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| Author |
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| 25 new of 268 responses total. |
chelsea
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response 200 of 268:
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Feb 6 02:52 UTC 1994 |
That's *bass*-style pizzacato.
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md
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response 201 of 268:
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Feb 14 18:27 UTC 1994 |
The Odyssey rerelease of Pierre Boulez conducting Debussy's
orchestral music. These recordings are as wonderful as they
were when Columbia first released them 20+ years ago. After
hearing Boulez, most other conductors' versions of Debussy
sound unfocused, not bad at all if you love pretty blurs and
blotches, but unsatisfactory if you want to make the effort
to see the 3-D image of the faun or the mermaid inside. Two
CD's, only $15, quite a bargain.
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gerund
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response 202 of 268:
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Feb 15 02:42 UTC 1994 |
What all is on these CD's?
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md
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response 203 of 268:
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Feb 15 13:30 UTC 1994 |
[from memory]
Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun
La mer
Images
Nocturnes
Jeux
Danse sacree et profane
some clarinet piece
My least favorite is Boulez's version of Prelude
a l'apres-midi d'un faun. I *think* the problem is
he goes overboard on the rubato. A fairly strict
rendering is needed to bring out the shape of the
piece, which I think is the most beautiful in all
of music. But the rest of it is fantastic. Nuages
from the Nocturnes makes you swoon and fall down.
The three Iberia movements from Images crackle with
precise energy. Jeux is a sunny landscape of wit
and sophistication. Just amazing.
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chelsea
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response 204 of 268:
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Feb 15 13:57 UTC 1994 |
Another Kronos Quartet CD - "The Morton Feldman Piano and String
Quartet", Aki Takahashi on piano. What comes to mind here is
Philip Glass on Valium. It's one cut, 78 minutes in duration.
It's without melody but not quite atonal. After listening to
it twice, through headphones, in a darkened room, I'd describe
it as something close to floating in space as assorted planets,
miscellaneous hopes and dreams, and other debris soar by. The
piano plays individual notes as the quartet alternates unlikely
chords, all with a Doppler effect. Somewhere, there is a pattern
but it is far from obvious.
It's Zen and different but not as manipulative as most New Age
stuff. The jacket notes give no hint of what the composer had
in mind as a theme or inspiration. If anyone else listens to this
one or reads a review I'd appreciate hearing the opinions.
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md
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response 205 of 268:
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Feb 15 14:53 UTC 1994 |
I almost bought that yesterday! I love Morton Feldman's music.
I still have an ancient monaural LP with a collection of string
quartet and piano pieces. His Rothko Chapel music is another
favorite. I'm gonna have to go and listen to this one. Feldman
wasn't "new Age" at all. In fact, he claimed to have been
influenced by certain Abstract Expressionist painters. His
music is New York avant-garde, if you have to call it something.
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chelsea
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response 206 of 268:
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Feb 15 20:11 UTC 1994 |
Well, I don't know I'd catagorize this as New Age either. It's
too minimal for that. And that's minimal.
Please let me know what you think of it.
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md
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response 207 of 268:
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Feb 16 13:28 UTC 1994 |
I looked Feldman up. He looked like a Morton Feldman: a fat
unkempt New Yorker. He was well-known in art circles. His music
is hushed and uneventful -- piano-to-pianissmo someone called it.
His stubborn anti-serialism made it hard for most critics and
academicians to take him seriously, and the quirky, April-Fools-
Day sound of some of his stuff made it equally hard for audiences
to take him seriously. The use of subtle changes over a series
of repeating figures led some to place him with the minimalists,
but he predated them by many years and was aknowledged to be an
influence on the whole movement. Rather than say Feldman was
Philip Glass on valium, it's more accurate to say that Glass is
Feldman on speed. Feldman's final years were increasingly
creative, with the concerto form predominating, and were marked
by bigger and more enthusiastic audiences, and belated attention
by the critics. Sadly, he died in 1987 just as he was finally
coming into his own.
I will definitely check this piece out.
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facelift
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response 208 of 268:
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Feb 18 01:59 UTC 1994 |
I am coming from way out in left field with this one.
I think that currently, My favorite album is the music from the play
"The Black Rider" by Tom Waits. Check it out, it's real creepy.
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polygon
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response 209 of 268:
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Feb 18 02:23 UTC 1994 |
Really? Tom Waits is one of my long-time favorites, but I haven't been
keeping up: the only thing I've heard from his recent stuff was a loaned
tape of "Bone Machine" a while ago. I sort of liked it, Janice loathed it,
and it won a Grammy. Oh, actually, I do have a CD of Swordfishtrombone,
which was the first one of his "new" period, but I haven't listened to it
much.
The thing about Tom Waits, in my experience, is that even his best pieces
don't necessarily win you on the first listen; however, by the third or
fifth or tenth time, you discover they've grown on you. (Part of that is
starting to see complexity; part of that is probably getting past the
"what a weirdo" reaction to his voice and subject matter). The first time
I heard a Tom Waits recording (it was "Waltzing Matilda" on the Small
Change album), I burst out laughing. Instead of the great
singer-songwriter that had been touted to me, he sounded like someone
dying of emphesema in a recording studio.
Fortunately, perhaps, one of my then housemates was a Waits fan, and I
heard "Small Change" and "Heart of Saturday Night" and other albums all
the time. This happened to be an awful time in my life, and pretty soon
the moods and themes and subjects of his music began to be really
appealing to me. I went to his next Detroit concert.
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md
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response 210 of 268:
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Feb 24 20:28 UTC 1994 |
An extremely affordable ($6.98 @ Harmony House) Naxos "DDD" CD of
Sibelius's 3rd & 4th Symphonies. David Leaper, I think,
conducting. Nice performances, nice sound.
The 3rd Symphony is rather undramatic and unassuming, but lots of
fun to listen to nevertheless. It's Sibelius's symphonic
declaration of independence, the first symphony in which he
approaches his mature style. Disappointed listeners expecting the
drama and the soaring melodies of the first two symphonies must
have thought Sibelius had lost his touch. There's some jolly, toe-
tapping music here, but there are also some *very* queer-sounding
passages. Portents of things to come.
The 4th Symphony's famous opening movement, an incredibly gaunt and
menacing northern landscape, doesn't entirely set the tone for this
piece, which features some surprisingly cheerful music later on.
But that first movement is a killer. Don't listen to it if you're
feeling even a teensy bit suicidal.
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md
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response 211 of 268:
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Mar 21 21:00 UTC 1994 |
The Spoleto Festival recording of _Antony and Cleopatra_. Late Barber,
filled with almost (dare I say it?) Mahlerian schmaltzy angst. It is
all Barberoid in the extreme, if you know Barber to begin with, but
to me it's always sounded like a betrayal or an abandonment of the
Samuel Barber who wrote _Vanessa_ and the Piano Concerto and the
_Toccata Festiva_, the major works immediately preceding _Antony and
Cleopatra_. There were hints of this sort of thing in almost all of
his music, but he'd never before quite let it all hang out the way
he did in this opera. I still have a lot of affection for it, but
I do wish Sam hadn't checked his brain at the door before writing it.
I should add that this recording, which was first released in 1983
and which has never been out of print, is one of the best-selling
Barber recordings of all time. It won a Grammy when it wafirst
released as the best new classical recording. So, I guess Sam knew
what he was doing, even though he didn't profit much from it during
his lifetime.
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bartlett
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response 212 of 268:
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Mar 29 18:04 UTC 1994 |
It sounds a bit like the violin concerto, which has absolutely no
schmaltz in it whatsoever, no not even a little teensy bit, none, nada, ok a
lot actually. I'm not familiar with much of Barber's oeuvre other than that
and the bloody adagio (I'm sorry it's a lovely piece and done to death).
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chelsea
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response 213 of 268:
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Apr 1 03:23 UTC 1994 |
Today I visited Elderly Music, in Lansing. It wasn't at all what I
expected, but I did find a recording I'd been looking for for quite
some time. The entire 18.5 minute original recording of Alice's
Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie, on CD. Talk about a time trip.
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krj
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response 214 of 268:
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Apr 6 05:29 UTC 1994 |
Um, what *were* you expecting at Elderly Instruments?
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remmers
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response 215 of 268:
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Apr 6 11:21 UTC 1994 |
More of a classical music orientation.
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krj
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response 216 of 268:
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Apr 7 04:40 UTC 1994 |
Ooops! Alas, they have been diehard folkies ever since they went
into business. They sell a lot of rock instruments for the cash
it brings in, but folk instruments are the core of their business
and their recordings are almost all folk and "roots" material.
Apologies if I in any way misled you on this topic...
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scheme
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response 217 of 268:
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Apr 10 18:03 UTC 1994 |
I really liked the record "Increasing our high" by the nightkings, it is
probably my favorite record ever. it's hard to find but worth getting if you
can find it.
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md
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response 218 of 268:
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May 13 20:36 UTC 1994 |
Elliott Carter: Concerto for Orchestra; Violin Concerto; Three
Occasions for Orchestra. London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen.
Carter's Concerto for Orchestra is one of my all-time favorite
pieces. For the past 25 years, I've been listening to Leonard
Bernstein's premiere recording of it with the NY Philharmonic.
This new performance isn't as glossy sounding as Bernstein's, but
it might be more authentic. Carter himself (now in his late
eighties) was at the recording sessions and supervised the
recording.
The music itself is easy to describe but must be heard to be
believed. It's in four contrasting movements, with an
introduction before and a coda after. Each movement is
characterized by a distinct type of orchestral "sound": the
first is medium-low and rather prickly sounding; the second is
high and breathlessly flighty, but always slowing down; the third
is basso and extremely violent; the fourth is medium high and
constantly accelerating. Each of these four orchestral "sounds"
dominates its own movement, but also breaks through into the
other movements at odd moments. The whole thing is said to be
highly ordered tonally, serially, or whatever. I can't say I've
figured much of that out over the years -- I'm just crazy about
the way it sounds. It's a stunner.
The booklet has an effusive essay by the conductor, Oliver
Knussen, who says that "the Concerto for Orchestra has been one
of the fundamental ear-opening new musical experiences for many
composers of my generation in much the same way, perhaps, that Le
Sacre du Printemps or Erwartung were for composers of Elliott
Carter's generation." I can't comment on that, but I can
confirm, in spades, Knussen's contention that perfect
comprehension of the music's argument is not needed to fall in
love with it, because "the sheer dramatic sweep of the music is
as immediate and as impervious to performance vicissitudes as a
great opera, for Carter is, to my mind, the greatest present-day
musical dramatist in the instrumental sphere."
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md
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response 219 of 268:
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May 16 12:51 UTC 1994 |
Re Elliott Carter, does anyone remember a piece I once entered here
called "P's Further Correspondence"? It was a "what if" story about
how Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, et al, might've turned
out if they hadn't died young. In it, I had Jimi Hendrix studying
composition with Elliott Carter. It seemed far-fetched, but is
actually quite plausible when you think about it. So, I experienced
a weird little chill when I found out recently that some recordings
of Elliott Carter's music have been sponsored by -- hand on my heart
-- the Grateful Dead.
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md
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response 220 of 268:
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Jun 8 17:54 UTC 1994 |
Choral music of Samuel Barber, performed by the Cambridge
University Choir. Some old friends here: "Agnus Dei," Barber's
choral setting of the Adagio for Strings, very popular with the
Interlochen generation; "A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map," to
Stephen Spender's Spanish Civil War poem of that name; "Under the
Willow Tree" from "Vanessa," which sounds Brahmsian in its
chorus-and-piano garb, like an affectionate parody of a
Liebeslieder waltz; two choruses from "Antony and Cleopatra."
Some of the others are new to me. One, the mystical "To Be Sung
on the Water," to a poem by Louise Bogan, was an instant hit with
me, as was the setting of Emily Dickinson's "Let Down the Bars, O
Death," which was performed at Barber's funeral in 1981. Barber
was Irish - with a vengeance at times - and his many song and
choral settings of Irish poets are among his most heartfelt.
"Reincarnations" on this CD are exceptionally lovely examples.
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md
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response 221 of 268:
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Jun 15 14:57 UTC 1994 |
Bela Bartok, The 3 Piano Concertos. Stephen Bishop Kovacevich,
piano. Sir Colin Davis & the London Symphony Orchestra on #1 and
#3, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on #2.
#1 is from Bartok's expressionist city-dweller period. Parts of it
sound deliberately grating, designed to shock. This is the
"allegro barbaro" sound we think of when we think of Bartok.
#3 is from his late period, outdoorsy and genteel. The second
movement contains enchanting imitations of North American bird
songs, including a recognizable towhee (I was told they say "drink
your tea-ee-ee-ee" in my childhood) and a wood thrush ("ee-o-lay"),
which he heard during his stay at a sanatorium in Ashville NC, when
he was being treated for leukemia. Very, very touching.
#2 is from his middle period. It's an amazing piece of music. For
those reactionaries who believed Bartok was mentally unbalanced,
the second movement of #2 must have been proof that the composer
from Transylvania had finally gone bye-bye. Wherever he was when
he wrote it, it wasn't planet earth. Must be heard to be believed.
76 minutes of great music on one CD. Highest recommendation.
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md
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response 222 of 268:
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Jun 22 17:42 UTC 1994 |
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Overture to _The Wasps_; The Lark
Ascending; Fantasia on Greensleeves; Oboe Concerto; Fantasia on a
Theme by Thomas Tallis; Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.
William Boughton conducting the English String Orchestra.
Nice performances, and nice recordings except for the Oboe
Concerto and The Lark Ascending, where the engineers let the solo
parts drown out the orchestra in a few places. You can hear
every click of the oboe's keys. Weird. I'm going to have to get
another recording of The Lark Ascending, because it's one of my
favorite pieces.
I have mucho affection for the Tallis Fantasia. There's a
Whitmanesque confusion of the religious and the sexual about it,
on a Whitmanesque scale. Anthony Burgess, writing about American
pronunciation, tells of hearing a male tourist say to his female
companion, "Honey, when I have innercourse with you, I feel like
I'm in the presence of Gawd." Surely, quipped Burgess, the
"Gawd" in question was not the God of the Anglican Communion, but
rather "some small-town Priapus, made of plastic." Well, the
Tallis Fantasia manages to stay in the presence of the God of the
Anglican Communion (it was first performed in Gloucester
Cathedral) from foreplay to orgasm to long lingering afterglow.
"The effect is both awe-inspiring and strangely intimate," say
the liner notes. No kidding. You might want to check this one
out if you haven't heard it.
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md
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response 223 of 268:
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Jul 20 15:04 UTC 1994 |
Symphony for Classical Orchestra by Harold Shapero, the Los
Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Andre Previn. A magical
piece of music, sadly neglected. Previn, who rediscovered
it in 1986, says it has the most beautiful slow movement of
any American symphony. For all its sophistication, there is
a gentle kindliness and innocence about the symphony that I
find addictive. The "Nine-Minute Overture" that starts this
CD is a youthful piece, very cute but not up to the Symphony's
standards. When I was a teenager, my musical guru was a man
named Ben Kallman who owned the big record store in town.
A little bald fellow with a hooked nose and a moustache, he
looked like a 'thirties Stalinist but was really a left-wing
anticommunist. Anyway, I would periodically ask him to pick
a recording for of something new and different and wonderful.
Once he handed me the just-released Concord Quartet recording
of Elliott Carter's String Quartet (his only one at that point).
On another occasion, he gave me the Leonard Bernstein recording
of Harold Shapero's Symphony for Classical Orchestra. Carter
went on to international reknown, while Shapero sank into
obscurity; but I believe that time has validated both of
Ben's choices. (Once, I complained to Ben that my kid sister
had become a Beatles fanatic and asked him to recommend an LP
that might help cure this deplorable lapse in her taste. He
handed me the just-released "Revolver" album, and said,
"And listen to it yourself if she'll let you. You might
learn something."
)
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gerund
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response 224 of 268:
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Jul 21 11:25 UTC 1994 |
Heh. :-)
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