What are you listening 2 now?

[MusicTurner]

*pounds the table!*

[SonicMan46]

The nice thing about the Raekallio set is there's more than the Piano Sonatas in the box set. The McDermott set looks like it's just the sonatas and Sarcasms. The Raekallio is a bit more bang for the buck.

Correct John - the McDermott 3-disc set has Sonatas + only the Sarcasms ($35 USD on Amazon USA), while the Raekallio set has 4 discs, adding an additional hour+ of non-sonata piano music; Amazon USA has a single CD of these Raekallio performances (shown below) for $20+ (does not include 'Visions...' which is on one of the sonata discs) - neither Amazon USA or PrestoClassical offer his physical package (latter does have DLs HERE, including the single CD mentioned).  At the moment, I'm listening to Raekallio on Spotify in those works.  Dave

[steve ridgway]

Nono - La Fabbrica Illuminata.

[steve ridgway]

Stockhausen - Mikrophonie I.

[Karl Henning]

LvB
Symphony № 1 in C, Op. 21
Symphony № 8 in F, Op. 93
Staatskapelle Dresden
Blomstedt

[Karl Henning]

RVW
A Sea Symphony
LSO & al.
Boult

[Irons]

Reger: String Trio, op.77b.

Preformed by String Trio Bell 'Arte.

Listening blind easily passed off as by Mozart.

[Papy Oli]

Ravel
Bolero
Pavane
Barque sur l'océan
Ozawa/Boston SO

[aukhawk]

There's something on this called The Only Geezer an American Soldier Shot was Anton Webern. A 30 minute piece, probably an improvisation, but I'm not sure. I can assure you: it is astonishing music making, absolutely incandescent.

I saw the SME live a couple of times, 'back in the day' - though not the precise same line-up I think, as I recall it was a John Stevens-led enterprise with fluid personnel.  When everything gelled, the music-making was wonderful, but with collective free improvisation you inevitably had to endure long periods where things were not gelling.  It tended to work better live than on record, but that is true of many music genres of course.  Of course a recording may edit out some of the more chaotic longeurs.

The whole 'free' music scene of the '70s was quite something, well you had to be there, it was rather hard to digest from an audience perspective but not only the audience - the British pianist Stan Tracey, one of the leading proponents of free improv, was on record later as heaving a huge sigh of relief when it was all over, musical fashions had moved on, and he was able to get back to playing the music he knew best.
Possibly the most acceptable face of free improvisation was Keith Jarrett - where Stan Tracey and John Stevens and others struggled to play to audiences of more than 20 (I know this, I was one of them), Keith Jarrett became a global phenomenon for life, with sell-outs at big venues (sadly I never saw him).

Well I grew up with organ 'voluntaries' and there was essentially no difference between my local organist (a chain-smoking bum, for 6 days of the week) playing his improvised 'intro' to a Sunday church service, and Jarrett playing to 5000 in a Tokyo stadium.


TD - seasonal -
Penderecki, St Luke Passion, cond. Nagano


Penderecki, St Luke Passion, cond. Nagano

[aligreto]

De Lalande Lecons De Ténebres [Desrochers] Lecon du Vendredy

[aligreto]

Ravel
Bolero
Pavane
Barque sur l'océan
Ozawa/Boston SO

Eve since the first time that I heard it a considerable number of years ago I must confess that Ravel's Bolero is a real hate for me. I appreciate what it is doing but I just do not like it. It is so repetitive and boring. Given that, I am a great admirer of Ravel's music [other than Bolero!].

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post:

https://www.youtube.com/v/egru61LZWTc

[SimonNZ]

[Madiel]

*pounds the table!*

This forum is a serious danger to furniture.

[Mirror Image]

This forum is a serious danger to furniture.

[Mirror Image]

NP:

Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde
Ludwig, Wunderlich
Philharmonia
Klemperer

[vandermolen]

Lennox Berkeley: Symphony No. 1 (1940)
One of the most underrated British symphonies IMO.


From British Composers thread:
I have been listening with much pleasure to Lennox Berkeley's First Symphony (1940). I've seen it written-off as lightweight but it is nothing of the sort. His music reminds me of that of Walter Piston, very well-constructed, Neo-classical and 'elegant' but in his best works, as in the First Symphony and Concerto for Two Pianos there is great depth (especially in the slow movements) and an underlying slumbering power (Piston's 2nd and 6th symphonies are other examples). The First Symphony and Concerto for Two Pianos were once coupled together on one of my favourite Lyrita LPs. I'm sorry that Chandos decided to release their CDs of music by Berkeley, father and son. It probably seemed a clever idea but I'd have much rather had CDs of music by Lennox Berkeley alone. I met him once, when I asked him to sign my programme after a concert. I recall him as a very nice man who took an interest in whether of not I was a musician (sadly not). This CD also includes the lovely 'Serenade for Strings':

[vandermolen]

Salmenhaara: Symphony No.4
One of my favourite recent discoveries:

[Mandryka]

I saw the SME live a couple of times, 'back in the day' - though not the precise same line-up I think, as I recall it was a John Stevens-led enterprise with fluid personnel.  When everything gelled, the music-making was wonderful, but with collective free improvisation you inevitably had to endure long periods where things were not gelling.  It tended to work better live than on record, but that is true of many music genres of course.  Of course a recording may edit out some of the more chaotic longeurs.

The whole 'free' music scene of the '70s was quite something, well you had to be there, it was rather hard to digest from an audience perspective but not only the audience - the British pianist Stan Tracey, one of the leading proponents of free improv, was on record later as heaving a huge sigh of relief when it was all over, musical fashions had moved on, and he was able to get back to playing the music he knew best.
Possibly the most acceptable face of free improvisation was Keith Jarrett - where Stan Tracey and John Stevens and others struggled to play to audiences of more than 20 (I know this, I was one of them), Keith Jarrett became a global phenomenon for life, with sell-outs at big venues (sadly I never saw him).

Well I grew up with organ 'voluntaries' and there was essentially no difference between my local organist (a chain-smoking bum, for 6 days of the week) playing his improvised 'intro' to a Sunday church service, and Jarrett playing to 5000 in a Tokyo stadium.


TD - seasonal -
Penderecki, St Luke Passion, cond. Nagano


Penderecki, St Luke Passion, cond. Nagano

What is interesting me most is that I believe there's a connection between SME and AMM on the one hand, and on the other Cage number pieces, Stockhausen's Hymnen, Wandelweiser, Richard Barrett's structured improvisations. That's to say, the maelstrom of contemporary "classical" music includes these early British improvisers.

[Wanderer]

This forum is a serious danger to furniture.

I blame Karl.