Classical Listening

[Patrick_Bateman]

Listening to the Rene Jacobs recording of Le nozze di Figaro. I've not listened to opera for a while, so a slight return is needed methinks.

Been listening to that opera recently too

[stlukesguild]

That one passage from Gorecki's 3rd symphony is alright, although as a matter of principle I am opposed to minimalism. Sometimes, I'll here a song of Philip Glass or somebody's and think, well that passage was alright. Then when I listen some more it's just repeated ad nauseam. I wouldn't accept that kind of laziness from a writer who fills a novel with one page of material, and I won't have it in my music.

And yet you swear by that great American Minimalist, Hemingway.

Seriously, there is a huge difference between the American Minimalists who are more rigorously Minimalist in a strict formalist manner. The "Holy Minimalists", such as Gorecki, Tavener, and Part came to a more "minimal" style not as part of a formalist effort to strip music down to the bare essentials, but rather in response to older music... especially early choral music, chant, etc... In some ways, however, their efforts were just as daring in that the religious musical traditions they turned to were strictly prohibited by the Soviet/Communist regimes. The Polish composer, Penderecki began by embracing the examples of American Modernism as a form of rebellion against the limitations of the Polish Communist controls of music, but he would later turn to a more tonal... even "romantic" manner feeling that the Western Modernist represented just as great of a restriction upon musical expression. Many tied-in-the-wool Modernists dismiss Penderecki's later works as proof that the composer had sold out, but in reality, his embrace of tonalism and his focus upon music expressive of a deep-held faith was a form of rebellion against the limitations of both the Western Modernists and the Eastern Communists.

[mortalterror]

And yet you swear by that great American Minimalist, Hemingway.

1) Don't let the name fool you. Minimalism in music and minimalism in literature are nothing alike. 2) Hemingway wasn't a minimalist.

[Musicology]

Frederic Chopin
Sonata No. 3
4th Movement
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti
(1947)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9C4VdwDWJo&feature=fvst

Franz Schubert
Impromptu D899/3
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSv0vC1vUbA

Frederic Chopin
Valse Brilliant
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r08Z...eature=related

J.S. Bach
Triple Concerto
BWV 1064/1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGNxFbeM6DU

Counter Tenor Andreas Scholl
'Agnus Dei'
B Minor Mass
BWV 232

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...CcQixNvg&gl=US

Le Concert Francais
Pierre Hantai
JS Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 4 (1st Movement)
BWV 1069/1

Wow !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukupd...eature=related

[Patrick_Bateman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11790085

2 missing Vivaldi Sonatas discovered

[oshima]

Recently picked up 12 "transcendental" etudes by Liszt as performed by Alice Sara Ott. Being this is the first time I've heard these etudes, I can't say much about this interpretation, but I find her style graceful and elegant. Any suggestions for exceptional performances of these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-R3aQlmN0

[Musicology]

Anton Dvorak
Symphony No. 9
First Movement
'From the New World'
London Symphony Orchestra
Istvan Kertesz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R22PLfWDp48&feature=fvst

Doc Watson/Andy Griffith
Crawdad Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZ-esoK8J0

[stlukesguild]

Currently listening to an old favorite from my teen years which I have not heard in some time: Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 1 ("Winter Dreams") which arrived yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOq3JuUkjE

[Musicology]

J.S. Bach
Air
From BWV 1068

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4O8...eature=related

[Wilde woman]

Last week, I saw Olga Kern perform Rach's piano concerto #2 in brilliant fashion. Also on the menu were Dvorak's Carnival overture and Sibelius Symphony #1.

[stlukesguild]

No classics for me tonight. I just got back from a birthday party at a local bar and I'm onto my fourth strong beer (this one is nearly 11%). It's Miles right now...



probably followed by some good old blues.



And back on track today...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6TxTIkWAiY

Gardiner, as always, is more muscular... and admittedly this video has some distortion issues.

There's nothing on line of Schütz' piece included here... but there is this lovely recording of his O Jesu, Nomen Dulce performed by the masterful Andreas Scholl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TkRXQH5np8

Both composers were predecessors to J.S. Bach. There is a story of Bach walking several hundred miles to hear the organ works of Buxtehude... which are indeed wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo388...eature=related

[Emil Miller]

Recently picked up 12 "transcendental" etudes by Liszt as performed by Alice Sara Ott. Being this is the first time I've heard these etudes, I can't say much about this interpretation, but I find her style graceful and elegant. Any suggestions for exceptional performances of these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-R3aQlmN0

Liszt, who may have been the greatest performer ever, is usually more about technique than the music itself. I haven't heard these pieces before but I like this performance and Ms Ott sure is a looker.

[stlukesguild]

Brian... don't underestimate Liszt. He was very influential well beyond his efforts as a performer (unlike Paganini). He was instrumental in the development of the Romantic concept of Program Music, or music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, which would be built upon even by composers such as Schumann, who rejected Liszt's virtuosity. Most important in this area, were Liszt's Tone Poems or Symphonic Poems. Some of his later works push concepts verging upon Impressionism and dissonance/atonalism to such an extent that he would be cited as a major influence upon Scriabin, Debussy, Bartok, etc...

Too often his reputation for glitz and flash overwhelms his real achievements as a composer. Here are some marvelous piano works... and some of his orchestral pieces. Brian, as a fan of Richard Strauss you should be quite enamored of Liszt's orchestral music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejXPcv9MS7s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5LRRsNYZk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZgG...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxmRk...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jnQ_...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z36aWM3jYT8&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRD5RralCgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZgte0ObLw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRa36...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiElv...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFrCg...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkeKx...eature=related

[Musicology]

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto
RV 235/1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvWSV...eature=related

[Emil Miller]

[QUOTE=stlukesguild;982748]Too often his reputation for glitz and flash overwhelms his real achievements as a composer. Here are some marvelous piano works... and some of his orchestral pieces. Brian, as a fan of Richard Strauss you should be quite enamored of Liszt's orchestral music. [[QUOTE]

Yes you are right. Some years ago I spent several weeks staying with a friend in China. On the day I was due to leave, I was packing my things and I could hear that she was listening to Liszt's Consolation No.3 in the living room.
I went into the room and she was crying.

I should have remembered that before posting my comment.