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#1

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Purchases Today

Last post by DavidW - Today at 08:21:41 AM

#2

Composer Discussion / Re: Mozart

Last post by Mandryka - Today at 08:14:09 AM

Speculating about these kinds of issues can be an interesting exercise. However, the bottomline is (and this is true for all music, any period, any performance philosophy) a performer, or ensemble, approaches the music with the intent to make the best of it using their collective talent, experience, and scholarship.

The authenticity dilemma is that because we can't truly know what a composer from 200-300 years ago might have intended, all we are left with are the scores, the documented performance practice, the specific instruments of the period, and the good faith of the performers.

The PI/HIP movement is a "post-modern" aesthetic endeavor. While musicians have a lot of information on which to base a PI/HIP performance, ultimately they are making the kind of sound according to their taste, which is formed by modern values.  I doubt any musician today (and for some time) has made a claim of authenticity since everyone is aware of the delusional nature of such a claim.  But their intention is to make a good performance using the known correct instruments of the period.

Generally, I prefer the sound of PI over modern ones, but that doesn't mean I only listen to those recordings. I love Schiff's ECM Bach and Beethoven recordings. And some PI recordings do not strike me as especially good or better.  As always everything depends on the specific performer(s) and our own personal preferences.

I think it's wrong to think of authentic performance as a copy of some performance in the composer's day. Rather, it's a performance in the style of musicians who formed part of the composer's primary target market.

Lots of today's performers make the claim to authenticity in this sense. Markus Schafer in Schubert song cycles for example, and Thomas Zehetmair in Brahms symphonies, and Ensemble Fratres in Mozart quintets. Just off the top of my head. Dudok Qt members came very close to claiming it recently for Tchaikovsky quartets too.

#3

The Diner / Re: The unimportant news threa...

Last post by DavidW - Today at 08:04:47 AM

Cicadas are coming out here in South Carolina.  In the local news, some people in Greenville called the police with a noise complaint!

#4

The Diner / Re: Astronomy

Last post by DavidW - Today at 08:03:41 AM

Were they thinking "This is the last one--or only one--that I might ever see in my life [again]"?

PD

It was just partial here, there will be more partial eclipses in the next few years.  We are after all in eclipse season.

I was surprised for that reason that so many came out.  It wasn't the totality that we had a few years ago.  That will not be here again in SC until 2052.

#5

The Diner / Re: What TV series are you cur...

Last post by DavidW - Today at 07:59:47 AM

He did - two sequels and two prequels. See the Wikipedia article on the series.

I was such a big fan back then that not only did I read all of Asimov's fiction... but I read the second Foundation trilogy written by the killer B's (Benford, Bear and Brin). 

Foundations' Edge (the fourth book) incorporates the End of Eternity... and I am wondering if the tv show is going to include the eternals.  So far they are really going for it.  The Mule is there, the second foundation... all that crazy fantasy stuff.

[Funny enough the faculty cut in front of the students!]

#6

The Diner / Re: Astronomy

Last post by Pohjolas Daughter - Today at 07:54:33 AM

@krummholz I also used a Coronado for the whole school to see.  Mostly I spent my time readjusting the scope.  Funny enough the faculty cut in front of the students!

Were they thinking "This is the last one--or only one--that I might ever see in my life [again]"?

PD

#7

Composing and Performing / Re: dolce e molto espressivo f...

Last post by krummholz - Today at 07:44:55 AM

I've decided that my "offical" version of this last movement will now use the same Chris Hein library as the rest of the quartet. Some people can't stand the sound of this library but on balance, the increased pain and expressiveness to me more than compensates for its disadvantages. Interested in what anyone who enjoyed listening to this previously makes of the new rendering which can be found here on its own
https://app.box.com/s/fqlv1qvzc4ie87npem2t9cu9qtu25dz3

The entire quartet as before is Reelcrafter and there are significant differences to the first two movements in the rendering as well.

I agree with those who have trouble with the Chris Hein sound - it's difficult to listen to, though there is an enhanced expressiveness, I will concede that. But overall, I prefer the original rendering.

What caught my attention more is that you seem to have revised the ending slightly (or at least the dynamics), as well as the tempi (the first version played a half minute shorter). I do like the more prominent cello pizzicato and the more extended (so it seems) dieaway in the later version - though the slower tempo might account for what seems like "extension".

#8

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Your favourite Tchaikovsky...

Last post by Que - Today at 07:44:09 AM

No recent mention of my favorite cycle here, so I'll plug them by simply remarking that one can do much, much worse than Haitink with the RCO.

Agreed. I particularly liked Haitink in the earlier symphonies.

[Mendelssohn - Op. 55 / MWV M12 - Incidental music for "Antigone" (1841):]

#9

Classical YouTube Video Library / Mendelssohn - Op. 55 / MWV M12...

Last post by W.A. Mozart - Today at 07:40:21 AM

Mendelssohn composed this suite of incidental music for "Antigone" in 1841, when he was 32 years old.
The original recording also contains the speeches, but I removed them, so that we can enjoy the music alone, without interruptions.


The tragedy (written by Sofocle in 441 BC) tells the story of Antigone, who decides to bury the body of her brother Polynices, despite the decree of the new king of Thebes, Creon, forbidding it. Polynices died while attacking the city of Thebes, behaving like an enemy, and therefore, he is not to be given funeral honors. Discovered, Antigone is sentenced by the king to spend the rest of her days imprisoned in a cave. Following the prophecies of the seer Tiresias and the pleas of the chorus, Creon ultimately decides to free her, but it is too late because Antigone has already hanged herself. This leads to the suicide of Creon's son, Haemon, who was engaged to Antigone, and then of Creon's wife, Eurydice, leaving Creon alone to curse himself for his own stubbornness.


Performers:
- Berliner Rundfunkchor
- Männerchor "Carl Maria von Weber"
- Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
- Conductor: Stefan Soltész

Mendelssohn - Op. 55 / MWV M12 - Incidental music for "Antigone" (1841):
00:00 I. Overture (C minor)
04:18 II. Strahl des Helios, schönstes Licht" (C major)
10:37 III. "Vieles Gewaltige lebt" (A major)
16:16 IV. "Ihr Seligen, deren Geschick nie kostet' Unheil!" (F major)
22:46 V. "O Eros, Allsieger im Kampf" (G major)
29:03 VI. "Noch toset des Sturmes Gewalt" (E minor)
33:03 VII. Bacchus-Chor: "Vielnamiger! Wonn' und Stolz der Kadmos-Jungfrau" (D major)
37:55 VIII. "Hier kommt er ja selbst" (E flat major)

#10

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: BIS Records taken over by ...

Last post by Pohjolas Daughter - Today at 07:33:42 AM

I hope they don't do what Warner did to Finlandia.... terrible

What happened there?

PD