Pieces that have blown you away recently

[kyjo]

Cross-posted from the Stanford thread. The "blown away" epithet mainly applies to the Piano Quintet, but I certainly enjoyed the String Quintet as well:



This was my first time hearing Stanford's Piano Quintet in D minor, Op. 25, and I can immediately proclaim it as one of his very finest works, maybe even a masterpiece! (The piano quintet medium really brought out the best in some composers.) Actually, the first few minutes of the work weren't terribly promising or remarkable to me, but the first movement soon gathers steam and power. The scherzo is an agitated minor-key affair, while the slow movement is beautiful and not without depth. Best of all may be the finale, which builds to a genuinely thrilling conclusion that's not without some unexpected touches. Seriously, this piece has one of the most exciting and effective endings I've heard recently! Unsurprisingly, the shadow of Brahms hangs lightly (*not* looms) over the music, but it doesn't lack in character or distinctiveness.

The accompanying String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 85 isn't as grand or immediately arresting as the Piano Quintet, but it's still a fine work in its own right with a charming bucolic demeanor and some engaging development, especially in the variation-form finale. The performances here are simply superb - the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet and pianist Piers Lane really throw themselves into the Piano Quintet with raging conviction and technical assurance. Simply put, if you enjoy Romantic Era chamber music, don't miss this disc!

[Roasted Swan]

Cross-posted from the Stanford thread. The "blown away" epithet mainly applies to the Piano Quintet, but I certainly enjoyed the String Quintet as well:



This was my first time hearing Stanford's Piano Quintet in D minor, Op. 25, and I can immediately proclaim it as one of his very finest works, maybe even a masterpiece! (The piano quintet medium really brought out the best in some composers.) Actually, the first few minutes of the work weren't terribly promising or remarkable to me, but the first movement soon gathers steam and power. The scherzo is an agitated minor-key affair, while the slow movement is beautiful and not without depth. Best of all may be the finale, which builds to a genuinely thrilling conclusion that's not without some unexpected touches. Seriously, this piece has one of the most exciting and effective endings I've heard recently! Unsurprisingly, the shadow of Brahms hangs lightly (*not* looms) over the music, but it doesn't lack in character or distinctiveness.

The accompanying String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 85 isn't as grand or immediately arresting as the Piano Quintet, but it's still a fine work in its own right with a charming bucolic demeanor and some engaging development, especially in the variation-form finale. The performances here are simply superb - the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet and pianist Piers Lane really throw themselves into the Piano Quintet with raging conviction and technical assurance. Simply put, if you enjoy Romantic Era chamber music, don't miss this disc!

All your fault!!! I've just ordered a copy.....  

[pjme]

Dimitar Nenovs Rhapsodic fantasy for large orchestra - again deeply impressed. An orchestral "tour de force" but filled with mystery, poetry and exuberant energy and - as far as I can recognise - orchestral/compositional mastery! 

". And if these suspiciously bourgeois elements in Nenov's biography were not enough, he did not compose a single note in praise of the Communist Party, a rare feat amongst the influential Bulgarian composers of the time. Consequences soon followed. In the pages of the official Soviet Music magazine, no less a person than Aram Khachaturian criticized Nenov and specifically his Rhapsodic Fantasy for being 'influenced by Western modernism' and 'exhibiting features of Impressionism, cosmopolitanism'. Although Bulgaria was not a member of the Soviet Union, such signals from Moscow were received with a reverence sometimes greater than that accorded them in the Union itself. All recordings of Nenov at Bulgarian National Radio were destroyed on the orders of its then director Nayden Naydenov. Over at Hungarian National Radio just one recording with Nenov as soloist—Liszt's second piano concerto—survived. The unpublished autograph score of Nenov's oratorio Christmas was saved from being burnt at Bulgarian National Radio, but only by accident. His personal archive was 'cleansed', a number of surviving manuscript scores and personal documents showing signs of deliberate tampering.
After the first, most fierce period of the regime, Nenov saw something of a rehabilitation—he was even awarded the state Dimitrov Prize the year before his death. However, it is clear that years of hostility and humiliation had taken their toll, and when Nenov died in 1953 a pall of obscurity remained over both his music and his personality. To this day his compositions remain unknown outside Bulgaria.
With the division of Europe, Western orchestras largely ceased to perform music by Bulgarian composers. The works of Vladigerov, Pipkov, Goleminov and Nenov had previously featured in the concert programmes of many of them, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. For half a century, orchestras on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain occasionally featured Bulgarian music, but Nenov's works remained confined to Bulgaria itself, being considered 'unsuitable' to represent the country abroad. Nothing was to change after the fall of Communism in 1989."
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68205

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05GPpujl_O8&t=305s

[Hitch]

If Wikipedia is to be trusted, Grieg regarded his Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak, EG 107 so highly that he took the score with him wherever he went, and wanted it performed at his own funeral. Although Grieg transcribed his original piano piece for brass and wind band, the version played after his passing was one orchestrated by his friend Johan Halvorsen.

Henry Wood also orchestrated it, but that offering, complete with splashy cymbals, is too "oom-pah, oom-pah" for my taste. Halvorsen conjures a restrained epicness, if that is not a contradiction in terms, that speaks of Grieg but also Strauss, Mahler and even Wagner. I'm probably wrong in saying that, so I'll admit my ignorance by saying it sounds very 19th century and very Romantic. Gardner and the BPO do the work justice.

Grieg - Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak, EG 107 (arr. for orchestra by Johan Halvorsen)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
Chandos

[kyjo]

If Wikipedia is to be trusted, Grieg regarded his Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak, EG 107 so highly that he took the score with him wherever he went, and wanted it performed at his own funeral. Although Grieg transcribed his original piano piece for brass and wind band, the version played after his passing was one orchestrated by his friend Johan Halvorsen.

Henry Wood also orchestrated it, but that offering, complete with splashy cymbals, is too "oom-pah, oom-pah" for my taste. Halvorsen conjures a restrained epicness, if that is not a contradiction in terms, that speaks of Grieg but also Strauss, Mahler and even Wagner. I'm probably wrong in saying that, so I'll admit my ignorance by saying it sounds very 19th century and very Romantic. Gardner and the BPO do the work justice.

Grieg - Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak, EG 107 (arr. for orchestra by Johan Halvorsen)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
Chandos

That's a powerful work - and surprisingly dark and austere by Grieg's standards!

[Cato]

Thanks to people reminding me of the great Miloslav Kabelac: like the passage of Time itself, the work unfolds subtly, almost negating the ticking of the clock, until suddenly one finds oneself in quite a different place...and Time!

And that realization is the mystery!

[KevinP]

Of late, I've been quite enamoured of Ibert's Cello Concerto.

Ibert, only ever a name I'd occasionally see, had been popping up on my radar a lot lately. I recently did a deep dive into wind quintets and wind trios, and his works were always there.


A yonger me, a staunch Mahlerian, wanted everything heavy and dramatic. I've finally arrived at a point in life where I can appreciate light-hearted music.

[Mapman]

Brahms Op. 118 #2! (I listened to Katchen's recording). The rest of Op. 118 is nice, but #2 is gorgeous. I'm really glad I finally listened to this.

[Irons]

Debussy: La Boite a joujoux



Only Debussy! A ballet (piano score orchestrated by André Caplet) of a simple children's story told with such complexity and nuance. Multiple subtle themes appear and disappear then return in constant flux.
Such a magical score deserves a performance and recording to match. Step up Jean Martinon with Orchestre National de France. This wonderful recording was produced by René Challan at the Salle Wagram, Paris.   

[Cato]

Debussy: La Boite a joujoux



Only Debussy! A ballet (piano score orchestrated by André Caplet) of a simple children's story told with such complexity and nuance. Multiple subtle themes appear and disappear then return in constant flux.
Such a magical score deserves a performance and recording to match. Step up Jean Martinon with Orchestre National de France. This wonderful recording was produced by René Challan at the Salle Wagram, Paris.
 

Do you know Jean Martinon's own Symphony #4, "Altitudes" ?

[Symphonic Addict]

Do you know Jean Martinon's own Symphony #4, "Altitudes" ?

You didn't ask me, but I have heard that work (in fact, his symphonies 2-4), and I thought it was an absorbing symphony that sounds strange and chaotic in places and it's very of its time with more emphasis on rhythm and harmony rather than in the melodic aspect.

[Irons]

Do you know Jean Martinon's own Symphony #4, "Altitudes" ?

I do not which I will rectify post-haste. Thanks for link.

[Cato]

You didn't ask me, but I have heard that work (in fact, his symphonies 2-4), and I thought it was an absorbing symphony that sounds strange and chaotic in places and it's very of its time with more emphasis on rhythm and harmony rather than in the melodic aspect.

"Strange and chaotic" indeed, which is part of its fascination!

I do not which I will rectify post-haste. Thanks for link.

Sure!

Here is the Symphony #2 of Jean Martinon, composed near the end of World War II: yes, an Ondes Martenot can be heard!   

[Irons]

Do you know Jean Martinon's own Symphony #4, "Altitudes" ?

Listening now, impressive. Some echoes of Walton at times. Obviously downloaded from vinyl, from decades of collecting LPs I have not come across Martinon as a composer on that format. I will hopefully find time over this weekend to spend time with 2nd Symphony.

[pjme]

I discovered Martinon's second symphony on this 1972 ORTF - Inédits LP



Around that time (late seventies/early eighties I was in Luzern/Switzerland for the Festspiele where I saw him conduct "Hymne, variations et rondo" (1961/1968). 
Martinon's symphony can be (should be!) performed with ondes Martenot. It greatly ads exitement to the climaxes.

[brewski]

At the European Union Youth Orchestra concert the other night, the discovery was Anna Clyne's Masquerade, a splashy work for a huge orchestra that made the perfect curtain-raiser. Here is the 2013 world premiere at the Proms in London.

-Bruce

[Irons]

I discovered Martinon's second symphony on this 1972 ORTF - Inédits LP



Around that time (late seventies/early eighties I was in Luzern/Switzerland for the Festspiele where I saw him conduct "Hymne, variations et rondo" (1961/1968).
Martinon's symphony can be (should be!) performed with ondes Martenot. It greatly ads exitement to the climaxes.

Most helpful, thanks. A label I am familiar with so know where to look. Separating Martinon the composer from conductor is difficult in online searches. 

[Symphonic Addict]

Three pretty interesting pieces:

Stravinsky: Sonata for two pianos

Neoclassicism never was more fun and compelling. This sonata exudes gracefulness and ease, it's hard that a smile is not put on your face on hearing this relatively little wonder, but not little in content. I also heard the Concerto for two solo pianos, but it wasn't as catchy as the aforementioned sonata. The 2nd movement, a theme with variations, was especially sparkling.




Jesús Guridi: the two string quartets (in G major and A minor respectively)

No many string quartets spring to mind when you think of Spain or the Iberian peninsula. However, the Basque composer Jesús Guridi did leave us two splendid works that shouldn't disappoint most of listeners. Both quartets are suffused with some of the most rustic, idyllic (mostly in the first quartet) and animated ideas, they are a complete joy to hear. Each movement of them sounds substantial and with purpose. The slow movements of them contain the most gorgeous passages, above all in the 2nd, quite expressive it is. For a composer who is barely known nowadays, they represent an important achievement in my view. There is another recording on Naxos, but this one featuring the Enesco Quartet seems hard to beat.

[Cato]

I discovered Martinon's second symphony on this 1972 ORTF - Inédits LP



Around that time (late seventies/early eighties I was in Luzern/Switzerland for the Festspiele where I saw him conduct "Hymne, variations et rondo" (1961/1968).



Martinon's symphony can be (should be!) performed with ondes Martenot. It greatly adds excitement to the climaxes.

YES!  Again, a highly recommended work!

Speaking of which...Nikolai Obukhov's Preface to The Book of Life:

[KevinP]

The fact that it's only about five minutes is obviously a factor, but I think I've listened to Florence Price' Fantasie no.1 for violin and piano a good dozen times today.