I would have voted for what I think is my fav Feldman, Violin & Orchestra, because I love its quiet momentum as it moves in a sort of call and response between those very memorable, kind of gorgeously oversaturated, restless, avian violin phrases and those brooding rhythms, and the use of piano is v striking BUT now I get to vote for the monstrous Jongchaies.
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Thursday, 23 April 2020 07:55 (four years ago) link
Tabula Rasa or Coro. Einstein will do fine without me I am sure.
Belated write-in vote with regards to Part I for Penderecki’s Symphony (commissioned by Perkins Engines!)
― Jeff W, Thursday, 23 April 2020 07:56 (four years ago) link
Yeah this is Einstein for me.
― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Thursday, 23 April 2020 08:31 (four years ago) link
that Niculescu is sublime, might just listen to it on a loop today and ignore the other stuff
― clap for content-providers (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 April 2020 08:52 (four years ago) link
Frederic Rzewski – The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)
James Pursey - If The Kids Are United They Will Never Be Divided! (1979)
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 April 2020 09:33 (four years ago) link
Had to be a corny indie fuxor and go for MF18M.
Einstein, I love, and it is incredible and I feel super lucky to have seen two performances but musically it's not as strong as most of what I've heard from this list, the themes being so heavily extrapolated across its duration.
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 23 April 2020 10:07 (four years ago) link
Violin and Orchestra strikes me as one of the more forbidding of Feldman's works in that vein. Which recording would you recommend, ogmor? I've only heard Carolin Widmann's with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Emilio Pomàrico.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 23 April 2020 12:01 (four years ago) link
That's the only recording I've heard too but I love it. Something about the way the two different sorts of motion fit together just sucks me in
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Thursday, 23 April 2020 12:42 (four years ago) link
a dear friend once memorably said "Every piece of classical music sounds like a rare dying animal being carried through the streets of a central European city to its grave, and that's why I like it". this is obviously more true of some pieces than others (verklarte nacht, hi) but there's something of it to violin and orchestra as well, with the violin as some sort of rare bird, not carried so much as dragged, thrashing in the torque of its tether, as the rest of the orchestra watches on, ready to murder it. it's tight!
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Thursday, 23 April 2020 13:58 (four years ago) link
Music for 18 vs Ginastera guitar sonata. One of the greatest pieces of music and most pleasant listening experiences vs possibly the greatest guitar composition of the late 20th century.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Thursday, 23 April 2020 14:07 (four years ago) link
Music for 18 Musicians is magical, it puts you into a trance. When I used to work in a bookshop whenever I put it on people would browse with more quiet intensity and we'd sell more.
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Thursday, 23 April 2020 14:18 (four years ago) link
Yeah, absolutely, and, ha, that's an interesting use of it.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Thursday, 23 April 2020 14:37 (four years ago) link
Massive thanks to everyone who’s contributed to this thread and its predecessors btw.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 23 April 2020 14:40 (four years ago) link
a lot i haven't heard once again. but it'll be hard for me to find something better than cantus in memoriam benjamin britten
― edgard varese-type beat (voodoo chili), Thursday, 23 April 2020 15:42 (four years ago) link
No need for me to add to the vote tallies for Stevie R and Arvo, so I’ve gone for Takemitsu’s Flock as I’ve got the 1980 Deutsche G of that on vinyl and it still gets an airing every few months.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 23 April 2020 15:48 (four years ago) link
my copy of feldman violin + orchestra is Isabelle Faust and Hans Zender on CPO, it is excellent
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 23 April 2020 15:55 (four years ago) link
Goddamn this is a tough one, but Fratres is all time for me, especially this version with Gil Shaham on lead violin:https://youtu.be/NLvLQpSFbV0
Yeah - gonna have to go for that.
― octobeard, Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:17 (four years ago) link
I managed to forget Xenakis’s Pléïades somehow.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 28 April 2020 22:54 (four years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
I'm listening to the new recording of Coro by Grete Pedersen and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Soloists' Choir, it's quite beautiful, sounds a little "random notes"-y in spots, but then swells and swoops and dives back into if not a tonal harmony, then something suggestive of consonance.
I'm going to try to listen to a couple of the Schnittke pieces tonight too, I have the Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra and the Concerto Grosso on an old Bis CD but I don't think I gave it a careful listen when I bought it. I have a couple of the Pärt pieces and two recordings of the Gorecki, but I didn't want to vote for a hit single. Of course, all that said, I probably did already vote, and I probably voted for the Gorecki or Tabula Rasa. Ah well.
― Revolutionary Girl Utrenja (Tom Violence), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 00:18 (four years ago) link
Requests for the early 80s:Don't think you'll forget Reich's Tehillim, Monk's Dolmen Music, and Vivier's Lonely Child, but just mentioning them.
Some guitar repertoire (although none of it will beat the above three pieces, I'm sure):Leo Brouwer - El Decameron NegroDenis Apivor - Ten Serial PiecesMaurice Ohana - Cadran lunaireElliott Carter - Changes
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 03:50 (four years ago) link
And I couldn't not vote for Music for 18 Musicians in the end.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 03:51 (four years ago) link
would prob vote for Dolmen Music, depends on what else is there
― sleeve, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 03:54 (four years ago) link
Have a couple more to hear, but leaning towards the ginastera guitar sonata, which is bad ass
― sleight return (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 04:12 (four years ago) link
Oh, phew, I'm glad someone is. Which recording you listening to? I like Aussel's.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 04:21 (four years ago) link
Was listening to the Eduardo Fernandez recording, but was really won over by this mad Marcin Dylla performance: https://youtu.be/vETsXy7Og7Q
― sleight return (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 12:56 (four years ago) link
Ah, I saw Dylla in 06. I picked up this CD at the gig, which includes the Ginastera: https://www.discogs.com/fr/Marcin-Dylla-Chitarra-Giocosa/release/5624347. I haven't listened to that in a while but I remember it being good. Some solid shredding in that performance. I don't know Fernandez. I'll look for it. Timo Korhonen's recording was a p aggressive one iirc.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 13:35 (four years ago) link
Thanks, Sund4r. I’ll try to include as many as I can (full disclosure though: Meredith Monk is a blind spot for me).
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 13:46 (four years ago) link
The Niculescu upthread is terrific.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 13:49 (four years ago) link
Glad you like it! And there’s more to come. These days he seems be doomed to oblivion, including in Romania where his music was often performed during his lifetime. Yet Ligeti was a friend and admirer (the feeling was mutual, of course). Anyway, anyone who’s interested in Niculescu should check out this in-depth blog post:
http://soundproofedblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/Niculescuspectral.html
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 14:02 (four years ago) link
Lots of great discoveries here - Silent Songs (classical singing for ppl who hate classical singing - yes pls), Ison II, Silbury Air, and the Ginastera guitar sonata have all really impressed me - but I'm still going for the awesome Jonchaies, the largest piece of music in the world
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 15:29 (four years ago) link
Want to actually play the Ginastera sonata again now.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 15:38 (four years ago) link
i think i might give this to the Norgard.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 20:33 (four years ago) link
Lol so many good works here, with great ppl signing off. Coro as Berio's greatest work. Jonchaies is probably the last great orchestral work by Xenakus although Nono would undergo a renaissance, with Feldman actually entering into an unbelievable, unexpected run.
Roaratorio is great and should've perhaps been included.
Finnissy and Ferneyhough are produced their first peak work.
There is some great footage of English country tunes. This is a work I have seen played a couple of times though not by the man himself.
https://youtu.be/kXBR0JcFO48
Going for that one.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 21:13 (four years ago) link
Love the Maxwell Davies (so much good shit with his Fires of London ensemble), Birtwhistle. I've been reading some Geoffrey Hill for the last couple of days and you could conclude that England were produce some very good, serious art (and that's discounting the stuff coming out of pop and plastic arts) right at this time.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 21:18 (four years ago) link
Dutilleux, Vivier, Rzewski and Lachenmann are the other ones I've enjoyed a lot from.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 21:21 (four years ago) link
Pulled out the Dylla disc and, yep, that's a great recording of the sonata, so precise while taking those faster movements at quite a clip.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 29 April 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link
Last minute vote for Lachenmann, if only because I appreciated the incentive to dig it out for the first time in ages.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Wednesday, 29 April 2020 23:58 (four years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
Sorry, Ginastera.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
That said, the winner p much always feels like the best music ever written when it's on.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:02 (four years ago) link
Though that also applied for Schnittke, Vivier, Dutilleux, Ustvolskaya... This was pretty hard.
(XP) Cool that my Schnittke choice, at least, got some love.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:05 (four years ago) link
I was the Schnittke voter :) I hadn't voted after all, and that Schnittke was the last thing I listened to last night, and it was spooky and sinister enough to pull my vote. Coro came close, as did Why Patterns?
― Revolutionary Girl Utrenja (Tom Violence), Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:07 (four years ago) link
It's ok, American minimalists are about to fly out the window anyway.
Sweet turnout btw.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:15 (four years ago) link
Next!
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1980s – Part I (1980-1984)
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:21 (four years ago) link
can't argue with that. so much great stuff on this list. listened to the rzewski on election day while travelling through the rain to get the vote out, felt suitably tragic and defiant
― The Cognitive Peasant (ogmor), Thursday, 30 April 2020 00:26 (four years ago) link
Arvo got split too much, but good showing
― octobeard, Thursday, 30 April 2020 01:57 (four years ago) link
I did vote for norgard but then I listened to the Ginastera sonata and wished I’d voted for it.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 30 April 2020 02:13 (four years ago) link
Sort of :( and :) at the same time.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Thursday, 30 April 2020 02:44 (four years ago) link
Glad I voted for it now!
― sleight return (voodoo chili), Thursday, 30 April 2020 03:26 (four years ago) link
The Juniper Tree is from this period too, here is an excerpt. One of the great pieces; Richard Emskey composed really great things over a very short period.
https://youtu.be/_C80QJmtky8
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 11:24 (three years ago) link
Kinda sad Rzewski never got any votes.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 11:25 (three years ago) link
Maxwell Davies' Aves Maria Stella is another classic from this period
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 16:02 (three years ago) link
His masterpiece imo, and the ideal balance between his early provocateur aesthetic (which I favour) and his sadly underwhelming transformation into an elder statesman of British music. The Fires of London recording is canonical, but I quite like Gemini's as well, if only for its engineering, which really brings out the work's tightly woven strands.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 16:08 (three years ago) link
Late 70s is when Donatoni got going:
https://youtu.be/ZI7MEnElhOc
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:54 (three years ago) link
Do you like Kagel, Pom? Went through a few threads but don't remember you listing anything..
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 19:48 (three years ago) link
Afraid not. My ears are impervious to his music. Ludwig van (the film) is kind of great, though.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 19:55 (three years ago) link
Ok, yeah he gets that reaction a lot of the time. Never seen that film
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 20:29 (three years ago) link