Classical Music Thread

[Ventrue]

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake, Op. 20a: I. Scene. Moderato

 

[555777555]

 

[Manuel Noriega]

Manuel de Falla - Spanish Dance

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

 

[Polish Businessman]

Wojciech Kilar is mostly known as a film composer (in the West for the Dracula soudntrack, although he made music for dozens of mostly Polish movies), but he also composed some stand-alone orchestral and sacred pieces. He tried do some avant-guarde stuff in his youth, but then abruptly broke with this style in Krzesany and went for some sort of Philip Glass-like minimalism. Very Smart People often dismiss his music as kitch, but audiences love it.
Orawa is a little symphonic poem for string orchestra, heavily inspired by the folklore of Polish/Slovak highlanders. It only recently started gaining popularity, especially among string players.

 

[Polish Businessman]

Schumann symphonies with Skrowaczewski & DRP. Very nice. Lively (or Lebhaft) tempi, very precise strings, but without the HIPsterish annoyances. Top notch sound engineering.

 

[Positron]

Charles Ives's Universe Symphony belong to the handful of ultra-ambitious works that composers, not being used to work on such colossal compass, eventually despaired and left unfinished (other examples include Scriabin's Mysterium and Falla's Atlántida). In this work Ives attempted to cover cosmogenesis, evolution of biological lives and human culture, human's spiritual awakening, and our final Utopic fate. This is a theme that Mahler has tackled in his Symphony No. 3, and would preoccupy Philip Glass in his Symphony No. 5.

Ives seemingly had big problem with this big canvas, and even as he grappled with it until the last years of his life (legend has it that Ives woke up one day and tearfully told his wife that he could no longer compose. This is probably not quite true), the manuscript depicts a very disproportionate work, which is reflected in Larry Austin's performing edition.

Universe Symphony requires seven separate instrumental groups, four of which each call for an assistant conductor, in addition to a chief conductor that coordinates the work. Ives starts the work with a 24-minute polyrhythmic percussion-only "Life Pulse", which while fascinating for a while eventually leads to longueur. By the 20th minute, brass instruments, representing the Earth, begin to sound, but vestiges of the 'Life Pulse", especially the chime that sounds every 8 seconds, will permeate the rest of the symphony.

Ives meant the work to be cast in three continuous sections, but beyond the "Life Pulse" I can only discern two: the highly dissonant first part, and a less dissonant but more rhythmically complex second part (starting at the 33 minutes, announced by loud percussion). As a whole I find it otiose and directionless as an Ives work, but obviously it is not Ives's final vision, but I wish Ives could have overcome his depression and flesh it out some more. There is no hope that Ives could have arranged a performance in his time -- the modern performance, in addition to five conductors, requires many click tracks for the percussionists, but had he finished it this would be the first piece of orchestral music that requires multiple conductors, edging out Stockhausen's Gruppen by at least several years.

 

[polaris_VII]

Hope this is the right thread.

 

[Space Police]

I recently discovered Ina Boyle and her music is pretty good:

 

[Space Police]

Here's another composer I recently discovered: Luisa Adolpha le Beau, a student of Clara Schumann whose works have been getting some overdue attention over the past few years:

 

[Rotter]

Cecelia Bruggemeyer shares the exploration into what bass instrument to use in Bach’s Brandenburg concerto no.5.

Violone, double bass or cello.

 

[Zelas]

Started listening to "Classical" music more seriously recently and that's partially thanks to Ravel, found him with this piece and it's really lovely. Especially the beginning part, I was browsing through an art gallery and landed on this artwork while listening to it for the first time. It created an interesting atmosphere, like something out of a myth

 

[FPTMIU]

What is you guy's favorite Bruckner recording? As far as a full cycle goes I am a big fan of Solti's. Though of individual symphonies I really like Szell's recordings of 3 and 8, Jochum's set(s) are great too.

https://youtu.be/6A-XWm3RA34

 

[Positron]

What is you guy's favorite Bruckner recording? As far as a full cycle goes I am a big fan of Solti's. Though of individual symphonies I really like Szell's recordings of 3 and 8, Jochum's set(s) are great too.

https://youtu.be/6A-XWm3RA34

I can't quite tune into Bruckner's wavelength so far (same goes for Sibelius). I have the Jochum (EMI) box that I dip into occasionally, as well as this variegated box of Brucker's complete works (no notes) from Hassler Profil which I can't muster any interest into -- the absence of sleeve note is one big reason why.

 

[Positron]

I didn't realize how beautiful Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass is.

There is nothing clever or elaborate about this work. It is melodic, transparent, and heart-on-sleeve, and everywhere is the delectable French writing for woodwind. The unfolds with unhurried, gentle grace, although the Sanctus is suitably fervent. An anomaly of this mass is the final tag-on "Domine, salvum fac", a paean to Napoleon and the Republic, when the music became somewhat militant, with march rhythm, percussion and fife.

 

[themanwhowalks]

 

[Polish Businessman]

What is you guy's favorite Bruckner recording? As far as a full cycle goes I am a big fan of Solti's. Though of individual symphonies I really like Szell's recordings of 3 and 8, Jochum's set(s) are great too.

Wand in general, but particularly the 6th with NDR in 1995. The only guy to take correct tempi in the finale. Most conductors rush through the 3rd theme (the one recalling the oboe motif from the adagio) so that when the ostinato from the first movement returns, it's completely muddled. Ruins the 'ah, we're home' feeling completely.

 

[Positron]

I first head of Debussy's song "Chevaux de bois" (Wooden Horses) from a soundtrack to Yohji Yamamoto's runway show, sung in English by the unconventional (think Kate Bush) vocalist Akiko Yano. Here's a more idiomatic performance in original French.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

I've been listening to various mazurkas by Chopin and noting his influence on a genre of 19th century Cuban music, the contradanza and the habanera, here's an example of a contradanza from 1832:

You can hear it in this example. Contradanza morphed into Danzón, which is still very popular all over Latin America but especially in the Caribbean.

 

[Ventrue]

Johann Sebastian Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565