What are you listening 2 now?

[kyjo]

Now this is great music. Both quartets can't be more different each other, and both sound unmistakably Arnoldian.

Arnold's 2nd String Quartet is a masterpiece filled with all of Arnold's typical stylistic hallmarks (minus his brilliant orchestration, of course). I was initially skeptical about how well Arnold would handle the string quartet medium, but it turns out my doubts were unfounded! The 1st Quartet contains more modernistic (Bartókian?) gestures than one is used to in Arnold's music - a very interesting work.

[steve ridgway]

Takemitsu: Stanza I

[steve ridgway]

NP Messiaen: Chants De Terre Et De Ciel



I seem to be getting a lightly orchestrated start today.

[steve ridgway]

Rachmaninoff: Isle Of The Dead..



..in Living Stereo .

[pjme]

The coupling is from an unknown french russian (or ukrainian?)émigré composer and is written in a more abstract, dissonant idiom. There is a prominent piano part. Marius Constant conducts with precision.

Nikiprowetsky made some fascinating programs on African music (France musique ca 1970-1980).

Wiki:

Tolia Nikiprowetzky, officiellement Anatole Nikiprowetzki1, né le 25 septembre 1916 à Théodosie dans l'Empire russe et mort le 5 mai 1997 à Paris, est un compositeur français d'origine russe et un ethno-musicologue.

Biographie
C'est à Marseille où ses parents arrivent en 1923 que Nikiprowetzky commence ses études musicales au conservatoire.

En 1937, il s'installe à Paris où il travaille avec Simone Plé-Caussade (fugue et contrepoint), Louis Laloy (histoire de la musique) puis après la guerre, avec René Leibowitz.

Entre 1950 et 1955, il réside au Maroc où il participe à la direction musicale de Radio-Maroc.

Rentré en France, il entre à la SORAFORM (future OCORA) et continue à s'intéresser à la musique traditionnelle africaine. Il dirige la discothèque de l'OCORA et est à l'origine d'une illustre collection de disques de musique extra-européenne. Il effectue d'autres missions en Afrique de collecte et d'études pour cet organisme.

Influencé par l'écriture modale, Nikiprowetzky a par la suite utilisé la technique sérielle et s'est intéressé à la musique électronique et concrète.

Il est le compositeur de la musique de l'ancien hymne national mauritanien.

[Que]

Beautiful! 

What is it that makes you attracted to this one but not to Unknown Lover? Is it just the music, or the style?

I've been listening to these old Gothic Voices recordings in your footsteps, and really enjoying it -- especially Unknown Lover!

Why I don't like Unknown Lover? I think the singing is rigid in pace and monotonous, flat in expression. Is it a coincidence that in the case of the albums I like the least sofar, Christopher Page was not (no longer) involved? I guess I just like his approach.

[Mandryka]

Is it a coincidence that in the case of the albums I like the least sofar, Christopher Page was (no longer) involved?

Ah, I didn't know that!

[Florestan]

SORAFORM (future OCORA)

Just when I wondered what on earth SORAFORM might have been, there came the fact that it was the future OCORA and suddenly the whole matter was illumminated. 

[Florestan]

Understated, sedated, lethargic Rosamunde, with a greatly restricted range of both dynamics and tempi. MEH!

[Que]

Ah, I didn't know that!

I really recommend the one I'm listening now. Like you, I discovered a big bunch of wonderful recordings by Gothic Voices!

[Mandryka]

Not uninteresting, but not as good as many other volumes of this series.

You see I think that the sonatas in the Kenner und Liebhaber books just aren't successful poetically. I enjoy the rondos more.

[Maestro267]

(minus his brilliant orchestration, of course).

I'm intrigued by this statement. Can "orchestration" be used in the context of chamber music? To me, orchestration is more about how a composer writes for the instruments at his disposal, with a little bit about what specific instruments are used. So for me a quartet/quintet etc. can make use of orchestration.

[ritter]

Just when I wondered what on earth SORAFORM might have been, there came the fact that it was the future OCORA and suddenly the whole matter was illumminated. 

SORAFOM, Société de radiodiffusion de la France d'outre-mer. I'm surprised you weren't familiar with them, Andrei! Here in Spain they're a household name...

[pjme]

Just when I wondered what on earth SORAFORM might have been, there came the fact that it was the future OCORA and suddenly the whole matter was illumminated. 

Ocora (Office de Coopération Radiophonique) is a French record label specializing in field recordings of world music. It was founded in 1957 by the composer, pianist and musicologist Charles Duvelle with the musician Pierre Schaeffer.[1] Ocora is part of Radio France.Ocora also is a word from the language of the Timucuan people who once inhabited Florida USA, meaning "place of gathering."On 14 April 1962 SORAFOM became the Office de coopération radiophonique (OCORA), whose members became advisors. On 1 January 1969 OCORA was absorbed by ORTF. Charles Duvelle, who had created and directed the prestigious OCORA collection (records of traditional world music) since 1960, integrated it into the musical services of the DAEC (Direction des affaires extérieures et de la coopération), which he was newly in charge of within ORTF.[2]

https://www.radiofrance.com/les-editions/collections/ocora

Nikiprowetsky's programs were totally fascinating - I listened in amazement to his explanation of the rythmical complexities of drumming and singing.  As a composer he is completely forgotten....

"Back in the early sixties, when French ethnomusicologist Tolia Nikiprowetzky introduced the first commercially-issued field recordings of West African Griot music on two Ocora-label LPs, he found it appropriate to begin his liner notes for Senegal: La musique des griots (Ocora OCR 15) with a question: "What is a griot? To tell the truth," he continued, "the exact significance of the term has not been well understood in the West, where the griot is often seen as a kind of African sorcerer. He is nothing of the sort; and if the complexity of the social role played by the griot lends itself to an examination carried out with scientific rigor, it is also possible to identify the griot simply as a minstrel." Then, almost as an afterthought, Nikiprowetzky adds, "The griots have left their mark on all of Islamic West Africa.""

http://wow.gm/africa/gambia/article/2007/5/15/griots-of-west-africa

[pjme]

Some Geir Tveitt while cleaning the house...

[Florestan]

SORAFOM, Société de radiodiffusion de la France d'outre-mer. I'm surprised you weren't familiar with them, Andrei!

Jamais de ma vie. 

[Florestan]

Ocora (Office de Coopération Radiophonique) is a French record label specializing in field recordings of world music. It was founded in 1957 by the composer, pianist and musicologist Charles Duvelle with the musician Pierre Schaeffer.[1] Ocora is part of Radio France.Ocora also is a word from the language of the Timucuan people who once inhabited Florida USA, meaning "place of gathering."On 14 April 1962 SORAFOM became the Office de coopération radiophonique (OCORA), whose members became advisors. On 1 January 1969 OCORA was absorbed by ORTF. Charles Duvelle, who had created and directed the prestigious OCORA collection (records of traditional world music) since 1960, integrated it into the musical services of the DAEC (Direction des affaires extérieures et de la coopération), which he was newly in charge of within ORTF.[2]

https://www.radiofrance.com/les-editions/collections/ocora

Nikiprowetsky's programs were totally fascinating - I listened in amazement to his explanation of the rythmical complexities of drumming and singing.  As a composer he is completely forgotten....

"Back in the early sixties, when French ethnomusicologist Tolia Nikiprowetzky introduced the first commercially-issued field recordings of West African Griot music on two Ocora-label LPs, he found it appropriate to begin his liner notes for Senegal: La musique des griots (Ocora OCR 15) with a question: "What is a griot? To tell the truth," he continued, "the exact significance of the term has not been well understood in the West, where the griot is often seen as a kind of African sorcerer. He is nothing of the sort; and if the complexity of the social role played by the griot lends itself to an examination carried out with scientific rigor, it is also possible to identify the griot simply as a minstrel." Then, almost as an afterthought, Nikiprowetzky adds, "The griots have left their mark on all of Islamic West Africa.""

http://wow.gm/africa/gambia/article/2007/5/15/griots-of-west-africa

Thanks, Peter.

[Papy Oli]

Desprez by A Sei Voci.

[Florestan]

The shadows of Schubert and Schumann loom large over these sonatas and they are none the worse for that.

[pjme]

Thanks, Peter.

Avec mes sentiments les plus distinguées....

..;and some very- very-late-late romantic/sentimental  piano music from Flanders..