Classical Listening

[Emil Miller]

Thanks for posting the Chopin by Valentina Igoshina great playing by a truly sensitive interpreter. Here's 'Tristesse' in an equally touching performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrD1ZaNwdsU

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Hey, Stlukes, I played Holt's Planets for my dad (huge prog-rock fan; favorite band is Yes) and he LOVED it.

[Emil Miller]

Here is the part of the Alpine Symphony when the climber reaches the summit. This music is so great that it equals the mountain scenery it describes in this overwhelming live performance given in Berlin in 2008.
Years ago I stood on a mountain top above the clouds and saw a vast range of peaks stretching into the distance as far as I could see. This music produces the same emotion that I had then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK7z2NhUrsQ

[laymonite]

OK. So, I disappeared from the forum for a few weeks because Infinite Jest seized all of my time!

I'm still following along with Phil Goulding's book and following a composer per week. The top 3, the immortals, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven have been phenomenal. I've been listening to Beethoven's 9th "rule-breaking" symphony at work a lot. This week I've focused on "that vile human being" Richard Wagner.

The "Siegfried Idyll" is am amazing piece. When I listen to it i can't help but feel elevated.

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40JL1IC18Xc[/link]

I've also been listening to his operas, including the "ring cycle" and "The Flying Dutchman." I'm going to try to listen to "Tristan and Isolde" over the weekend, before moving on to Haydn.

[stlukesguild]

I've been listening to a great deal of Wagner lately... as the result of having purchased two complete Ring cycles over the Christmas holiday. Perhaps by way of a tonic to Wagner I've been recently re-exploring the music of his arch-rival, Johannes Brahms. Brahms symphonies can sometimes strike me as too dense... leaden even... that is why the recent recordings of these works by John Eliot Gardiner are so thrilling. They offer a Brahms that is muscular, dynamic, and transparent.









The packaging of each of these recordings, is quite of the standard that I have grown used to from recent Gardiner releases... including his Bach cantata cycle. The cover art on each disc is a detail from a painting by the contemporary British abstract artist, Howard Hodgkin with the full painting reproduced inside. The imagery, no doubt, stresses the modernity and energy of these recordings. Each book comes with a text by the conductor discussing the particular works by Brahms. As none of Brahms' symphonies is particularly long, Gardiner packages each of these symphonies by placing them in contrast to choral works by Brahms... or others admired by the composer... thus stressing the song-like manner and structure of his symphonic work. The song... in the form of lieder, choral songs, larger choral compositions, motets, etc... was central to Brahms work... in spite of the fact that he avoided ever composing an opera (perhaps in avoidance of a direct competition and comparison with Wagner?)

Along with these, I have been listening to the classic George Szell/Leon Fleisher recordings of Brahms' piano concertos. While these are surely "old school" as opposed to modern Historically Informed Performances... they are nevertheless, unsurpassed. Only the equally "old school" recording by Gilels and Jochum may rival this.



Perhaps the greatest pleasure afforded by my recent foray into Brahms has been the result of a new purchase of Brahms' Clarinet Sonatas (1&2) and the marvelous Fantasiestücke of Robert Schumann. These works alone make clear the brilliance of Brahms... which in many ways is more often found in his chamber works than in his larger symphonic efforts. Like Mozart and many others after him, the rich, sensual sound of the clarinet seems to have inspired Brahms to write at a level of genius rarely rivaled.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC6VAIjXY74

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AsiD...eature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlY4d...eature=channel

[Lokasenna]

Oh boy, have I found an obscure little gem!

Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Violin Concerto in A Major:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Why this fantastic concerto isn't in the standard repertoire, I've no idea. Probably because this is only one of two pieces that represent Karlowicz coming into his full musical powers before his untimely death. There are some excellent tunes in there, and great virtuosity in the use of the violin. I can clearly hear shades of Wagner and Tchaikovsky in there, and perhaps a touch of Brahms, but it is by no means derivative.

[stlukesguild]

Yes, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz is a minor master. I have yet to pick up his violin concert (although it is on my Amazon Wish List) but I do have a majority of his tone poems. These shouldn't be passed up... especially considering that the best recordings of these are on budget-label Naxos with Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic and the New Zealand Symphony. Discovering those "unknown" masters who we have never heard before is ever a thrill.. and in the realm of classical music there are more than you can begin to imagine.

[Lokasenna]

Yes, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz is a minor master. I have yet to pick up his violin concert (although it is on my Amazon Wish List) but I do have a majority of his tone poems. These shouldn't be passed up... especially considering that the best recordings of these are on budget-label Naxos with Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic and the New Zealand Symphony. Discovering those "unknown" masters who we have never heard before is ever a thrill.. and in the realm of classical music there are more than you can begin to imagine.

The recording of it that I've managed to get my hands on (and is a better performance than the one on Youtube) is Tamsin Little and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, published by hyperion. It's also bundled in with a few less interesting pieces by Moszkowski, but it is a good CD.

As for the concerto, I'd be very interested to hear your verdict on it when you get round to obtaining it!

[stlukesguild]

I've had that very disc on my wish list for some time now... at least a couple of years ago when I was delving deep into the less-well-known composers of the Romantic and Post-Romantic repertoire. I see that now that Naxos has the work available performed by Antoni Wit and for the price it can't be beat. I don't doubt, however, that the Hyperion disc is also very good. They have some of the highest standards among classical labels. I'm going with Wit, however, not only for the price, but also because he has never failed to deliver on the Polish repertoire... and I also have a Polish acquaintance and classical music buff who swears that Wit's Karlowicz in the "must have".

Right now, however, I'm mostly focused on fleshing out my collection of baroque music... discovering some great composers and music beyond Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Domenico Scarlatti. Indeed, Handel has greatly grown in my esteem as I have discovered his wealth of vocal music: some 40+ operas, nearly 30 oratorios, as well as 100+ cantatas. I just finished listening to this absolutely stunning recording of Handel arias by Bejun Mehta and Rene Jacobs:



The recording has received glowing reviews in all the classical press... and deservedly so. It is an absolutely thrilling performance... virtuoso and muscular. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyCdCyIetB4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLAs9PFEWzw

Right now I'm listening to Sanctus Petrus et Sancta Maria Magdalena by Johann Adolf Hasse. Hasse was one of the towering stars of the Baroque period... immensely popular. He was known especially for his operas... but also his sacred music. He was married to Faustina Bordoni, one of the leading divas of her day, a star on the stages in Italy, Germany, and England, she was part of a notorious rivalry which created a great scandal while perfoming for Handel, Hasse was also a close friend with Metastasio, the librettist who literally dominated the opera world of the day. Hasse traveled perfoming between courts, especially those in Venice and Dresden, where J.S. Bach worked in his shadows as a lowly Cantor in the smaller university town of Leipzig.

One may get an idea of the cultural gap between the world in which Hasse was employed and that of J.S. Bach by looking at the churches and cathedrals of Dresden:













This in comparison to the comparative humble circumstances of Thomaskirche in Leipzig:





Like Handel, Hasse's work employs the energy and drama drawn from Italian music. Where Bach's sacred music is passionately heartfelt... Hasse's is the grandest of theater and entertainment. Hasse had the advantage of access to the finest virtuoso musicians and vocalists... including female sopranos, which J.S. Bach quite envied.

While there are no recordings on YouTube of the current disc I am listening to, there are any number of videos that give good notion of the quality of Hasse as a composer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc_WtkjCSyA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNByuOT-rd4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJUU4c7JuP0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSwzFAc3ol0

[laymonite]

I've been listening to Debussy's "Syrinx," which is based on the myth of Pan and Syrinx. Basically, Pan, a sexually virile god, attempted to seduce the lovely nymph, Syrinx, but she fled to the water and was turned into a hollow reed. Pan, not knowing which reed was Syrinx, plucked 7 of the reeds, cut them, and constructed a flute. hence Pan's pan-flute. He played this melancholy instrument in remembrance of her. In Debussy's music, one can truly hear the sense of loss and heartache. The song is haunting and pensive. Here is James Galway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZSSkMzS5E

[Wilde woman]

I'm enjoying Tchaikovsky's Marche Slaive as I do my reading tonight.

[Pyras]

I really like Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the overtures. I'm listening to Bach music just now. In Bach's music it seems to me that everything is organized very well. There is a ordered music that calms me, soothes me. I let myself be captured by mathematics that is within all those sounds.
I like generally everything composed by Bach.

[Emil Miller]

Here's the superb Sarah Chang with Zigeunerweisen. I heard Fritz Kreisler's famous recording on the radio this morning but this is stunning playing too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W_H2BEJbt0

[TacoButt]

I really like Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the overtures. I'm listening to Bach music just now. In Bach's music it seems to me that everything is organized very well. There is a ordered music that calms me, soothes me. I let myself be captured by mathematics that is within all those sounds.
I like generally everything composed by Bach.

I have heard this association of mathematics, orderliness and Bach many times. What I hear is very fluid and streaming, like a continuous course of water over various landscapes - free and unencumbered.

Bach's music must have the properties of an aural Rorschach test...everyone hears different things.

I remember reading Godel, Escher Bach and thinking....this guy doesn't understand Bach very well.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Currently listening to Schumann's scenes from Faust on Naxos as I try to read Hobbes?



Overture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zVtK-ssjo