Classical Music Thread

[Pocoyo]

 

[Positron]

Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto. I'm baffled why this work never entered the mainstream, core, violin repertoire: it is exciting from start to finish, and the melodic theme in the last movement is especially nice.

 

[Positron]

Rautavaara died.

He was among the most popular and most played contemporary composers; his most famous works being Cantus Arcticus for orchestra and prerecorded bird sounds, and Symphony No. 7 "The Angel of Light", the linchpin of his "Angel" series inspired by the poetry of Rilke.

This is the final moment of his Symphony No. 6 "Vincentiana", which is based on his van Gogh opera Vincent. The opera itself is something of a stinker (I have the CDs but never managed to sit through it), but the symphony is a good representation of his "late" style.

 

[AnOminous]

Why is it that people completely ignore the politics of artists in classical music?

Never mind, who cares.

Amazed this hasn't come up, even though it's practically the "Free Bird" of classical music.

 

[Positron]

Why is it that people completely ignore the politics of artists in classical music?

No one cares about the politics 200 years ago, but for more recent periods, with peoples' memories still fresh, a composer's supposed political standing can sometimes seal their fate way beyond their deaths. A good example is that messy period in Russia during Stalin's rule. Posterity has decided, politically, Shostakovich is the "model" composer. But has anyone heard of Mieczysław Weinberg? He was a close friend of Shostakovich, but his huge body of works still linger in obscurity, in part because the very outspoken cellist Mstislav Rostropovich denounced him as a "coward", in part because his suspected involvement with the Zionist movement. Fortunately some signs of rehabilitation, thanks to musicians like Gidon Kremer and Quatuor Danel.

Even worse is the case of Nicolas Nabokov, cousin of Valdimir Nabokov of Lolita fame. He is accused of being a snitch, pointing out fellow composers for state persecution -- never mind this was a very difficult time when it was either their heads or yours. To date, almost 40 years after his death, he is still something of a persona non grata among musicians.

 

[Positron]

Dohnany's Concert Etudes -- full-blooded, big-boned, unabashedly romantic etudes in the tradition of Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninov (as opposed to the more knowing, winking, "ain't-I-clever" etudes by composers like Debussy and Ligeti)

 

[Doseferatu]

This has made me want to learn how to play the viola:

I'm also interested in singing again, thanks to listening to contraltos like Marian and Eula:

Given that the viola is said to be harder to play than the violin, Primrose's dexterity makes my jaw drop:

I've also been listening to a lot of Schubert lately:

 

[Positron]

Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio is a strange work. It is cast only in two movements, the second a gigantic set of theme and variations. The first movement gives you all you can have of Tchaikovsky in his most histrionic "woe is me" mood. The Theme and Variations (18:29 onwards) are a bit trickier: the theme is sweet enough, but Tchaikovsky is very bad at writing variations (his Rococco Variations for cello and orchestra has to be one of the most overrated piece in classical music). The listener sits through 10 (at best) mildly entertaining rehash of the theme, culminating in something like a Beethovenian victory rush (35:50) -- and then the mood turns extremely dark (42:00), as if a lifetime of pain and anger is being unleashed. The music ends with an exhausted whimper.

 

[AnOminous]

Sometimes I just want to retreat to classical music for comfort.

And there's this for me.

 

[Positron]

Mozart's string quartets are cinderellas among the string-quartet repertoire. If they got played at all, it is either the six "Haydn" quartets or the four "late" quartets. A shame really, because the earlier quartets, in addition to being delightful in their own right, show tendencies that Mozart would later turn his back on, such as counterpoints and fugues. A good example of Mozartean fugues is the final movement (12:36) of the string quart K173:

 

[Positron]

Ralph Vaughan William's Opera The Poisoned Kiss is RVW in his familiar folksy "pastoral" mood (he has a lesser-known "modernist" side as exemplified by his 4th symphony). There is no shortage of winsome, hummable tunes, but the libretto -- banal "romantic comedy" with a bad mixture of once-upon-a-time fairytale and mid-20th century witticism -- is pure cringe. Just listening to the overture is enough.

 

[Positron]

Earworm of the week

 

[Positron]

Stuart and Sons is a new piano maker from Australia, which prides itself on exclusive material and innovative design based on scientific research. Needless to say their instruments are ultra-expensive.

Having been intrigued by the hype I bought a CD by Australian pianist Gerard Willems playing Beethoven's Diabelli Variations on a newly built, 102-key S&S. First impression was not favorable: the good thing about the piano is clear fundamentals combined with rich harmonics, but its timbre is very dull, lacking the sheen and "sweetness" of a Steinway or a Bosendorfer, and is miles behind the beautiful tone of a Fazioli.

 

[Positron]

Alfred Schnittke's Psalms of Repentance (or Penitential Psalms) is the culmination of the series of amazing choral works written during the last 20 years of his life. The extensive use of whole-tone scale, in which each note is equidistant, gives the music an unanchored, otherworldly glow. "Part IX" is about a cleric's frustration over his materialist, comfort-loving brethren.

 

[A Potato Named Vodka]

My personal favorite has to be Shostakovich.

 

[Positron]

I usually am not crazy about symphonies from northern Europe -- I still don't understand Sibelius, for example -- but listening to Nielsen's Fifth Symphonies today I was struck by its kinship with Shostakovich's Seventh, which postdated it by 3 decades.

 

[Positron]

24 poems, almost two hours of baritone singing that almost never goes beyond mezzopiano, Valentin Silverstov's Silent Songs is a intensely introspective evocation of solitude, nature and sorrow. A 20th-century Winterreise perhaps? No. The music, sad and painful as it might be, is completely devoid of death wish; instead, sadness makes us reflect on the beauty of life. Song Number 9, a setting of Pushkin's "Winter Journey", is especially haunting. Not being able to find it on Youtube, I present the opening piece of the cycle instead.

 

[Positron]

Commemorating Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

Can't forgive him for having stifled the careers of many promising composers because they didn't toe his serialist party line, and especially for calling Shostakovich "second-press Mahler".

 

[女鬼]

I rew up studying baroque violin, and unsurprisingly Vivaldi remains one of my very favourie composers to this day.

This is one of my favourite pieces of his:

As far as other baroque composers go, I love Corelli, Boccherini and especially Marin Marais.

Mozart bores me.
I do not like romantic composers, the only 19th cent. music I listen to is Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and Mussorgsky.
I prefer 20th century composers, especially Ravel, Shostakovich and Prokofiev.

 

[Positron]

Yup Baroque music is great fun. My favorite baroque composer is probably Telemann because I like what he wrote for the flute (especially the Paris Quartets), and Rameau because of his alluring dances (Richard Tognetti, director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, says Rameau was the best writer of dance music who ever lived -- and that includes EDM).

Don't have a problem with Romantic music except Schumann (which is simply too far away from my wavelength) and Bruckner (which really tries my patience), but my greatest interest is late 20th century/contemporary music.