I ordered a few cd's on the label Koch, with music, that attracted me greatly, but they are firsts in my collection.
Maybe someone could bring some feedback on them.
And please post your unkown composers here if you like, and so give me and others opportunities to discover also.... :)
Some more....
I have the Tansman CD above, and it's marvelous. (It was the first example of the composer's work I heard.)
Haven't heard this particular Haas, but I've been listening a lot to another CD with his Study for String Orchestra, an infectious little piece.
--Bruce
Quote from: bhodges on February 25, 2008, 07:10:11 AM
I have the Tansman CD above, and it's marvelous. (It was the first example of the composer's work I heard.)
Haven't heard this particular Haas, but I've been listening a lot to another CD with his Study for String Orchestra, an infectious little piece.
--Bruce
Right!
The Tansman was a sure winner, from the first samples, I have heard of it. Haas will be more difficult but I like his idiom.
Thanks
Bruce for your comment. :)
I take credit for recommending Tansman to you!
Don't know much about the other composers. I have a short Haas work in a compilation that I liked.
My latest discovery was Wellesz. I just have one CD of his symphony and it was marvelous! I know, his music sounded about 50 years too late (late romantic work in the middle of the 20th century), but forget about when it was composed and you won't find fault in it at all.
Quote from: springrite on February 25, 2008, 07:26:32 AM
I take credit for recommending Tansman to you!
Don't know much about the other composers. I have a short Haas work in a compilation that I liked.
My latest discovery was Wellesz. I just have one CD of his symphony and it was marvelous! I know, his music sounded about 50 years too late (late romantic work in the middle of the 20th century), but forget about when it was composed and you won't find fault in it at all.
Yes
Paul, good of you to remind me of that, it was you indeed you that recommended this composer. See, I did not forget this, allthough it was some time ago. :)
And I agree about
Wellesz. Have some works of him allready, and find them very much to my liking.
So he is on the list most definitively.
The Wellesz Symphonies recorded on CPO are on my wishlist.
This disc I also ordered. I have a few small pieces of this composer, but what I heard of this discs, makes my heart jump.
And this is another one that I forgot, but is also on its way to me.
Koechlin is a composer I like a lot! However I do not much like his most famous work, the Seven Star Symphony which, like many of his works, were product of a semi-crazed stalker of a hollywood actress he was infactuated in for many many years.
Quote from: bhodges on February 25, 2008, 07:10:11 AM
Haven't heard this particular Haas, but I've been listening a lot to another CD with his Study for String Orchestra, an infectious little piece.
This Haas CD is superb, it's main attraction being a completion of the symphony he left unfinished at his death (in Auschwitz). The piece is just beautiful, deeply moving, with profound roots in Jewish cantorial melody, but also with some scathing use of quotation. I'm not so sure Haas, Janacek's finest pupil, much recorded and well known as one of the four major 'Terezin composers', is that obscure, mind you.
My obscure composer du jour is an Italian neo-classicist of sorts, Franco Margola, who has a splendid lyrical sense. I have a couple of CDs, but this one might be an attractive place to start:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510SNZAYM2L._SS500_.jpg)
Quote from: springrite on February 25, 2008, 07:49:51 AM
Koechlin is a composer I like a lot! However I do not much like his most famous work, the Seven Star Symphony which, like many of his works, were product of a semi-crazed stalker of a hollywood actress he was infactuated in for many many years.
Koechlin dedicated a few works to Lilian Harvey . But that doesn't make him a stalker! ..let alone a semi-crazed one!
From Hyperion's website :
The breadth of Koechlin's musical culture was all-encompassing:
his sources range from Gregorian chant through the
new Viennese school. Like Stravinsky, he wrote in various and
apparently incompatible styles, but always made them identifiably
his own. The sources of his extra-musical inspiration
were similarly varied. They ranged from Classical mythology to
Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book and the 'insolent beauty' of the
great female stars of the early sound film, in particular the
London-born film idol Lilian Harvey (1907–1968). Koechlin's
fascination with Miss Harvey resulted in four series of pieces
written in her honor: the Seven Songs for Gladys Op 151, no
fewer than 89 cameos for solo piano, and the two Albums de
Lilian Opp 139 and 149. Lilian, unfortunately, was quite
uninterested in Koechlin's efforts. His letters to her went
largely unanswered, and even after a visit from Koechlin's
wife, Suzanne, Lilian did not acknowledge receipt of the music
she had inspired.
(http://film.virtual-history.com/cigcard/68/large/Luxus528.jpg)
Premier Album de Lilian (Harvey) - Nine pieces for Soprano, Flute, piano and Klarinet ad lib., opus 139
Second Album de Lilian (Harvey) - Eight pieces for Flute, ondes Martenot, harpsichord and piano, opus 149
Sept Chansons pour Gladys for Soprano and piano, opus 151 (inspired by : "Calais-Douvres" - a Film with Lilian Harvey
Le Portrait de Daisy Hamilton - 89 sketches for pîano solo, opus 140
David Zinman and -especially - Heinz Holliger are Koechlin's advocates. Holliger's most recent (double) CD ( early vocal works) is very impressive. Let's hope he will record the symphonies .
Peter
Quote from: Harry on February 25, 2008, 05:11:18 AM
I ordered a few cd's on the label Koch, with music, that attracted me greatly, but they are firsts in my collection.
Maybe someone could bring some feedback on them.
And please post your unkown composers here if you like, and so give me and others opportunities to discover also.... :)
Harry you never cease to amaze me, how do you find these obscure composers anyway? In the past I have been taking note of the CDs you buy and I can not find a lot of them on amazon, where do you go when you shop? The most obscure composer I have in my collection is Bartok- hardly an obscure composer ::)!
marvin
Quote from: marvinbrown on February 25, 2008, 09:52:07 AM
Harry you never cease to amaze me, how do you find these obscure composers anyway? In the past I have been taking note of the CDs you buy and I can not find a lot of them on amazon, where do you go when you shop? The most obscure composer I have in my collection is Bartok- hardly an obscure composer ::)!
marvin
The most obscure composers in my collection are probably Kalinnikov, Kalliwoda and Kopylov. Nobody loves the letter K ;D
Quote from: Brian on February 25, 2008, 11:12:06 AM
The most obscure composers in my collection are probably Kalinnikov, Kalliwoda and Kopylov. Nobody loves the letter K ;D
Try Kaipainen, Kajanus, Kalabis, Kallstenius, Kalomiris, Kielland, Kinsella, von Koch, Krejci........ :)
Quote from: Brian on February 25, 2008, 11:12:06 AM
The most obscure composers in my collection are probably Kalinnikov, Kalliwoda and Kopylov. Nobody loves the letter K ;D
On further examination of my CD collection I don't have any composer with a surname that starts with the letter K!
marvin
Vitezlava Kaprilova, Dezider Kardos, Mieczyslav Karlowicz, Willem Kersters, Karen Kachaturian, Tikhon Khrenikov, Uuno Klami, Lev Knipper, Jonas Kokkonen, Charles Koechlin, Marc Kopytman, Toivo Kuula, E.W.Korngold, .....Pal Kadosa, Miloslav Kabelac, Viktor Kalabis, Gia Kancheli, Zoltan Kodaly, Ernst Krenek, Uros Krek, Hans Kox.....Wilhelm Kempf, Jan Koetsier, Dimitri Kabalevsky, Eugene Kapp, Herman D.Koppel...are all composers.
Then there are three you definitely should consider: Khachaturian, Kodály and Korngold! Especially since you are an opera fan, some of Korngold's work might appeal to you.
--Bruce
Quote from: bhodges on February 25, 2008, 12:18:29 PM
Then there are three you definitely should consider: Khachaturian, Kodály and Korngold! Especially since you are an opera fan, some of Korngold's work might appeal to you.
--Bruce
thanks Bruce :). Opera 0:) now that is something that is so dear to my heart.
marvin
Yes! and Kodaly's "Spinning room "( once available on Hungaroton) a short, very lovely and utterly gorgeous short opera.
From the Hungarian quarterly : http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no169/12.html
Judging by The Spinning Room, his next stage work, Kodály himself drew similar conclusions. To define it in terms of genre, one has to turn to expediencies like Liederspiel or "sung pantomime", or symphonic stage suite. The piece dispenses completely with any kind of text, either spoken or recited, other than the original lyrics of the folk songs and ballads the soloists and chorus sing in the guise of members of a Székely village community who spend their evening in a spinning - room. It is as if Kodály had returned to the Bartókian model of a stage ballad, reversing both the dramatic and musical approach. Kodály did not compose one single great ballad out of fragmented motifs of folk melodies, what he did was to arrange several authentic folk songs so that they combine into a great one. The audience can reconstruct the unspoken ballad from the pantomimed frame story, which is about the Suitor, who, for some obscure reason, is forced to escape from the village, and leave behind the woman he loves. She, the Housewife, mistress of the house where the villagers gather in the evening, is no longer a young girl but a mature woman (this was surely so that the role could be sung by the legendary Mária Basilides, leading contralto at the Budapest Opera). The Suitor was cast as a baritone, and sung at the premiere by the equally legendary Imre Palló, himself a Székely, a Hungarian from Transylvania, that other half of the Hungarian "double mother land". There is no question in my mind, that the ballad without words of the exiled Suitor, replayed in The Spinning Room, implicitly symbolises Kodály's grief over the loss that Hungary had suffered through the cutting off of Transylvania, the homeland of the Székelys, and the core - land of Hungarian folk music. However, ballads have multiple interpretations. I propose one that is significant for Kodály's relationship to opera. It is not difficult to recognise an allusion to the return to Ithaca in the scene on stage: we see a country abandoned by its master, living a life closed up into itself, centred on the matriarchal figure of the mistress, who is mourning the past and hoping for the future.
Quote from: pjme on February 25, 2008, 12:31:51 PM
Yes! and Kodaly's "Spinning room "( once available on Hungaroton) a short, very lovely and utterly gorgeous short opera.
Thanks for mentioning that--I've not heard of this one!
--Bruce
I suppose it could do with a new recording - but Ferencsik leads an impressive ( possibly very ripe..) performance.
(http://www.classicsonline.com/images/cds/others/HCD12839-40.gif)
It's very lyrical and very Hungarian....
Peter
Quote from: marvinbrown on February 25, 2008, 09:52:07 AM
Harry you never cease to amaze me, how do you find these obscure composers anyway? In the past I have been taking note of the CDs you buy and I can not find a lot of them on amazon, where do you go when you shop? The most obscure composer I have in my collection is Bartok- hardly an obscure composer ::)!
marvin
That's simple
Marvin!My source is JPC de.
Quote from: lukeottevanger on February 25, 2008, 08:20:57 AM
This Haas CD is superb, it's main attraction being a completion of the symphony he left unfinished at his death (in Auschwitz). The piece is just beautiful, deeply moving, with profound roots in Jewish cantorial melody, but also with some scathing use of quotation. I'm not so sure Haas, Janacek's finest pupil, much recorded and well known as one of the four major 'Terezin composers', is that obscure, mind you.
My obscure composer du jour is an Italian neo-classicist of sorts, Franco Margola, who has a splendid lyrical sense. I have a couple of CDs, but this one might be an attractive place to start:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510SNZAYM2L._SS500_.jpg)
Yes, will investigate that further....thanks!
Here is another one for you to bite on. The samples made me sit up, but I know next to nothiong from this composer. So if you please, I would love to hear some input about him, or anyone that has actually music from him.
Anyone?
Bruce? maybe..... ;D
Quote from: Harry on February 26, 2008, 11:53:37 PM
Here is another one for you to bite on. The samples made me sit up, but I know next to nothiong from this composer. So if you please, I would love to hear some input about him, or anyone that has actually music from him.
Anyone?
Bruce? maybe..... ;D
http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211d&L=mahler-list&T=0&P=3029
Is the weblink to a review of the CD from the American magazine Fanfare from September-October 2002. Apologies if you have accessed this already!
Bohnke was-apparently-a German composer born in Poland in 1888 and killed together with his Jewish wife in a car crash in 1928. The review of the Cd makes the music sound very promising! If you like Tiessen and Erdmann's music then Bohnke should appeal.
Never heard any myself but I am now tempted!
Quote from: Harry on February 26, 2008, 11:53:37 PM
Here is another one for you to bite on. The samples made me sit up, but I know next to nothiong from this composer. So if you please, I would love to hear some input about him, or anyone that has actually music from him.
Anyone?
Bruce? maybe..... ;D
Alas, can't add to what Dundonnell posted. But the comments are making me interested, too. (I've never even heard his name mentioned.)
--Bruce
Quote from: Dundonnell on February 27, 2008, 08:43:26 AM
http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0211d&L=mahler-list&T=0&P=3029
Is the weblink to a review of the CD from the American magazine Fanfare from September-October 2002. Apologies if you have accessed this already!
Bohnke was-apparently-a German composer born in Poland in 1888 and killed together with his Jewish wife in a car crash in 1928. The review of the Cd makes the music sound very promising! If you like Tiessen and Erdmann's music then Bohnke should appeal.
Never heard any myself but I am now tempted!
Wow, thanks for the link, that is a good review.
Well I will play it as soon as possible.
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=4986
Another review of the Bohnke CD! Sounds more interesting all the time!
There is also a CD of his Violin Concerto played by Kolja Lessing together with the Theme with Variations for large orchestra and the Symphonic Overture(Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra-Israel Yinon) on the Real Sound label but it is currently unavailable.
Quote from: Dundonnell on February 27, 2008, 10:01:28 AM
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=4986
Another review of the Bohnke CD! Sounds more interesting all the time!
There is also a CD of his Violin Concerto played by Kolja Lessing together with the Theme with Variations for large orchestra and the Symphonic Overture(Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra-Israel Yinon) on the Real Sound label but it is currently unavailable.
Will keep that in mind, thanks again Dundonnell, again a useful link and info. :)
Seem to remember that Bohnke was a violist in the Busch Quartet.
Quote from: erato on February 27, 2008, 01:10:10 PM
Seem to remember that Bohnke was a violist in the Busch Quartet.
See, I have to find out more about this guy! :) but others do.
Let me look tomorrow in some of my encyclopedias.
Klami (from Finland) is a composer whose music I like. There is a good mid-price Chandos CD of orchestral works.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Klami-Orchestral-Works-Uuno/dp/B000LC4WV0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204204031&sr=1-2
Uuno Klami can be very exiting/interesting. Although I have only a few works ( the Naxos CD with orchestral works is OK) and the great Psalm for soprano, baritone,chorus & orch. on Ondine.
The year 1937 saw the completion of the grand inspired Psalmus, a "symphonic psalm" for choir, vocal soloists and orchestra, which is a close runner-up to the Kalevala-sarja for the title of Klami's most popular work. The text is a religious poem by 17th-century Finnish poet and philosopher Juhana Cajanus, the first major literary poem written in Finnish, Etkös ole, ihmisparka, aivan arka (Wretched man, are you not made sore afraid). Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus and perhaps Honegger's Le Roi David may have inspired Klami to take up the project. Klami employs a large orchestra to set the poem, a lament on the transitory nature of the universe, in a solid work lasting nearly an hour with much realistic detail and descriptive power.
Read more http://www.fmq.fi/articles/ar_2000_2_ht.html
Quote from: pjme on February 28, 2008, 12:43:39 PM
Uuno Klami can be very exiting/interesting. Although I have only a few works ( the Naxos CD with orchestral works is OK) and the great Psalm for soprano, baritone,chorus & orch. on Ondine.
The year 1937 saw the completion of the grand inspired Psalmus, a "symphonic psalm" for choir, vocal soloists and orchestra, which is a close runner-up to the Kalevala-sarja for the title of Klami's most popular work. The text is a religious poem by 17th-century Finnish poet and philosopher Juhana Cajanus, the first major literary poem written in Finnish, Etkös ole, ihmisparka, aivan arka (Wretched man, are you not made sore afraid). Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus and perhaps Honegger's Le Roi David may have inspired Klami to take up the project. Klami employs a large orchestra to set the poem, a lament on the transitory nature of the universe, in a solid work lasting nearly an hour with much realistic detail and descriptive power.
Read more http://www.fmq.fi/articles/ar_2000_2_ht.html
Sounds very interesting. Thanks for the link.
Quote from: pjme on February 25, 2008, 12:17:34 PM
Vitezlava Kaprilova, Dezider Kardos, Mieczyslav Karlowicz, Willem Kersters, Karen Kachaturian, Tikhon Khrenikov, Uuno Klami, Lev Knipper, Jonas Kokkonen, Charles Koechlin, Marc Kopytman, Toivo Kuula, E.W.Korngold, .....Pal Kadosa, Miloslav Kabelac, Viktor Kalabis, Gia Kancheli, Zoltan Kodaly, Ernst Krenek, Uros Krek, Hans Kox.....Wilhelm Kempf, Jan Koetsier, Dimitri Kabalevsky, Eugene Kapp, Herman D.Koppel...are all composers.
Definitely so. Never heard music by Kaprilova, Krek or Kados - but enjoyed most of the others, and especially so: Klami, Kokkonen, Koechlin, Kancheli, Kodály, Kabalevsky, Kapp and Koppel!
(Not to mention personal favourites like Cyrillus Kreek, Bronius Kutavičius or Alemdar Karamanov).
Quote from: Christo on March 01, 2008, 11:30:54 AM
Definitely so. Never heard music by Kaprilova, Krek or Kados - but enjoyed most of the others, and especially so: Klami, Kokkonen, Koechlin, Kancheli, Kodály, Kabalevsky, Kapp and Koppel!
(Not to mention personal favourites like Cyrillus Kreek, Bronius Kutavičius or Alemdar Karamanov).
My head spins allready.
And I thought I had many unknown composers in my collection...... ;)
Another vote for Koppel especially his Symphony No 2 (DaCapo)
If there are any 'K's worth looking up, then Korndorff should be near the top of anyones list! His Sempre Tutti (Hymn 1) is a masterpiece (IMHO).
For me, the Naxos label has done more to promote interest and accessibility in new composers / compositions over the last 10 years or so than any other branch of recorded music. It is such a shame that the Naxos rack is shrinking so rapidly in HMV and Virgin (or whatever they're called these days) record stores. One of my favourite Naxos discoveries has been Kilar (oooh - another 'K')!