on May 30, 2023, 12:27:54 PM
Quote from: Brian on May 15, 2023, 11:57:26 AMSpeaking of which, the Dallas Opera is performing Elektra in early 2024. Perfect date night?  ;D  ;D

Nah, I'd take her to a performance of Die Frau ohne Schatten, she might behave better knowing she could be replaced by a gazelle. >:D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on June 02, 2023, 10:25:12 AM
Quote from: ritter on May 15, 2023, 11:22:56 AMI suppose he'll find Strauss' Elektra particularly soothing...  ;D

I suspect he's more a Cecile Chaminade-Mel Bonis-Signe Lund kind of guy.  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Mapman on June 06, 2023, 06:43:28 PM
Here's something that, although I have visited several musical instrument museums, I had not heard of until today. The archicembalo is a microtonal harpsichord from the 1500s!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archicembalo
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vers la flamme on June 18, 2023, 02:44:14 PM
I'm considering going through my music library and listening to every single 20th century violin concerto that I have: either that and nothing but, or say, one or two a day over the course of however long it takes me to get through them. Someone talk me out of it...  ;D

Has anyone ever done this kind of concerted genre binge-listening? I guess the idea came to me after I realized how many great ones there are, and how not familiar I am with the majority of them.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on June 23, 2023, 07:18:17 AM
Why We Still Pay to Hear Classical Music Live
 (https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/why-we-still-pay-to-hear-classical)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 23, 2023, 12:22:09 PM
This will amuse some GMGers, particularly @Todd I dare say but also many others:

Today I interviewed a 94-year-old couple who have committed $1M already, and a portion of their estate, to a fund for commissioning new music for the Dallas Symphony. Their memory is starting to shrink down to their favorite oft-retold anecdotes, but I did get this one excellent story out of them.

Norma: Oh, there was the time we were all visiting the great violinist - oh - who was it?
Don: Oh, uh -
Norma: He was sitting in a chair, and we were all in a circle on the floor, looking up at him.
Don: Who's the great violinist? Name a great great violinist. The greatest of his era.
Me: Perlman? Shaham?
Norma: Older.
Me: Menuhin?
Don: In that class. That age and that class.
Me: Milstein?
Norma: Isaac Stern!
Don: It was Isaac Stern.
Norma: I asked him, what do you think of these young female violinists? There were two female violinists. It was the 80s.
Me: Mutter must have been one.
Norma: Yes, Mutter was one. And he said, "They're nice, but a woman will never be able to really play the violin." He told me that!
Me: By the 80s, he wasn't so secure in his violin playing himself!
Norma: But he didn't know it!
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on June 23, 2023, 12:25:35 PM
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 18, 2023, 02:44:14 PMI'm considering going through my music library and listening to every single 20th century violin concerto that I have: either that and nothing but, or say, one or two a day over the course of however long it takes me to get through them. Someone talk me out of it...  ;D

Has anyone ever done this kind of concerted genre binge-listening? I guess the idea came to me after I realized how many great ones there are, and how not familiar I am with the majority of them.
I'm pretty sure I did a 20th century piano concerto binge listen a few years ago. Another very rich field. Only a few months ago, I went looking on streaming services for nonets combining string quartet and woodwind quintet. Shouldn't be any reason why a "listening project" couldn't be a genre focus rather than a composer or performer focus!

We used to have a member named Don who only listened to Bach organ works for fifteen whole years, which is the standard you should measure yourself against anytime you feel your genre listening might be crossing the line into insanity  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: vers la flamme on June 23, 2023, 01:23:19 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 23, 2023, 12:25:35 PMI'm pretty sure I did a 20th century piano concerto binge listen a few years ago. Another very rich field. Only a few months ago, I went looking on streaming services for nonets combining string quartet and woodwind quintet. Shouldn't be any reason why a "listening project" couldn't be a genre focus rather than a composer or performer focus!

We used to have a member named Don who only listened to Bach organ works for fifteen whole years, which is the standard you should measure yourself against anytime you feel your genre listening might be crossing the line into insanity  ;D

I can only salute that level of dedication. In any case, I am sure there is quite enough in the Bach organ works to warrant repeated listening over such a long time span.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Todd on June 23, 2023, 03:30:23 PM
Quote from: Brian on June 23, 2023, 12:22:09 PMNorma: But he didn't know it!

Gold.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: JBS on June 23, 2023, 06:39:15 PM
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/why-we-still-pay-to-hear-classical
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Spotted Horses on June 24, 2023, 06:47:54 AM
Quote from: Brian on June 23, 2023, 12:25:35 PMWe used to have a member named Don who only listened to Bach organ works for fifteen whole years, which is the standard you should measure yourself against anytime you feel your genre listening might be crossing the line into insanity  ;D

If I'm thinking of the same Don, he also listened to harpsichord music (especially the Goldberg Variations) as well as a smattering of other music.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on July 13, 2023, 05:26:01 AM
Bad for Pbgh, bad for New Music. (https://www.earrelevant.net/2023/07/pittsburghs-cultural-scene-suffers-blow-with-pnmes-final-summer-season-at-city-theatre/)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on July 25, 2023, 10:35:18 AM
I had a dream overnight that I was on a video conference call for journalists, where I was trying to interview Klaus Heymann about Naxos at the same time that all the other journalists on the call were trying to interview pop stars about pop music, using the same call  ;D

After the call ended in the dream I kept thinking of more and more questions until my brain got too active and woke me up.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Brian on February 28, 2024, 08:29:19 AM
Android phones have a newish feature where the phone's operating system will identify songs playing around you and display the song title on your lock screen. I've been testing this in restaurants and at home, and it's mostly good...but NOT with classical music.

Monday, it identified a Scarlatti sonata in E flat as the slow movement from Beethoven's piano trio Op. 1 No. 3. (It even tried guessing the performers, telling me it was Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emanuel Ax. It was Benjamin Frith.)

Right now, it is identifying the famous "Clock" movement from Haydn's Clock as...Pachelbel's Canon.   :(  EDIT: And the minuet of the same symphony is...Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, slow movement, as played by Hilary Hahn. (It's really Sandor Vegh live on Orfeo.)
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on March 01, 2024, 03:16:59 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 28, 2024, 08:29:19 AMAndroid phones have a newish feature where the phone's operating system will identify songs playing around you and display the song title on your lock screen. I've been testing this in restaurants and at home, and it's mostly good...but NOT with classical music.

Monday, it identified a Scarlatti sonata in E flat as the slow movement from Beethoven's piano trio Op. 1 No. 3. (It even tried guessing the performers, telling me it was Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emanuel Ax. It was Benjamin Frith.)

Right now, it is identifying the famous "Clock" movement from Haydn's Clock as...Pachelbel's Canon.   :(  EDIT: And the minuet of the same symphony is...Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, slow movement, as played by Hilary Hahn. (It's really Sandor Vegh live on Orfeo.)

Try some opera, it should be funnier still.  :D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Pohjolas Daughter on March 01, 2024, 09:31:41 AM
Quote from: Brian on July 25, 2023, 10:35:18 AMI had a dream overnight that I was on a video conference call for journalists, where I was trying to interview Klaus Heymann about Naxos at the same time that all the other journalists on the call were trying to interview pop stars about pop music, using the same call  ;D

After the call ended in the dream I kept thinking of more and more questions until my brain got too active and woke me up.

That sounds like quite the nightmare!  If you do ever get to interview him (if you haven't already), just make sure NOT to hit the conference call button.

Quote from: Brian on February 28, 2024, 08:29:19 AMAndroid phones have a newish feature where the phone's operating system will identify songs playing around you and display the song title on your lock screen. I've been testing this in restaurants and at home, and it's mostly good...but NOT with classical music.

Monday, it identified a Scarlatti sonata in E flat as the slow movement from Beethoven's piano trio Op. 1 No. 3. (It even tried guessing the performers, telling me it was Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emanuel Ax. It was Benjamin Frith.)

Right now, it is identifying the famous "Clock" movement from Haydn's Clock as...Pachelbel's Canon.  :(  EDIT: And the minuet of the same symphony is...Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, slow movement, as played by Hilary Hahn. (It's really Sandor Vegh live on Orfeo.)
I suspected that those apps weren't that great with classical music and would be much better with pop music, country, etc.  How does it do with jazz?

To be fair, there are so many different classical recordings of popular works--including live ones to further complicate the matter.  If I were an app, my "head" would be spinning!

PD
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 01, 2024, 09:55:14 AM
Quote from: Brian on February 28, 2024, 08:29:19 AMAndroid phones have a newish feature where the phone's operating system will identify songs playing around you and display the song title on your lock screen. I've been testing this in restaurants and at home, and it's mostly good...but NOT with classical music.

Monday, it identified a Scarlatti sonata in E flat as the slow movement from Beethoven's piano trio Op. 1 No. 3. (It even tried guessing the performers, telling me it was Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emanuel Ax. It was Benjamin Frith.)

Right now, it is identifying the famous "Clock" movement from Haydn's Clock as...Pachelbel's Canon.  :(  EDIT: And the minuet of the same symphony is...Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, slow movement, as played by Hilary Hahn. (It's really Sandor Vegh live on Orfeo.)
Bet it has no trouble with Adele.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Florestan on March 01, 2024, 10:59:17 AM
Quote from: Karl Henning on March 01, 2024, 09:55:14 AMBet it has no trouble with Adele.

It's all about hooks, as per another thread...  ;D
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: Karl Henning on March 01, 2024, 02:38:45 PM
Quote from: Florestan on March 01, 2024, 10:59:17 AMIt's all about hooks, as per another thread...  ;D
My thought, as well.
Title: Re: The Classical Chat Thread
Post by: LKB on March 03, 2024, 07:47:19 AM
Quote from: Florestan on March 01, 2024, 03:16:59 AMTry some opera, it should be funnier still.  :D

Indeed.  >:D