What are you listening 2 now?

[Mister Sharpe]

I think it had to do more with how taciturn I aim. Example: My profession is technical communication, so I write very concisely and precisely, apparently too concisely and precisely for those not versed in technical communication, so what I would communicate in a bullet point - they want a paragraph or two - that kind of verbosity.

Writing 'more expansively,' or 'with greater detail,' or 'amplifying your thoughts,' might be better ways to describe what's being requested, rather than 'verbosity.' 

[Roasted Swan]

Sergiu Celibidache CD 2
Sergei Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
London Symphony Orchestra, Sergiu Celibidache

When I first saw that my thought was; I know Celibidache is known as a "slow" conductor - but 4 years to play Romeo & Juliet is really/i] slow.........

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Chabrier Piano Works. Marcelle Meyer.

[hopefullytrusting]

Writing 'more expansively,' or 'with greater detail,' or 'amplifying your thoughts,' might be better ways to describe what's being requested, rather than 'verbosity.' 

Just using the word that they used, and it got the point across.

[Linz]

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No, 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral"
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie; Wilhelm Schüchter

[Todd]

[Mapman]

Brahms: Piano Quartet #3, Op. 60
Borodin Trio, Rivka Golani

I believe this was my second listen to this work. The first movement didn't impress me much, compared to the first movements of the other two Piano Quartets. Perhaps it didn't help that the first movement seemed a bit slow? (It's marked "Allegro non troppo"; this was very non troppo, almost an andante.)

But the third movement is absolutely gorgeous! I don't remember that from my previous listen to this work.

[hopefullytrusting]

Final classical for the night before I shift over to watching some movies:
Sylvia Keller playing Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O42ObsUXhuQ

Oh my lord. 24 minutes 28 seconds. This better be good, or I will unbury Prokofiev and suplex his ass.

I will say it opens unlike any other sonata I've heard yet, as it doesn't start at the beginning, instead, it starts with the pianist already in motion, and, that is actually a pretty neat idea. I can see why it isn't used more often because it is awkward, but it works because Prokofiev is awkward. This is easily one of the hardest piano sonatas I've ever heard - the endurance just for the first movement is otherworldly. Not only is the rhythm all over the place, the speed is crazy, the dynamics are crazy - this is literal Bugs Bunny playing the piano kind of crazy. I guarantee that after playing this the pianist will have lost a pound or two in sweat.

I can already tell you that this is too long because we are only 5 minutes in and he is already losing steam, and he wrote the damn thing. What I find interesting is that there is no cohesion across Prokofiev's piano sonatas - the other sets I've listened to, you could hear the evolution between the sonatas - Prokofiev always feels like he is starting over - like he finishes one - throws it all out for whatever reason - and then starts anew as if he had never written a piano sonata before - it definitely humanizes him - like Beethoven and Scriabin are too perfect, they don't make mistakes - Prokofiev - that is all he does. His method is a method I understand. That didn't work. Fine. Let's try this. That didn't work. Fine. Let's do this. It is Beckett brought to life - Fail again. Fail better. - I now know what fail better means - Prokofiev is the master of failing better.

There is some wonderful melodic interplay once you power through that lunacy that Prokofiev calls an introduction. Some shades of Shostakovich here, but I don't think he would have met him yet at this point, but I can see Prokofiev seeing something that worked for somebody else and seeing if that works for them, but that is because that is what I would do, and I am starting to see a deep and abiding kinship with Prokofiev here. While this sonata is ultimately unwieldy, you can tell that Prokofiev is mustering up all his resources to constrain and constrict it, but he's simply not capable of that yet.

He's finding his voice; he's finding what works, and that is something I can admire.

Now that I am much further into the sonata, I am wondering if the intro belongs to this sonata at all, in fact, I suspect if you delete the intro and start with the second movement in its stead that it becomes more cohesive - did Prokofiev's instructor give him a page length?!

Because the banging and pounding, outside the intro, is no longer banging and pounding - it is purposive; it is controlled, in short, it is composed - rather than just putting elbow to the keys, he has thought out which notes belong in the cluster and which ones do not meaning rather than a flat blah sound it a sound with a musical ring and it flows with the rest of the work rather than disrupting it. The banging and pounding no longer feels as prep work for the nimble dexterity he likes to employ, but now is part and parcel of the package adding rather diminishing.

Yes, I have come complete around on this work - outside the intro - this is easily the best of his sonatas yet, but this recording is merely an adequate one - I would recommend this sonata, and I would recommend this recording, although, not heartily.

This is the first of the sonatas that I plan on searching out for purchase.

High recommendation.

[Mister Sharpe]

Many years ago, when I took Music in Western Civilization I and II at university, our prof. loved to query us on quantity not quality. By which I mean our final exam questions had more than anything to do with numbers: how many symphonies did Beethoven and Haydn write, etc.? (also heavy on timeframes of musical eras) - it drove my fellow students berserker. This was info that I knew even before I took the class and read our text. But I would have flunked-out on how many Violin Sonatas Mozart wrote. How would you fare?  (37 some completed by others and another of dubious attribution). 

 

[JBS]

I am actually not familiar with hese performances, but recent postings by traverso inspired me to give them a try:




PS I am starting at the beginning - always had a weak spot for Mozart's early symphonies.

That's one of those STAEGBNEMTs.
Sets
That
Are
Extremely
Good
But
Nobody
Ever
Mentions
Them

TD

[Madiel]

I think it had to do more with how taciturn I aim. Example: My profession is technical communication, so I write very concisely and precisely, apparently too concisely and precisely for those not versed in technical communication, so what I would communicate in a bullet point - they want a paragraph or two - that kind of verbosity.

Ah well, it depends who your audience is of course and whether they are people who need to know more.

Back in law school I didn't always get the highest marks because I had to learn to explain my reasoning a bit more. One time I went to discuss an exam with a lecturer and she said "oh yes, you're the one who always gets straight to the point".

[hopefullytrusting]

Ah well, it depends who your audience is of course and whether they are people who need to know more.

Back in law school I didn't always get the highest marks because I had to learn to explain my reasoning a bit more. One time I went to discuss an exam with a lecturer and she said "oh yes, you're the one who always gets straight to the point".

This is often what I am told. I don't like beating around the bush, and I don't like telling stories, but I also get it.

[steve ridgway]

Berio - Cinque Variazioni

[steve ridgway]

Xenakis - Metastasis

[steve ridgway]

Stravinsky - Élégie For Solo Viola

[steve ridgway]

Cowell - Fabric

[steve ridgway]

Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht

[AnotherSpin]

Checked that my loved ones have light after the night attack. We have light as well, plenty of it.

[hopefullytrusting]

Approaching 1 AM with Alexei Sultanov playing Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MafjPNmxeCo

It starts in a typical Prokofiev fashion - with lots of noise, but then quickly shifts over to a softness that really only emerged in the prior sonata. This one doesn't feel as interesting, but it does feel like a companion piece - like one was composed at dawn and the other at dusk - I cannot say which is which. I believe these are the war sonatas, and so the cacophony, the madness - now is grounded in his concrete, material conditions of reality, and you can see him striving to give the madness form, so that he can control it, so that he can understand it, but war is beyond us all, and so only the craziness persists.

That is a hard lesson to learn, and to learn it during war, doubly so - that there is nothing you can do, you are completely and utterly powerless to do anything - you can't moralize, you can't rationalize - you cannot do anything - it is far above your paygrade - to a paygrade you didn't even know existed until that very moment. A paygrade that can murder you outright, as that is what war is - murder that is statistically significant.

Of course, like much of his other piano works, this is a firecracker when it comes to the performer and the performance. I can tell you this much - even if you do not like the music of Prokofiev - you will be entertained. Now, we just need Prokofiev to unload Rachmaninoff's style octaves, and we'd have our first piano break - but I love seeing a basketball rim break on a dunk - I imagine I'd like to see a piano break on an octave jump or a RKO from outta nowhere!

I will admit I still not completely understand why these are called sonatas - and I no longer find the form/genre argument all that convincing. I'd like to see Prokofiev have to defend his logic, as I don't think he could do it. I di it just because - well, just because isn't a defense. You have no right to question me as an artist who made a decision for artistic reasons. Maybe so, but you should still be able to proffer an answer as to the why or what or.

While this sonata is better than the rest, save 6, I would not purchase this sonata nor listen to it again. I find that there is nothing there for me to return to. I suppose that is what I am finding with Prokofiev, in general - I am no sensing his breadth or depth - it all feels like performative surface - like I can imagine that Prokofiev didn't even want to be a composer but sort of just fell into it because he was good at it - which I can heavily relate to, but because he was born during the Soviet era, even if he wanted to change, he couldn't as he was a symbol of the state.

I could be committing the error that Rorty points out - ascribing and projecting, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that I am right, which probably makes Rorty feel as if he is right - perhaps, not even noticing the irony.

[Que]

One of my favourite recordings by the Huelgas ensemble:

Checked that my loved ones have light after the night attack. We have light as well, plenty of it.

Good to hear they are well.