What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[alankin]

Now playing:
Sergei Prokofiev – Piano Concertos — No.2 Op.16, No. 3 Op.26
— André Previn (piano) – London Symphony Orchestra – Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca / London)

[Peter Friedman]

[JSngry]

 

Found for a buck, very much a dollar well spent. Not my usual area and probably won't ever be, but the Holst items are a real treat harmonically, and the RVW things speak what they speak, so hey. But I do like choral music that ventures basic basic diatonic/triadic harmony, voices resonate in ALL kinds of ways, and there is more than enough of that here to make for an engaging listen.

[JSngry]

 

Here's another batch of stuff by yet another American composer whose works I yet to hear performed live. I think I would really enjoy hearing these, they seem pretty meaty and/or visceral without being in the least bit glaring.

[A Lark Ascending]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Found for a buck, very much a dollar well spent. Not my usual area and probably won't ever be, but the Holst items are a real treat harmonically, and the RVW things speak what they speak, so hey. But I do like choral music that ventures basic basic diatonic/triadic harmony, voices resonate in ALL kinds of ways, and there is more than enough of that here to make for an engaging listen.

If you come across Holst's 'The Hymn of Jesus' for a buck, give it a go.

Worth hearing a little Victorian/Edwardian choral music (it was hugely popular) or a contemporary like Bantock to get an idea of how fresh RVW was - I always find the former a bit stodgy (even a fair bit of Elgar). From what I've read as well as the folk music influence RVW was heavily influenced by Tudor church music (you hear that in his moments of agnostic spiritual ecstasy) and I suspect the brief lesson/s he had from Ravel might explain why he is often (not always...he can gallumph) more translucent than what went before.

Today:

Arnold - Symphonies 1 & 2

[Balladeer]

Lost Generation - Horenstein Ensemble, Barbara Krieger (soprano) and Julien Salemkour (p) (Acousence Records)
play music of international composers who lost their lives during WW I (George Butterworth, Rudi Stephan, Cecil Coles) 

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, A Lark Ascending said:

If you come across Holst's 'The Hymn of Jesus' for a buck, give it a go.

 

Sounds like something that might be worth more than a buck, maybe? I'm open to checking it out at a lesser price, for sure.

[HutchFan]

On 7/21/2016 at 1:21 AM, A Lark Ascending said:

Disc 2 of the Ruggles - love the straightforward hymn at the end after two discs of gritty beauty. Also particularly liked the solo piano 'Evocations'. 

Yes, much of his music is very powerful. Love those MTT recordings!  

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Here's another batch of stuff by yet another American composer whose works I yet to hear performed live. I think I would really enjoy hearing these, they seem pretty meaty and/or visceral without being in the least bit glaring.

Good friend of and early influence on Jim Hall. I have this album, but the one time I listened it didn't make much of an impression on me:

https://www.amazon.com/Erb-Symphony-Overtures-Concerto-Percussionist/dp/B0028VFIO2/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1469472585&sr=1-8&keywords=donald+erb

[JSngry]

I was in the mood for what I thought it might be, and it was just enough that, and just enough not that, to be fun. What I like about it in particular is that there are moments of big ol' UGLY clusterations that are attacked with a vigor that is almost Kenton-ish in its refusal to even consider subtlety as an option, lest it be confused with ambiguity or indifference. I like that, just as I like that there's a lot more to the pieces than just those moments.

I have found Erb in general to be a good repeatable listen, though. Don't have all THAT much by him, though, but it's not like he's one of those mallwalk stores where you just walk by, look in, say, oh, that's here, good, and never stop or look again. OTOH, not sure that I spend hours buying a new wardrobe there either. Something in between, maybe like when you're there, you'll stop in and have a soda and talk to the owner, say hi to everybody, and then leave refreshed.

[Peter Friedman]

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.18, K.456 - Argerich / Jochum

Mendelssohn - Octet Op.20

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

Op.74/1 and Op.77/1

[A Lark Ascending]

23 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sounds like something that might be worth more than a buck, maybe? I'm open to checking it out at a lesser price, for sure.

You have to be careful with Holst - a lot of his early music has been recorded and most of it is hard to distinguish from run of the mill Edwardian stuff. 

Things get interesting from Beni Mora - chorally look out for the sets of the 'Hymns from the Rig Veda' - he was fascinated by the east and learnt Sanskrit - unlike his earlier music these pieces are crystal clear. 'The Hymn of Jesus' is quite different from most choral music of the period with a Byzantine influence in text.

I'm very fond of his lesser known 20s music - small scale pieces, increasingly influenced by neoclassicism. Because he never produced anything on the scale of The Planets again he's often seen as having lost his touch. But I regularly return to that music. There are a couple of old Lyrita discs - one by Boult and another by Holst's daughter that cover the ground well.

'''''

William Alwyn - Symphony 1 (twice) - late-Romantic Briish music with its own character; the only disappointment is the ending which is a bit hackneyed - lots of grand punctuation marks.

Arnold - Symphony 3

Birtwistle - Carman Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum; Silbury Air; Secret Theatre - also twice. Can't pretend to understand this even after ten years of listening but it certainly packs a punch. Like listening to tectonic plates grinding away beneath one another. I'm on Salisbury Plain and passed Silbury  Hill yesterday so this seemed appropriate. I believe Birtwistle lives in Wiltshire - I might pop in for tea.

 

On 25 July 2016 at 6:43 PM, HutchFan said:

Yes, much of his music is very powerful. Love those MTT recordings!  

I was glad to see this appear a couple of years back - had never heard Ruggles before but remember a DG record in the 70s with Suntreader on that I liked the name of but never bought.

i've enjoyed listening to those 'back woods' American composers of late - Partch, Crumb etc. Always up for a wander up the footpaths off the A roads.

[l p]

05/26/1951 I Vespri Siciliani @ Firenze, Teatro Comunale (florence, italy)

Edited July 26, 2016 by l p

[Peter Friedman]

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

[A Lark Ascending]

Hugh Wood - Symphony/Scenes from Comus - the Symphony deserves a life in the concert hall. Two or three decades old now and I believe a fuss was made when it came out. I play it once or twice a year - you really hear the Berg influence.

Alwyn - Symphony 2

Birtwistle - String Quartet: The Tree of Strings; 9 Movements for String Quartet

Finzi - Violin Concerto (reconstruction)

Vaughan Williams - Five Tudor Ortraits; Five Mystical Songs - the former is RVW in hon nailed boots but rather fun; the latter an absolute gem with lots of those otherworldly chord progressions that are one of his finger prints.

[l p]

 

[StarThrower]

Wozzeck

[l p]

04/14/1957 Milano, Teatro alla Scalla