2016 Rolling Classical Listening Thread

if you are listening to classical, you can make a note of it here. links and pictures are fine. old or mod is fine.

I'm listening to Douglas Lilburn's Symphony no. 2. I've never listened to his stuff before. He's from all the way over in New Zealand, and that's a long way from me. I'm waiting to a hear a little kiwi flavour....though this CD does include his Aotearoa Overture, maybe i'll find it there. Plus, doesn't he kinda look like that Captain who wasn't Captain Kirk from the famous space wheelchair episode of Star Trek in this picture:

http://www.douglaslilburn.org/gallery/atl/PAColl-2547-04.jpg

i also didn't give this thread a punny title so feel free to make up your own if you like. you know:

How I Could Just Telemann: The 2016 Classical Listening Thread

You Can't Handel The Truth: The 2016 Classical Listening Thread

I just don't feel sure of my punning abilities in 2016. I'm getting kinda slow.

(Lilburn's mentor was Ralph Vaughan Williams and it shows in this. I'd like to hear his 60's electronic work!)

recording sounds in a barn, 1963.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/files/16049-atl.jpg

lilburn <3 need to get around to checking that collection of his electronic work that came out ages ago now

if you've got a spare ten or so hours, excellent radio documentary: http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/douglaslilburn

yikes! maybe not all 10 hours...

feel bad i've never listened to him before now. but, you know, i get around to everything eventually, god willing.

now listening to Kodaly conducts Kodaly. CD reissue of an old (1960) Supraphon release. i lucked into a HUGE collection of Czech/Hungarian classical vinyl years ago and i dined out on it for years. it's not like it falls from the trees in the U.S. anyway, Kodaly doing his Concerto for Orchestra is a wonder. the strings really zing.

(If i won the Powerball I would totally start a world-class Stuff That Never Gets Played In The U.S. Orchestra. Kodaly would be in there along with a zillion other people. Though Zoltan probably gets more play here than a lot of folks. and i would build a state of the art music hall of course...)

listening to Magnus Lindberg - Action/Situation/Signification

original 1987 Finlandia CD with the Toimii Ensemble/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen

okay, my Powerball Orchestra would play this on the opening night of our new grand concert hall. never heard it before. very cool.

I think someone already initiated a rolling classical 16 thread but I'll board this one if it helps it stay afloat!

Boulez crazy for a week now over here, reading lots of old interviews, wallowing in his Mahler Bartok and Debussy recordings and of course his own shit, especially in the more sensual dg versions.

Like Bowie, Boulez was as much an ethic and a way of processing information as a maker of art, and in that sense he isn't going anywhere.

i searched for a thread! i didn't see one. if there is one link it and we can use that instead. don't matter to me.

Rolling Classical (Late 2015-)

ah! okay. does that dash mean that the thread is rolling forever...should i post there instead?

The other one is quite short as well so I'm fine with either option. This on has 2016 and the kids love new things...

This one is easier to search for. Let's keep this one, now that the other is linked.

this is true. nothing like a shiny....classical thread to get the kids excited...

x-post

okay, well, i was listening to liszt for a while. (tzimon barto playing the piano...and if you play liszt it helps to have a name like tzimon barto...and then the faust symphony with beecham conducting the hell out of stuff.)

now i'm playing holst's the hymn of jesus/wandering scholar/ode to death/choral hymns from the rig veda.

which is just awesome music. and i love finding good holst recordings that aren't those damn planets. not easy to do!

tzimon before:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BDcNpQrjL._SY355_.jpg

tzimon after:

http://www.surech.ch/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/TzimonBarto.png

dude got swole...

Tzimon took that name for himself as a component of the quest for stardom, actually. His given name was Ted Brown or something. People lolled at him when he came on the scene but I've heard his live Liszt transcendental etudes were pretty sensational. Then he disappeared for awhile and now he records for ondine and specializes is playing everything super slowly. I'd like to hear Dolph Lundgren's take on Liszt.

Scott is that the holst album on decca/argo? That thing is so good. I got it on the eloquence cd reissue. The Rig Veda hymns are a slice of heaven to me, that harp writing yesss

Np Shostakovich Viola Sonata with Kim kashkashian and Robert levin. I love this piece so much. So sardonic and pitch black.

The Holst i was playing was an 80's CD reissue of 70's recordings on EMI. London Philharmonic/London Symphony Chorus/Sir Charles Graves - English Opera Group/English Chamber Orchestra/Steuart Bedford.

and it sounds amazing. a great CD sound-wise and great performances.

also Choristers of St. Paul's Cathedral Choir on The Hymn of Jesus. can't forget them!

Oh huh yeah I've never heard those! Groves is good. I love some of his delius recordings a lot. There was just a big emi box of all his recordings of British music.

Keep an eye out for anything holst on the Argo or decca labels conducted by his daughter Imogen Holst. That series is awesome. And recorded in the 60s by decca geniuses.

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.

Jerry goldsmith definitely had a few Webern + modular synths moments in the late 60s

Leonard Rosenman in the "fantastic voyage" OST as well.

Mostly though I get the silver age soundtrack vibe from Bartok, Stravinsky and mid period Schoenberg. And Britten.

Mahlerian moments less common in film score than you would expect (there's an early Elmer Bernstein score for Drango that has a real mahlerian flavor...)

goldsmith's music to poltergeist linked to webern here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=NkJFKUEweskC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=webern+jerry+goldsmith&source=bl&ots=EVKO7zS5bG&sig=zzkj3qJCCsPgoRUN0Sg74rLYuCo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmjYG_vLvKAhXCcT4KHUWJDtMQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=webern%20jerry%20goldsmith&f=false

now i wanna hear his Freud soundtrack:

"An utterly brilliant score, Freud gave Goldsmith the opportunity to psychologically probe the human mind. He merged his own musical style with the Vienna school of Berg, Webern and Schoenberg to produce an agitated and thoroughly captivating work."

stefan wolpe taught elmer bernstein composition and stefan wolpe was taught by...........you guessed it.

Freud is great great great. Varese Sarabande released the actual film score several years back (maybe still in print?) but there was also an LP in the 60s iirc.

Cues from Freud tracked into some scenes of Alien by Ridley Scott over goldsmith's objections (jerry of course wanted the stuff he wrote for Alien to be the music for Alien).

My webern with modular synths comment had jerry's Illustrated Man score in mind specif

both webern and bernard herrmann were huge Ives fans in the 30's. it was actually herrmann i was thinking of when listening today. stabby strings and general foreboding feeling. i think i need more webern in my life.

i like the Complete Webern remake boulez recorded for DG more than his complete Sony set. on the DG set he makes it gorgeous.

reading a review now of karajan doing berg and webern and they mention Psycho...

the disc where James Levine conducts sets of orch pieces by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg is considered all-time by almost everyone

i'm always leery of von k. his aesthetic is too glutinous and blended for me.

i am really liking karajan for my beloved brahms these days cuz he gives him more bite than other people do. i don't like my brahms toothless!

I do like his brahms 1st a lot. I agree with you that orchestral brahms needs high impact. In the chamber music that can go too far though - I've heard the piano quintet as an all out assault and it's too much.

His shostakovich 10th is great too.

such a weird weird guy karajan.

enjoying leonard slatkin and st. lou symph doing barber right now. symphony no.1 and piano concerto. does not sound like movie music.

best hair though. karajan.

http://img2-ak.lst.fm/i/u/770x0/151d735b334244eaa491b860523ee78b.jpg

oh hell yeah you know he never ventured out his door without that thing sculpted to perfection.

We can't get started on conductor hair though, we'll be image bombing this thread all day.

xpost loool

youthful membership in the nazi party? Nevermind that now: pet my hawk

massively successful hairdo right here. though eschenbach is no slouch in the grooming department either.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wrti/files/styles/medium/public/201502/KarajanEschenbach.jpg

herbert is almost ian mccullach-like in profile there

i know I'm middle aged bc I can't remember how to spell Echo singer's name anymore.

the more i think about it... all my favorite conductors were bald except Boulez and bernstein

beecham, monteux, ansermet, furtwangler, not a comb between them

[insert crack about knowing you're middle-aged bc you know who Echo & the Bunnymen are]

listening to the 1991 cd reissue of janos starker's famous mercury living presence album of schumann/lalo/saint-saens. man, does it ever sound great. it'll fill your room with awesomeness. viva compact disc!

i looooove the way those are recorded. His mercury cd of the bach cello suites is my favorite one to listen to.

(takes notes)

btw i just posted a huge post abt shostakovich to the star wars 7 spoilers thread

jon, i have to admit, i can't fathom anyone preferring anything over rostropovich's bach cello suites, but each to his own!

i was just listening to yo-yo ma doing them. i dunno, more than one person has done good versions. starker was a beast.

one of my favorite boxed sets of all time is henri honegger doing solo bach on telefunken. but some of that is due to the recordings/vinyl that just make you fall out of your chair they sound so amazing.

Fave cello suites recordings of the ones I know

Starker (Mercury)
Queyras (harmonia mundi)
Cohen (virgin)

I wasn't crazy about the Rostropovich ones. I guess for a heavy breathing type approach I might go for maisky?

Oh and Wispelwey! (Channel Classics)

i can't connect with starker's cell suites, personally. they certainly sound nice but i guess i'm just partial to rostro's colouring

try cohen, he is playing on a historical instrument but using a pretty romantic/expressive style. But generally uptempo.

Anyway: MUST BUY ALERT FOR ALL LISZTIANS

I just got a recent Liszt recital CD on Avie Classics by the Australian pianist Olivia Sham, titled Liszt: The Art Of Remembering. This might be her first CD? IDK.

It is maybe the best Liszt recital recording I have heard of the entire digital era. Run don't walk if you like Liszt solo piano music at all. I think it's on Spotify and iTunes.

The selection of pieces is so smart and impeccable. She has all 4 of the Valses Oubliees (I have been obsessed with these pieces especially the amazing and underrecorded #3) sprinkled across a program that mixes up the grim and dissonant late pieces with a few of the earlier filigree-arabesque nocturnes, three of the Transcendental Etudes, the perkily atonal Bagatelle Sans Tonalite, and Liszt's famous transcription of the satanic finale of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique (she has a programme for her recital sequence, actually: she wrote the liner notes herself, which are a straight faced remix of the concert notes Berlioz wrote for Symphonie Fantastique except with Berlioz' 'artist' protagonist replaced by Liszt himself. She justifies each piece on the disc with a short paragraph describing its place in the surreal berlioz-style 'story').

The pianos: she performs on two different absolutely beautiful-sounding 19th century pianos, with a few pieces played on a modern Steinway grand. Cool move - it's a playlist of pianos as well as pieces.

The playing: holy crap this pianist has the goods. The swashbuckling flurries, the swooning dreaminess, the strange sideways shifts into twinkling surrealism, the medieval tunefulness, the inconsolable depression, the Debussy-etude-anticipating modernness of the 3rd Valse Oubliee. Always with wonderful rubato even in the most daredevil pieces ('The Wild Hunt', the Berlioz finale) and none of the implacable steely sherman tankness you get from so so many modern pianists who play the difficult Liszt stuff.

I feel bad that I bought this used. I want to vote for this pianist to record more Liszt!

try cohen, he is playing on a historical instrument but using a pretty romantic/expressive style. But generally uptempo.

― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, January 21, 2016 9:43 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

will do, jon. cheers for the recommendation. the uptempo thing might put me off a bit. we're all so picky, aren't we!

listened to nielsen's symphonies 4 & 5 (blomstedt/san fran) which totally put me in a shoegaze dreamstate.

then i played rossini's stabat mater (pavarotti/kertesz/london symph and chorus) which was totally AWESOME and made me want to build and/or burn a church.

now i'm playing dvorak 1st symphony. cracked open a cd box of kubelik/berlin phil doing all 9 symphonies. which will take me until closing time at the olde recorde shoppe...

from last year's discovery of Music of the Spheres, decided to check out some recent recordings of the Rued Langgaard's string quartets (Nightengale Quartet, Da Capo). Wow, these are lovely, and other than the fact they do seem awfully "retro" in places, it's hard to believe that even in the face of modernist attitudes of the day, they didn't find some kind of audience. His slow movements in particular are gorgeous, and there are passages that he uses repetition in a way that, to my ears, clearly has some kinship with minimalism. Also, his forms can be weirdly simple, in almost a pop song kind of way, so things recur at moments that seem instinctively right to my ears, where they might have seemed different to someone in 1914 or thereabouts. Highly recommended, and the recordings are beautiful to boot.

okay the kubelik box sounds bad. took it off. really mushy sound. the recordings are from 1966 to 1977, so, you know, the sound will vary. but the first disc was making me snooze.

i put on van beinum/concertgebouw doing bruckner no.7 and it sounds MUCH better. and it was recorded in 1953...(sounds more alive anyway...)

(i've been struggling with bruckner since the 90's. i keep trying though. i'm plucky like that.)

Bruckner 9 is a good entry point IMO. He didn't finish it so it's shorter! And it has the most metal of his (always fairly metal) scherzo movements.

1960s berlin philharmonic recordings always sound mushy to me. Dvorak symphonies with classic stereo sound = the Rowicki recordings with the London SO on Philips. Nice dry and colorful sound, great performances.

Or anything pre-digital on Supraphon. The Karel Sejna recording of Dvorak 5 is heaven in a bottle even though it's mono.

You know how I feel about Nielsen 4 and 5. They should be as obligatory as the rite of spring! So good.

yah, supraphon dvorak i have on vinyl is all good.

would definitely be interested in hearing NEW dvorak on cd. will keep an eye out for the london/philips ones though.

Well, Jerusalem String Quartet have an awesome disc of Dvorak quartets on Harmonia Mundi. I don't have any recommendations for recent dvorak symphonic recordings though. I'll bet the Ivan Fischer ones on Channel Classics are good, he seldom disappoints.

i have a ton of dvorak on cd that i haven't even listened to yet but most of them are late 80's/early 90's reissues of old vinyl-era recordings. so, not much new. but i must have some that are cd-era contemporary. i will dig around.

harnoncourt did some dvorak discs not long ago w/concertgebouw that were supposed to be great

found a bruckner 9 cd in back with christoph von dohnanyi/cleveland. will check that out here tomorrow. (i am really digging all the dawn of CD discs i have. so many of them sound outstanding. classical people knew what was up. i'm actually a big fan of digital classical vinyl of the prehistoric era. rock people are still trying to figure it out...)

Dohnanyi/Cleveland are underrated. In fact, you need to hear them do bruckner!

felt bad for my vinyl so i put on a pristine 1st emi u.k. pressing of beecham doing schubert symphonies nos. 3 & 5. released in 1960. recorded in 1959. sounds like a dream. so nice. and yes i realize this thread will never be a hot spot if i go on about beecham playing schubert...

yeah i will listen to that bruckner disc tomorrow when i come in. will crank it to 11.

(also found haitink doing no.9 from 1981 on disc. if i am up for it maybe i'll compare and contrast.)

beecham and boulez are my two favorite conductors

well, more fair to say those two, monteux, ansermet and bernstein are my top 5

man, bruckner's 9th....i have a really hard time following the action. i keep drifting off...

i was playing haitink's version and i gave up and put on bruno walter's version.

i feel like bruno is holding my hand more. which i appreciate.

was bruckner on laudanum when he wrote this...

possibly!

But the rest of the symphonies are easily just as shoegazy as the 9th.

Even the scherzo isn't grabbing you?

bruno is definitely holding my attention. sometimes i forget it's playing though...

so, you know, i am in and out.

half simpleton, half god. that's what mahler called him.

you really have to let go of certain expectations of the usual argument and development structure. His paragraphs are real real long and you have to be willing to wallow in the stew. It's like thunderous ambient music.

idk i sound dumb

no, that sounds about right! yeah, i think it would help if i were stoned and not on coffee. i do see the appeal. that's why i've tried for so long. bruno really got me there for a minute. closer than anyone else has.

(but now i am listening to vaughan williams for some sweet relief....)

furtwangler's bruckner will make you feel like you're on the receiving end of real dramaturgy. None of it is well recorded enough to wallow in, but that may be to the better in a weird way.

the bruno walter is from 1960 and it sounds great.

the dying bruckner would get on his knees and pray to god that he could live long enough to finish the 9th. i like how it ends though.

I'm back on opera again, Rossini specifically

rossini was the best thing i heard yesterday. not an opera though. i was gonna crack open an opera after my vaughan williams interlude. i got a zillion of them and they will remain in my store forever.

the only rossini i have really rocked is a beecham album of the overtures. But that record is awesome.

more recent recordings of bruckner do him better justice imo -- my fave single recording is herreweghe's 5th

stabat mater is intense. that was the rossini i was rockin' yesterday.

i am going with bellini and callas right now though. la sonnambula.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJobIzO4uZM

so weird to be playing rachmaninoff and start singing eric carmen songs. i forget every time!

"Carmen thought that Rachmaninoff’s music was in the “public domain” and no copyright existed on it. Subsequent to the release of the album, he was contacted by the Rachmaninoff estate and informed otherwise. An agreement was reached in which the estate would receive 12 percent of the royalties from "All By Myself" as well as from "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", which was based on the third movement from Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2."

also: i almost started crying while playing sibelius this morning. feeling wistful.

have you all seen Colin Stetson's new project?

http://pitchfork.com/news/63205-colin-stetson-announces-new-album-sorrow-shares-trailer/

https://youtu.be/HkkQlupXb4o

I did see that, and actually got a chance to chat w him about it during a show about a year ago. I'm not really into the composer that much, but I will always love the idea of new artists (particularly ones who aren't known primarily for performing classical music) producing versions of classical works. From the sound samples I've heard, guessing his won't be of the ELP Pictures variety ;)

listening to rca disc of evgeny kissin doing prokofiev piano concerto no.3 and MAN is it something. like, almost shocking at times. electrifying? those kinds of words. so good. 1989 recording. gonna play it again.

I have Martha argerich for that concerto, stunning recording

Okay, this is one where I feel like I'm dipping into a shark tank BUT i compiled a Spotify list that attempts to be as close to the version/players/conductor/edition/publisher as possible with the conversation here... and I'm aware questions of sound fidelity may render the exercise not especially helpful to thread regulars. It's interesting to me though! Let me know if I've taken a radical step off the path anywhere... in many cases there are hundreds and hundreds of identical tracks of course and many are in public holding and listed as "99 CLASSIX TO CHILL BY" and while I avoid those, I may not always square up. In any case, I'll be back for more next month in case the 12 hour playlist here doesn't hold your attention.

ILM's Rolling Classical Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

<3

today's the birthday of my favorite composer Sibelius. I am spinning the new recording of his incidental music for the play Jedermann (Everyman) conducted by Leif Segerstam on Naxos. Segerstam is doing a series of S's incidental music for the label and there's already 4 discs out. I am a huge, huge fan of Sibelius' incidental theater music, it inhabits such a different world from his symphonies and tone poems. His enormous self-pressure is let up a bit there. It's kind of like Sibelius' b-sides, full of odd ideas, bits of strange atmosphere and great little self contained moments. Jedermann is particularly unusual, though, by far the most grim and brooding theater music he wrote (RIYL the slow movement of the 4th symphony) with chorus here and there, most notably in the closing Gloria In Excelsis Deo which has pretty avant garde choral writing (use of disorganized murmuring) that sounds more like it would have been composed in the 1960s.

Love you Sibelius.

Holy shit, nice work, forks!

I can't believe you found all those guitar pieces! Had no idea Bream's recording of "Polifemo" was even available in any format other than OOP old LPs.

New recording of a flute piece by Jeff Stadelman (full disclosure: my PhD advisor)

thanks... it was an arduous (but fun) project!

Oh, btw, not to be a dick but the other two movements (III and IV) of the Ginastera guitar sonata are available on the same Marcin Dylla album you used for the first two movements. I wasn't sure if you were intentionally just giving a sample or if you missed them.

Thanks for finding Kraft's recording of the Villa-Lobos!

Ah, Aussel sounds great on this Piazzolla.

Huh, I see now that there are a couple of recordings of "Polifemo" available on iTunes now, including Bream's. Listening to his is making me want to pull this score out again.

I wanted to share that you can buy Marc Blitzstein's "Show" piano pieces here:
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/981066-68P
if you've got Stealthy or some other spoofing extension installed (or if you are in the UK).

They're otherwise nearly impossible to get. For some reason, only the flac download option worked for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oyp8TJYlZs

Would there be interest in a ballot poll of notated 20th/21st century music? I think it might appeal to more people than the idea of a chamber music poll from a couple of years ago. I thought I might leave it at 'notated music' to keep categories clear enough. This would mean that a lot (but not all) of EA music would be left out. Ellington, Zappa, very early 20th century pop, and a lot of film and musical scores would probably also end up fitting in alongside the serious/art/high-culture/whatnot canon, which I'm OK with.

If a few people express interest, I'll suggest it on the ballot poll thread.

I never heard those Donatoni guitar pieces before, btw! Very cool.

I'd be up for that poll, I've been listening to a lot of modern and contemporary stuff lately.

Oh, and Jon, thanks for the Sibelius/Segerstam recommendation, I've liked the incidental/theatre music by him that I've heard, so I ordered the CD.

But I'm not sure whether it should be put in line in the ballot poll thread, otherwise it'll take 3 years before we can do the poll. ILM's classical contingent is fairly separate, I don't think there'll be much too much hassle if this poll and some alternative rock band poll run simultaneously.

Otm, I think it could skip the queue given the relatively modest crowd

Obv I would participate

Just found out about a new classical guitar piece by a guy who went to my grad programme (we didn't overlap by much; we met once iirc). The D string is tuned up a quarter-tone and the B string is tuned down a quarter-tone. I think it's really good. Recording: http://www.feliperibeiro.org/melancolira.mp3 . Score: http://www.feliperibeiro.org/melancolira.pdf

I'd probably still be up for that poll, btw. I was hoping to hear interest from at least a third other person.

The guitarist is Bruno Haller, btw.

I would be up for that poll. I need an excuse to listen to more classical/compositional music; I have a fair few scattered pieces in my library and a small handful of composers I like but my knowledge is very lacking.

I'd be up for the poll -- so it would be pieces, as opposed to composers?

Yes, pieces, as opposed to composers or recordings. OK, I'll set this up in the next week or two.

epic

Very cool!

IMO:

There should be a limit on # of nominations per ilxor, but since there won't be that many is us it should be a generous limit. But that will still keep the nom list from being just everything any of us like ever.

Works which are sets of smaller pieces but clearly packaged by the composer as a cycle to be performed as such should count as one work (Debussy preludes book I: a single work; Chopin nocturnes: not a single work; Chopin nocturnes opus 33: a single work; Bach Partitas: probably a single work since he did publish them at once as a set, even though probably did not expect anyone to play through all 6 at a go? Bach Easter Cantatas: not a single work). Career-spanning symphony cycles do not count no matter how coherent we think they are.

People should footnote their favorite recordings of the works they nominate if they want to, but it should be made clear to voters that the noms are for the work not the recording and not tied to any specific performance.

Voters should also stump for favorite recordings on their ballots!

Jon I went down that road too, specifically wondering how I was going to treat Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas -- but then I remembered 20th/21st Century!

I thought the poll was limited to modern/contemporary classical? So no Bach or Chopin.

xpost

No Bach or Chopin please.

Yeah starting it at 1900 would probably be the most straightforward.

I thought I'd start it at either 1900 or 1890 (after the Paris expo; dawn of Debussy's modern style).

I'm trying to work out about how much of a time investment this would be. (Anyone who has done this before, it would be great to hear your experience.) I might hold off until May, depending.

I think 1890s would be a better starting place too.

In my experience, running these polls will take some of your time, but not an indecent amoung, if you plan it properly. Limit the amount of nominations so you won't end up with a list of 10,000. Add the stuff people nominate to your excel table daily, so you won't have to do it all at once, once the nomination time is over. And do the same with vote tallying. IME doing the results thread is the most time-consuming part of it, unless there'll be a huge amount of voters, but I doubt it'll be so in this poll.

30m/night, tops?

1890 IMO, too much epochal shot gets cut off using 1900

Ugh prudish iOS autocorrect

We're still allowing film compositions right? If only so that I can make xyzzzzz unhappy

Yeah, my idea was to include any music that was composed and primarily stored in notated form. I was kind of assuming that ILM wasn't going to fill the poll with Tin Pan Alley hits but I'm willing to accept the possibility.

Happy with film music, its all post-1900 :-)

Integrate Your Series and Fill a Cloud-Chamber POLL: Ballot Poll for Notated Music Since 1890

Cool, working on noms!

I encountered another 20th century guitar concerto for this thread, by a composer I already like a lot -- Ohana's concerto titled Trois Graphiques. There's a great recording on DG by narciso yepes with fruhbeck de burgos conducting the LSO

Busy first month here and then not much doing! Playlist is updated with that Narciso Yepes track tho'.

People are getting excited on the poll thread basically. I am meaning to do a playlist of the noms... Or at least of MY noms and the noms I'm rooting for, lol

Posted this on time travel thread as well: Deerhoof + Marcos Balter. Seems interesting.

I'm listening to Douglas Lilburn's Symphony no. 2. I've never listened to his stuff before. He's from all the way over in New Zealand, and that's a long way from me. I'm waiting to a hear a little kiwi flavour....though this CD does include his Aotearoa Overture, maybe i'll find it there.

“I want to plead with you the necessity of having a music of our own, a living tradition of music created in this country, a music that will satisfy those parts of our being that cannot be satisfied by the music of other nations.” (1946)

With that in mind, these recent pieces might be the Kiwi-est music possible:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/upbeat/audio/201758203/phil-brownlee-and-adriana-tikao-concerto-for-taonga-puoro

https://soundcloud.com/philbrownlee/te-hau-o-tawhirimatea

^ Phil Brownlee and Ariana Tikao – "Ko te Tātai Whētu" ("The Constellation"*), concerto for taonga pūoro and orchestra, 2015
& Brownlee – "Te Hau o Tāwhirimātea" ("The Wind of Tāwhirimātea"*) (Richard Nunns - taonga pūoro, Bridget Douglas - flutes), 2010

Taonga pūoro are traditional instruments – in the concerto, Ariana Tikao plays among others pūtātara (conch shell trumpet), pūtōrino (a flute-trumpet), and pahu pounamu, "a gong made of South Island greenstone", as well as singing. The premiere was in 2015, by the CSO in Christchurch. It harks back to Māori myths and legends: "A big part of the concerto was based around a waiata [song] concerning the story of Hinetitama and Tāne, who lived as husband and wife. Hinetitama discovers Tāne is also her father and leaves him to reside in the underworld. When Tāne comes after her, she tells him to go back to raise their children and to take the stars to adorn the cloak of Raki, the Sky Father."

The pieces themselves are quite lilting and steady. Bear in mind, this is music written to suit these instruments and these stories, and not westernized expectations – so, me expecting a big crescendo finish? Not very reasonable. The hybrid form of western and traditional Māori music is especially new, and full of possibilities. Taonga pūoro have been revived only in recent decades after almost dying out, and it seems likely they'll appear in more popular music here as time goes on.

Interview with Phil Brownlee And Ariana Tikao here:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/upbt/upbt-20150612-1440-phil_brownlee_and_adriana_tikao_concerto_for_taonga_p_oro-064.mp3

And some more info about the concerto:
http://www.cso.co.nz/news/1433903220-worlds-first-taonga-puoro-concerto

Gillian Whitehead's music has definite Kiwi flavour, although I'm not too familiar with it yet.

Likewise I should listen to more Lilburn, he sounds pretty cool. (The quote above is from him, from this article about his 100th anniversary.) The Aotearoa overture is great, but it sounds to me more "Europa" than "Aotearoa". Not his fault – the country was extremely Anglicized at the time he wrote it (still is, in many quarters). Even using that title in 1940 was quite forward-thinking, 35 years before Māori was recognized as a national language.

* my translation, so prob not great

Branca's Hallucination City was finally released officially a few days ago

*47 years, duh (xp)

I am finally getting around to hearing the Christine Goerke/Jamie Barton "E un aeterna!" duet at last year's Richard Tucker Gala:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFR1OqT64js

...holy shit

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.