2016 Rolling Classical Listening Thread

Also in regard to less famous holst you need to hear Egdon Heath, it's an almost twenty minute tone poem evoking the opening pages of a Thomas Hardy novel where hardy is just describing the landscape. It's practically ambient.

bookmarked

<3 u Jon

this is more minimalist and it probably belongs in the boomkat classical music thread (awful thread title by the way), but last year julien marchal's insight was in my top 5

<3 u too sleeve lol when you listed your permaGOAT five bands in that thread yesterday I was like "wait are you me???"

aw

you are an endless fount of pressing/conductor/recording wisdom regarding classical. One of my "serious" pre-marriage relationships was with a classically trained (Interlochen etc) violin gal, and I have a distinct memory of being with her in some classical CD store circe 1991 and asking her "why are these CDs so cheap?" and having her explain the whole "it matters which orchestra, which conductor, which take, which engineer" thing to me. it's daunting! your recommendations really help.

A re-release of R. Murray Schafer's Loving is coming up on Centrediscs. This clip sounds great: https://soundcloud.com/centrediscs/scene-1

listening to Mendelssohn. nothing really exciting to say about that. i mostly listen to Mendelssohn cuz i love Brahms. i'm a romantic at heart...

I never listened to the mendelssohn cello sonatas until a few months ago. They are super great.

boulez's scriabin
kreisleriana
murail's piano work

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/07/arts/music/marino-formenti-fully-engaged-at-ny-phil-biennial.html

who in kreisleriana?

My faves: martha argerich dg, wilhelm kempff (mono not stereo), horowitz (sony not dg), perahia (sony)

Does anyone have any classical guitar recommendations?

argerich :)

this too....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1_Yjqj9xSY

her recording of kreisleriana is the one solo recording i know of hers where i really feel the impact of THE LEGENDARY ARGERICH tbh. Several of her concerto recordings do it for me too.

evan i think sund4r will have words for you

Evan, are you looking for recommendations of guitarists/recordings or compositions? For playing or listening?

Guitarists/recording/listening. I love classical guitar but I know almost nothing about what's out there.

Segovia of course, but beyond him.

Chihara's guitar concerto
George Crumb's chamber pieces written for David Starobin (Songs Drones and Refrains of Death, Mundus Canis and Quest) (the first one is electric, the other two not)
Boulez Le Marteau Sans Maitre has some sweet ass guitar writing in it
Jerry Goldsmith's film score for Under Fire is virtually a classical guitar concerto

I bet the solo guitar arrangements made by takemitsu are good

Another pseudo guitar concerto film score: John Barry's Deadfall

Will be back later this evening with recommendations.

Thanks Jon! And thanks in advance Sund4r

Found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-yLS9tz1Xc

I'll focus on players first, since that's what you asked about:

If you're a n00b, you'll want to get your hands on some Julian Bream. Along with Segovia, he was probably the most important guitarist of the 20th century. He had better taste in composers, though. This is one collection I've listened to a lot but sometimes there are huge and very affordable collections available on iTunes.

They were obviously different but imo both played in a style that emphasized the player, with significant liberties in interpretation. Younger players are often more a little more faithful to the score, which I sometimes prefer. Some to look for: Christopher Parkening, Marcin Dylla, Thomas Viloteau. I have Dylla's Chittarra Giocosa, which includes the Ginastera sonata. Parkening's recordings of Villa-Lobos's "Douze Etudes" are v good imo. "Etude 11" is my favourite guitar piece to play and possibly even to listen to.

A couple of the Latin American greats: Roberto Aussel, Alvaro Pierri. Aussel's recording of the Ginastera sonata (some people's OPO for 20th c guitar music) is definitive. Pierri might have my favourite sound of any classical guitarist. This is a good album: it gives a good sampling of compositions by Leo Brouwer, one of the key 20th century guitar composers.

One piece that is hugely important to me that can be hard to find recordings of is Reginald Smith Brindle's "El Polifemo de Oro". Bream recorded it on an LP called something like "20th Century Guitar Music" but I believe that recording is OOP. There's a perfectly good recording by Eduardo Pascal that's out there.

I got to see the ginastera piece live in a concert here, preceding a crazy vocal and percussion piece. It was impressive.

*often a little more faithful

Rolling Classical Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist
^ will update in early February

franco donatoni's pieces for small ensembles ("algo" is one in particular i can name w/o checking) make good use of guitar

http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/182clementi.html

Ending last year, and beginning this year, I've been on a Per Norgard deep dive. Not even sure I'd ever heard of him until I started this, but I can't believe that was even possible given how his music lines up so closely with stuff I already like. So far:

Voyage Into the Golden Screen - where he uses his "infinity series" in the second part of this to create a kind of ever-changing melodic line, harmonically based on the harmonic overtone series. It should sound overly simple and kind of boring, but it's hypnotic.

Symphony 2 - takes up where Voyage left off, and expands the piece. Like a meeting of minimalism, spectralism and serialism

Symphony 3 - Much grander in scale, and compositionally more involved (not just based on an automatic reading of the infinity series). Almost cinematic, but unfolds like a giant, lumbering god falling to earth, and whose golden guts spill over everything in a terrible/beautiful way

Gilgamesh - an opera. Compositionally doesn't seem as complex as the preceding pieces, and the constant use of the harmonic series gets a little stale. Also shares some vibe with Stockhausen's Stimmung (a piece that I also think should be about 10 mins long, before it becomes silly), but still is hard to really argue with these harmonies since they seem so intrinsically pretty to me.

Libra - almost like a song cycle, for choir, guitar and tenor soloist. This is one of my favorite Norgard pieces, and could almost see performing it myself if I had a choir to work with. Great melodies, more harmonic series-based chords, and the guitar is integrated into everything in a lovely way. This is a great example of how modern classical music can be both ambitious and immediately appealing

Singe die Garten - a choral piece that seems of the same cloth as Libra, but with piano instead of guitar. He used this melody in several other pieces (including the end of Symphony 3), and if I had to pick one piece that sums up this period of Norgard, it would be this one

All of the above pieces are from the late 60s and early 70s. After that, he changed styles a bit, dropping the overtone series as his harmonic basis, and moving into stuff that I hear as more typical of new music and contemporary classical. His string quartets 6-10 disc is a good representation of this, and I am still working through them (#10 seems closest to what my ears are ready for), and his symphonies 4-8 also engage in often highly dissonant, rhythmically agitated/disjointed styles. Where before he seemed like a son of Messiaen and Ligeti, here he has almost a Varese-like flair for violent progression. But like I say, still working through, and hoping my musical vocabulary can keep up.

Sund4r, thank you very much! I am at least familiar with Segovia already and have at least 4 LPs of his playing. Where I felt clueless was whether or not X guitarist beyond him was respectable or not in a blind search. I'll enjoy something if I enjoy it of course, but I'd rather seek out the respected or recommended performers by those who are in the know. That being said, thanks again for the recommendations! I'll attempt to seek them out now at work and will report back if I can and if something stands out.

This is my favorite discovery so far after diving in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PyosCFXfrU

Evan, David Starobin is another player who has made a lot of recordings of works written for him specifically in addition to other guitar repertory. He owns Bridge Records so his discography is extensive.

Dominique-- yeah it took me ages to get round to trying Norgard too and when I did he had an immediate impact. I haven't spent enough time with him yet tbh and it sounds like Libra is one I don't have that I need to get asap

they don't have the magnus lindberg pieces i was listening to the other day on youtube, but if you've never checked him out you should. he does clarinet concertos and works for percussion and accordion and all kinds of things. hard to find on cd though. i can hear scott walker moaning over this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asrb-9F5_ow

Thanks Scott!

Oops, misread. I meant thanks Jon!

i'm in the 17th century. was kinda uninspired by the Schutz i was listening to (double choir motets), but the Lully i'm playing (pieces de symphonie) is properly rousing what with all the fanfares and the like.

Np, Evan. I didn't know the Yupanqui piece, actually, so thanks for the link. A couple more recommendations:

For a young trio doing more contemporary American music, I like these guys. Last Light is a nice album. You can hear some of it here.

The Assad Brothers: this was a nice disc of Piazolla. Just really virtuosic, beautiful playing.

Also, for contemporary music, William Beauvais! Traces was an album I loved. (Full disclosure: I studied with him about a decade ago.)

Does anyone have any classical guitar recommendations?

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/185/MI0003185725.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Does anyone have any classical guitar recommendations?

This is one I keep coming back to.
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/143/MI0001143905.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Thanks, all! I can never get enough of it. I'll just have to devise a way to have it constantly be playing all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfhqh0u20c

I listened to a bit of the Mesirca/Casseus and it sounds right up my alley. (I see now that he was Marc Ribot's teacher!) I will definitely look for the whole album.

*Casseus was Ribot's teacher, not Mesirca.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chEH-zl0uHs

Mesirca plays Ribot

listening to Webern and i don't think it ever occurred to me that half the dramatic movie music scores i've ever listened to were based on his stuff. or it feels like it right now anyway. those strings!

Ok now THAT is a fresh take.

i'd never actually thought that before! but maybe i've just listened to a ton of old soundtracks since the last time i listened to webern.

webern i was playing was von karajan doing passacaglia/5 movements for string orchestra op.5/6 pieces for orchestra op.6/symphony op.20.

WTG Julia Wolfe

i didn't see her name on the list; good for her!

I just saw this programme: http://worcesterchambermusic.org/into-the-abyss

I was expecting to like the Messiaen but I was actually surprised by the Schulhoff and Copland pieces, which I didn't know before. The Copland is a serial work from 1950 and great!

I've just started really spending time with Copland, like just these past couple of days. It's an exciting prospect -- large body of work, a lot of interesting phases, super interesting to read about

I am shocked and incredibly bummed at the news that Zoltan Kocsis, indisputably one of the most talented and distinctive pianists playing, has died in his early 60s.

I don't know how much of his large Philips discography is in print right now and thus on Spotify etc but his massive unparalleled solo Bartok cycle, Bartok Two-piano Sonata with Dezso Ranki, Debussy Images and Estampes, and Liszt transcription of Wagner's Parsifal are huge peaks in piano history.

He was full steam into a second act career as a conductor and orchestrator in Hungary which was yielding great recordings and I thought we'd get much more from him.

Kocsis came up through the Hungarian scholastic great-pianist machine at the same time as Ranki, Schiff, and Jando, all of whom are still playing; his musicianship probably resembles Ranki the most out of those, kind of an impossible to dissect blend of control and wildness.

This is a pretty cool recent sax quartet: https://battletrance.bandcamp.com/album/blade-of-love

brilliant album and no doubt the best sax quartet in the world right now, well the only other existing one I've heard was the Chicago Reed Quartet the other year.

neetelbaers posts all this great classical stuff on dime and i long ago gave up trying to keep up with it, but today i'm listening to his recording from yesterday's semi-finals of the august-everding percussion contest. helping me get a better understanding of contemporary solo percussion repertoire (the oldest stuff here is scelsi).

that battle trance recording is pretty dope

First performance of a recently rediscovered early Stravinsky piece
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/stravinsky-funeral-song-valery-gergiev-maryinsky-st-petersburg

Listened to the first disc of this (Symphonies 1 & 4) today:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51BJpWdCHgL._SS500.jpg

Followed by the first disc of this (Quartets 1, 2 & 3):

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51byLeWSQQL._SS500.jpg

What'd you think of Sibelius 4? (If this was ur first hearing of it)

Oh, I've had the set for a few years. Great stuff.

I was just pointed to this today. Kepler Quartet's recent recording of three of Ben Johnston's microtonal string quartets. They sound amazing imo.

xposted from the bach thread, but this is so fucking good

http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2330767.1440681924!/image/image.jpg

Ha, so, apparently, the set I linked was recorded in 2011. It's still awesome! They recorded #s 6-8 this year.

any more recommendations with age of elegance harpsichord compositions or classical Spanish baroque guitar would be welcome. ^^^ That xp Freiburger/Bach recording is really hitting the spot for me tonight. I was listening to some 18th century classical Spanish guitar whilst quite drunk last week and thinking it almost sounded like fusion in places.

Do you remember what composers or guitarists you were listening to?

It was ensemble kapsberger - santiago de murcia codex. I think these compositions were only discovered in the 40's and might have been a bit out there for the 18th century.

Started listening on Spotify. From what I understand of the AMG review, it seems to suggest that they took a lot of liberties with the compositions, essentially creating a modern ensemble orchestration, so that might explain the fusion feel.

I noticed AMG didn't like it from google, but I'm one of those ad-block babies who ignores ad ridden sites. I suppose that does add some shade, but wasn't this some lost work that turned up in the 40's? i can't remember if I made that bit up. But it does seem fair to interpret a work how you feel does justice to it best is not an approach that should be completely discouraged.

No, you didn't make it up. Pauley and Koonce confirm that it was discovered by Saldivar in 1943 and identified by Lorimer ≈ 40 years later.

By the way, I wasn't passing judgment on the musicians (and I'm finding the recording enjoyable), just saying that the fusion quality (which I also hear) was probably not entirely due to de Murcia being ahead of his time.

You dig any other classical Spanish guitar recordings? I haven't really gone beyond random slsk/youtube searches, it is something I feel would be worth delving into much further.

Well, I'm more of a modern guy but the obvious Classical composer I really like is Sor. I like Sor a lot; "Marche Funebre" is one of my favourite pieces to play. You could try Duro's recording here? There are also the seven pieces on this disc that I've owned for a long time. The Giuliani concerto here is the recording I own. I should pull it out again. It's a recording I've listened to a lot. For the Baroque era, I mostly like Bach tbh.

That's all standard repertoire, though, and doesn't quite sound like the Kapsberger/de Murcia recording.

for baroque harpsichord, pancrace royer's stuff fucking kills. i'm not sure i'd describe it as "elegant" per se, but it's monstrously awesome. rameau does good harpsichord stuff too.