Classical Music Thread

[Rome's rightful successor]

 

[Dean Pentel]

I love this one. I wonder what it's like to have the imagination to create something like this.

 

[Positron]

I wonder what it's like to have the imagination to create something like this.

Sometime in the late 90s it was fashionable to say that Ravel was obsessed with repetitive patterns because he had a neurological disease (the most popular guesses were either post-traumatic subdural hematoma or Pick's Disease). Nowadays no one takes these seriously.

 

[Prester John]

 

[Positron]

The second part of Robert Kyr's Threefold Vision is a double motet: the setting of two verses sung simultaneously. Here, tenor and soprano sing of the bucolic bliss in "En Fevier" -- of the return of spring, of familiar and reassuring farmer routine, of the "secret pleasure, poverty's wealth", of the expectation for a new member of the family. Yet soaring above that, the florid line of the countertenor depicts the "Portrait D'homme" -- a prophet or a madman, whose dire predictions of storms, fires, and destruction have fallen on deaf ears. The irony of the music is very affecting. The prophet might have been cast out of human society, yet his warnings -- "déjà poussière": already dust -- will resound in the wood like the cuckoo in spring.

Something more gentle is found in Kyr's Unseen Rain, a setting of Rumi for large choir, soprano, tenor, and countertenor soloists, and small chamber ensemble. I'm particularly struck by the ending of the piece, where percussions give a scintillating, lapidary picture of the divine shower. For choral works that feature important parts for percussion, Whitacre's Cloudburst may be more visceral, but Kyr has a gentleness and grace that is just as moving.

 

[Positron]

Exemplar recordings of Britten's War Requiem crowd the marketplace, and one doesn't associate John Eliot Gardiner with 20th century music. Gardiner's recording of War Requiem was coolly received by critics, and the fact that DG rapidly consigned it to the 2-for-1 budget line seemed to be an implicit condemnation. I argue it is a very, very strong reading. Its chief merits are the impeccably clean choral and orchestral textures. Some critics don't like such extremely emotional music to be handled too cleanly, arguing that it is "intellectualizing" (you often read about it when they discuss recordings of Shostakovich symphonies). I don't share this view (so I like Haitink/Concertgebouw set of Shostakovich Symphonies), and Gardiner does offer plenty of thrills, helped by the recording engineers employing a wide dynamic range. Indeed by sound alone, this recording belongs to the top bracket.

This is from the beginning of "Sanctus", can you not be devastated by the sheer impact? Classicstoday.com's verdict (Sound Quality: 5/10) is utterly incomprehensible.

There is no weakness among the three soloists, although baritone Bo Skovhus lacks some heft and is bested by the lyricism of the tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson. The synergy between the two male singers is a key to a good recording of War Requiem, and on this point Gardiner's can be criticized. Simon Rattle's male soloists (Thomas Allen and Robert Tear) achieve a co-ordination that brings the music to an altogether higher plane, but this calls for magic.

Compare the same moment in Gardiner:

This said, Gardiner's recording get my strong recommendation: instead of relentless gloom and violence, it paces lyricism and vehemence, allowing the music to actually be actually heard while not lacking in overwhelming, impactful moments. The pieces the 2-for-1 package comes with (Britten's Spring Symphony and other choral works) are valuable too.

 

[Positron]

Chandos was just bought by Naxos. As with Naxos's previous acquisitions, such as Ondine, the label maintains artistic autonomy while Naxos takes over physical and digital distribution worldwide.

I'm not sure about the ramification of the news. Chandos is my favorite record label, and I've been conditioned by popular media to see acquisitions as bad things. Still, being acquired by Naxos did Ondine no harm, and the label Oehms Classics actually seems to be revitalized by Naxos. So, let's see.

The biggest star of Chandos was conductor Richard Hickox, but he's dead now. Today perhaps the hottest artist in their roster is the pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Here is he playing one of Debussy's Études: "Pour les Sonorités opposées".

In the liner notes, Bavouzet explains how Debussy's Études have been an exhaustible inspiration for today's composers, and that it was when he was studying with Stockhausen for his Klavierstück IX that Bavouzet realized a "trick" to play this Étude's ending, a chord that goes from p to pp. Bavouzet did not say what that "trick" is but he says the recording engineer can bear witness that the softening was not done through recording machines.

Well, one recent changes in the Chandos website is that they no longer provide full sleeve notes to non-paying customers...

 

[Positron]

Italian pianist Murizo Pollini died on 23 March at the age of 82.

Ever since his victory in the International Chopin Competition, Pollini has always been hailed as the world's top interpretet of Chopin. His advocacy for 20th century music has been no less important. Pollini was especially associated with conposer Luigi Nono, and his recording of Schoenberg's piano music remains a benchmark.

A funny anecdote: when he emerged victorious out of the International Chopin Competition, Pollini was signed by EMI. At a recording session in Paris, Pollini's piano technician, a Japanese man who also worked for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, shaved off so much felt off the hammers of an expensive Steinway piano that the piano required massive restoration afterwards. Of course EMI then dropped Pollini like a hot potato.

So here is Pollini's famous traversal over Chopin's Études.

 

[JJLiautaud]

A fun piece, love this era of music.

 

[Positron]

French musical humor: Souvenirs de Bayreuth for piano four-hands, by Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, a jocular send-up to Wagner's themes.

 

[JJLiautaud]

French musical humor: Souvenirs de Bayreuth for piano four-hands, by Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, a jocular send-up to Wagner's themes.

Still nothing on Mozart:

The horn fuck ups in the second movement still murder me every single time.

 

[Positron]

I learned of this just today and this is very ominous news indeed.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF LEGENDARY CLASSICAL LABEL HYPERION RECORDS

Being acquired by Naxos Music Group is one thing; being acquired by Universal Classics is quite another. In the 1990s (I think), one big label (DG?) handed a blank check to the label's founder Ted Perry, who refused it. Now his son Simon sold the company. Welp, perhaps I can hope for a big box set of Romantic Piano Concertos for cheap, or (I can dream can I?) the complete chamber music of Robert Simpson. but it is guaranteed that cheapskates at Universal Classics will skip the liner notes.

 

[JJLiautaud]

I learned of this just today and this is very ominous news indeed.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF LEGENDARY CLASSICAL LABEL HYPERION RECORDS

Being acquired by Naxos Music Group is one thing; being acquired by Universal Classics is quite another. In the 1990s (I think), one big label (DG?) handed a blank check to the label's founder Ted Perry, who refused it. Now his son Simon sold the company. Welp, perhaps I can hope for a big box set of Romantic Piano Concertos for cheap, or (I can dream can I?) the complete chamber music of Robert Simpson. but it is guaranteed that cheapskates at Universal Classics will skip the liner notes.

Didn't Universal let a metric fuck ton of music burn/degrade and then refuse to tell anyone one what burned?
Tax:

Enjoy a poem by one of the hardest men who ever lived

 

[TVB]

Didn't Universal let a metric fuck ton of music burn/degrade and then refuse to tell anyone one what burned?

UMG is full of absolute buttfuckery, and the artists that were revealed as victims of the 2008 Universal files in the 2019-20 cases were big examples why music record companies are garbage.

Tax:

 

[JJLiautaud]

Amazing Symphony by one my favorite composers.

 

[JJLiautaud]

 

[JJLiautaud]

Beethoven is so much fun when he's played fast its liked being punched in the gut, its great.

I'm so used to this piece being played like this:

 

[JJLiautaud]

further exploration in medieval music here is a song written by Richard the Lionheart when he was imprisoned by Leopold Babenberg while returning from the 3rd Crusade.

 

[Positron]

Benjamin Britten's setting of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera is not the only rendition by a serious composer; Arthur Bliss had his hand on it too. Still, the cunning intricacy of Britten's setting -- the refashioning of various separate numbers into duets and trios more apposite to a "proper" opera, for example -- has made sure it has stayed in the repertoire while the other, more ad hoc, settings. It makes quite a demand on the chamber orchestra too, as you can hear in the following number "Thus when a good Housewife sees a rat" that contains a virtuoso part for the cor anglais.

And here is the famous Act I love duet, "Were I laid on Greenland's coast", better known as "O'er The Hills And Far Away".

On Youtube there is a very old BBC broadcast, with Dame Janet Baker as Polly Peachum, but I find the Chandos recording much more vivid and enjoyable. The Beggar's Opera, of course, deals with the underbelly of society, of unrestrained young women and duplicitous criminals. The two scheming "villains", Mr. Peachum and Lockit the gaoler, seem to relish calling their wayward daughters "slut" and "hussy" and are entirely uninterested in their welfare, but despite this, you feel you don't mind sharing a drink with them. This is the entirely opposite from what I feel listening to Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera -- relentlessly grimly and filthy, Weill's setting is inhabited by people who mean business and will not hesitate plunging a knife in your chest. Perhaps the guttural sound of German has something to do with it, as does more "expressionist" instrumental palette of Weill, the pervasive neurotic rhythms and dances, as opposed to Britten's broad, generous rhythms and supple, almost "pastoral" colors.

 

[JJLiautaud]

an actually good recommendation from the schizophrenic mess that is /classical/