2016 Rolling Classical Listening Thread

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