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What Classical Music...


Michael Weiss

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I'm working hard at the 1st piece in Bartok's Mikrokosmos. And I feel in time and with assiduous dedication I will get it :crazy:

Actually some time ago I took off Chopin's Prelude #4 and made a lead sheet out of it. I'm hardly the first jazz knucklehead to have done this either. I never heard anyone improvise on this convincingly though, have you guys? I heard Art Farmer recorded it. I'd like to hear that. Benny Aranov did a nice job with some Debussy themes on an album called Shadow Box in the 70s. (or maybe it was some Horace Debussy Jones themes and I'm confused again :excited: ) I think, though, when I get off my ass and work on the Chopin piece I'll just play it 'au jus' on guitar, maybe put an ending. It is so perfect as is.

Edited by fasstrack
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Still dealing w/Chopin's Prelude # 4. The challenge is to get that top note to sustain and not die with a chord also sustaining underneath it----on guitar, not notable for its highest string holding long notes.

The one LP I felt I HAD to bring overseas in my move was Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony's Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra. A great reading of a great piece.

Hi Michael. Joel Fass here.

Edited by fasstrack
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Damn, Michael! Never expected to see a Samuel Feinberg reference here, right on... Generally you tried any Roslavets or Medtner? The latter isn't as nutty modernist as other stuff & I don't even know if there's a good edition of Roslavets out there but... worth looking for given yr other interests. (Ah, there is!) You ever play the Busoni sonatinas? c

Was in a cab tonight with a Russian driver who was very familiar with Roslavets, Obouhov, Alexandrov and Feinberg. I'm working on an arrangement of a Roslavets prelude, Largo from 1915, for my quintet. Maybe we'll play it at the Vanguard in March. The three "Compositions" from 1914 are really nice. I have the music to the second sonata, but it's a bitch to play and not all that satisfying for me. I love music that stretches tonality like a rubber band, but strictly serial pieces like that are a little tough for me to appreciate. I have Hamelin's recording of Roslavets.

I like Schoenberg's Op. 11 but the later piano music is not for me - at least now. Never say never. Have to admit I'm unfamiliar with the Busoni sonatinas.

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  • 1 year later...

Samuel Feinberg, Piano Sonata No. 6 (Universal Edition, 1925) but just for fun. Much more fun, I should add, then listening to any Brad Mehldau or post-'74 Jarrett, thank you very much. To relax, I lately play a lot of Dussek, don't ask why.

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Samuel Feinberg, Piano Sonata No. 6 (Universal Edition, 1925) but just for fun. Much more fun, I should add, then listening to any Brad Mehldau or post-'74 Jarrett, thank you very much. To relax, I lately play a lot of Dussek, don't ask why.

That doesn't sound believable at all.

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BTW, Michael have you ever tried any Medtner? Speaking as a listener, not a player, he's a late-in-life favorite of mine.

I'm not at all familiar with his work. The little I've heard hasn't grabbed me yet, but I really need a more thorough exposure. What's your favorite?

p.s. am I making it up, or is there a Naxos Historical issue of Medtner playing Medtner???

Check this out:

Mr. Weiss, if you are suggesting 7/4 improbably knew about Samuel Feinberg earlier... than you must have posted on him sometime and I missed it?

Ain't no big deal.

Mr. Weiss, are you familiar with the compositions of Ronald Stevenson at all?

Nope, but I'm on it right away, chief.

Although I will now e-mail my friend, the pianist, Elisabeth Leonskaja to tell her of this wonderful conversation I've been having with "the boys." (Elisabeth, although best known for her excellent recordings of the Chopin, Shostakovich and the Austro-Germans has omnivorous tastes and abilities; I only wish she herself would record some Feinberg or Medtner, both of whom I know she admires very much.)

Feinberg's music is so under-recorded, anything would be welcome.

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