What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, StarThrower said:

Very good indeed ....

[alankin]

Now playing, CD 25:
Agustín Barrios Mangoré 
– La catedral
– Madrigal for guitar
– Minuet
– Mazurka apasionata
– Estudio
– Preludio
– Un sueno en la Floresta
– Waltz for Guitar Op.8/3 in D minor
– Cueca
– Aire de zamba
– Suite Andina: Aconquija
– Maxixa
– Una limosna por el amor de Dios "El ultimo canto"
– Choro da saudade
– Villancico de Navidad
— John Williams (guitar) (Columbia MasterWorks / Sony Classical)

 
 

[StarThrower]

Levine/CSO & Chorus

[alankin]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Violin Concerto K271a/271i (doubtful attrib) / Concertone for 2 violins and orchestra K190/186E
— Henryk Szeryng (violin), K.190- Gerard Poulet, violin, Richard Morgan, oboe, Norman Jones, cello – New Philharmonia Orchestra – Alexander Gibson (Decca)

[A Lark Ascending]

[Balladeer]

17 hours ago, alankin said:

Now playing, CD 25:
Agustín Barrios Mangoré 
– La catedral
– Madrigal for guitar
– Minuet
– Mazurka apasionata
– Estudio
– Preludio
– Un sueno en la Floresta
– Waltz for Guitar Op.8/3 in D minor
– Cueca
– Aire de zamba
– Suite Andina: Aconquija
– Maxixa
– Una limosna por el amor de Dios "El ultimo canto"
– Choro da saudade
– Villancico de Navidad
— John Williams (guitar) (Columbia MasterWorks / Sony Classical)

 
 

Barrios is fantastic and La Catedral magesterial. As far as I remember there´s a gorgeous prelude that precedes it. Don´t miss it!

[StarThrower]

Cello Concerto-Truls Mork Radio France/Myung-Whun Chung

[Peter Friedman]

Beethoven - Piano Trio No.6, Op.70/2

Brahms - Violin Sonata No.1, Op.78

[soulpope]

[StarThrower]

[Peter Friedman]

Disc 2 - Fantasie Op.17, Bunte Blatter Op.99, Arabeske Op.18

[JSngry]

On 11/26/2016 at 4:39 AM, JSngry said:

certainly not easy music or an easy opinion about it.

Starting to form an opinion after listening more to the music and reading more about the man...I think his high opinion of his work might veer towards self-awarded more than justly earned. Just veer, mind you.

[StarThrower]

No.2 "St Florian"  Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/Segerstam

[rostasi]

A friend of mine, who lives in Norway now, studied with Shapey.
When we lived in Chicago, he used to tell me these stories every
week about Shapey's temper tantrums and complete dislike for
contemporary classical music of many kinds. Rarely had a nice
word to say about fellow composers and/or teachers at the U.
of Chicago. He was an absolute tyrant most of the time -
as a teacher and, just generally, as a human being.

[JSngry]

His music, as heard on this disc, anyway, is a lot noisier than it is weighty. Al ot of times people will talk about this area of composition and say that "it all sounds the same", and that's just lazy listening. But here...a lot of it literally sounds the same, not just within a piece, that's to be expected, but across pieces, there's some pretty noticeable repetition of melodic and rhythmic cells that ultimately have me thinking that this is a guy who found "gesture" and "substance" to mean the same thing...and who would probably violently oppose the notion if it was ever applied to him.

I'll probably listen to a little more of the guy at some point, but not necessarily soon.

I mean, I really, really wanted to like this one, and sorta still can, but...what do you call fist-shaking in a vacuum?...there's no air left in the music for all the gesturing going on. And even the quieter stuff feels like that, at least to me.

Maybe I'm just one more of the people who didn't "understand" him.

 

[JSngry]

On 11/25/2016 at 7:40 AM, JSngry said:

 

Interesting...

Again, just because. Another guy who was apparently a bit of a "scold", albeit nowhere near as much as Shapey, I guess, and there is a lot more to his music than to Shapey's imo.

However...I'm left with wondering is this a road out of something or a road to something, because...I guess you never know if there's a difference until/unless you do or don't get there?

with both this guy and Shapey, though, there's a thought that won't go away that this is the type of music I wanted to hear out of the Kenton/Neophonic thing instead of most of what actually happened (and yes, I have bought the live things...very disappointed). This kind of, for lack of a better term "accessible serialism" (well, obvious, anyway) seems like a kind of missing link between "Academic" & "Hollywood".

[Larry Kart]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

His music, as heard on this disc, anyway, is a lot noisier than it is weighty. Al ot of times people will talk about this area of composition and say that "it all sounds the same", and that's just lazy listening. But here...a lot of it literally sounds the same, not just within a piece, that's to be expected, but across pieces, there's some pretty noticeable repetition of melodic and rhythmic cells that ultimately have me thinking that this is a guy who found "gesture" and "substance" to mean the same thing...and who would probably violently oppose the notion if it was ever applied to him.

I'll probably listen to a little more of the guy at some point, but not necessarily soon.

I mean, I really, really wanted to like this one, and sorta still can, but...what do you call fist-shaking in a vacuum?...there's no air left in the music for all the gesturing going on. And even the quieter stuff feels like that, at least to me.

Maybe I'm just one more of the people who didn't "understand" him.

 

One of Shapey's problems, perhaps THE main problem, is that his music is rhythmically turgid.

[JSngry]

I've just heard the one cd, but...yeah. 

I don't think that it's just the writing, though. Iirc, everything on this record was conducted by him or otherwise hadhis participation, aand jeez...is it too harsh to say that it sounds like the music of a first class asshole? I keep hearing things that could be stirring, maybe should be stirring, but all I end up with is awww man, why'd you have to do THAT to it, and in the end, my only answer is that this guy was an asshole whose biggest block was simply that he was an asshole.

Then again I never knew the man and have only heard this record 5-6 times over the last few weeks. But if attraction can be instant, why not the opposite? Either way, you can be wrong over time, but not always.

[Dave Garrett]

[A Lark Ascending]

Sensational opera recording. Second time I've watched this and it grips from start to finish. Nadja Michael is electrifying in the title role, alternatively alluring and utterly repellent. It's not hard to see why this opera (and the Wilde play it was based on) caused such outrage 100 + years ago. 

Ittttttttttttsssssss Christmasssssssss! Though over half of this is Easter. 

[soulpope]

[soulpope]

[Peter Friedman]

[T.D.]

17 hours ago, JSngry said:

...

with both this guy and Shapey, though, there's a thought that won't go away that this is the type of music I wanted to hear out of the Kenton/Neophonic thing instead of most of what actually happened (and yes, I have bought the live things...very disappointed). This kind of, for lack of a better term "accessible serialism" (well, obvious, anyway) seems like a kind of missing link between "Academic" & "Hollywood".

Can't comment on Kenton/Neophonic, but a couple of Euro serialists I find enjoyable are  Barraqué and Dallapiccola. The "Complete   Barraqué " on cpo is very good except for a horrible performance of the Piano Sonata (Woodward and Henck are in-print alternatives; I like the OOP Chen). There's a good recording of D's Il prigionero by Salonen on Sony (haven't heard the obscure Ulisse).

[StarThrower]