response 75 of 203:

Mar 21 10:07 UTC 1992

My russian music course demonstrated that Rachmaninoff was working
in a clearly established tradition in his use of brilliant 
orchestral color combined with russian folk melodies and elements
of russian orthodox church music, but that Rachmaninoff was also
technically superior to his contemporaries in his ability to
manipulate music.  Mussorgsky, for instance, was self-taught,
and sometimes deliberately clunky.  Rachmaninoff actually
taught at the first Academy of Music in St. Petersburg, where
he really learned the ins and outs of traditional music
theory and orchestration, and learned to make the notes
dance upon his command.  His Russian Easter Overture is
a remarkable work, especially after you learn something
about the Russian Orthodox Easter service, and realize
that Rachmaninoff's overture is essentially an impressionistic
painting of such a service.
.

response 77 of 203:

Mar 23 17:06 UTC 1992

I'd agree with the above, too, if you changed "Rachmaninov" to
"Rimsky-Korsakov".  Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was not really a
contemporary of Mussorgsky (1839-1881) and he didn't, to my
knowledge, write anything called "Russian Easter Overture".
Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a contemporary of Mussorgsky
and did write that celebrated piece.  Also, I don't recall
whether Rachmaninov ever taught at the conservatory, but I
know that Rimsky-Korsakov was a reknowned teacher there.
(Igor Stravinsky was one of his students.)  Finally, for
all its melodiousness I don't think you can call much of
Rachmaninov's music "colorful" in the sense that Rimsky-
Korsakov's music was colorful.  The general tone of Rachmaninov's
music is rather gloomy, in fact.  

I hate to sound picky, but, well, I am.

response 79 of 203:

Mar 24 03:39 UTC 1992

well, i lied. today the cd-version of rachmaninov's second arrived in the
mail. i already had it on tape, but this one was free, so i said okay. i'm
listening to it now. i suppose we need to define "color." if we're talking
about the expanded, chromatic use of key, there's no getting around the 
fact that rachmaninov is not a colorist in the sense that r-k, berlioz, or
respighi was. i cannot recall a piece by him that meets that requirement.
but as i listen to the first movement of the second, i hear a harmonic 
complexity in the strings that is offset against the woodwind solos. and
although i'm still some minutes as i type from reaching the second move-
ment (on-the-spot critical thoughts here...), the best word to describe the
full, polyphonous handling of the major theme is "lush." the melody is
richly and broadly supported by the entire orchestra in as forceful a way
as chromatic expansion generally suggests. in fact, for a rachmaninov 
melody, it's almost an opitimistic one. 

there's another reason it's difficult to shun the color label for his music.
rachmaninov is clearly an inheritor of the fullest, heaviest, most ambitious
elements of romanticism. compared even to the forward-looking classical 
pieces like beethoven's sixth, the expanded orchestra and slower, fuller
motives cannot help suggesting color. add to that rachmaninov's sense of 
drama (a good example is the quarrel between the strings and the rest of
the orchestra about two thirds, maybe three quarters through the first
movement) and it seems a pretty fair estimate.

sorry to have rambled so. 

response 81 of 203:

Mar 24 14:08 UTC 1992

When Rimsky-Korsakov is described as a colorist, it's his orchestration
people are referring to.  He was a real innovator, who made possible the
later work of Ravel and Stravinsky.  In terms of melody, harmony, depth
of feeling, and just about everything else, Rachmaninov is a more
interesting composer, at least to me.  But Rachmaninov was Tchaikovsky's
heir, not Rimsky-Korsakov's.  Rachmaninov's orchestral colors are the
rich grays and mahogonies of Tchaikovsky, not the dazzling metallic
hues of Rimsky-Korsakov. 

Btw, I don't mean to criticise arabella's response.  It's a very nice
sketch of Rimsky-Korsakov and his music, it just gets the names mixed
up.  I seem to recall doing the same thing myself once upon a time.

response 83 of 203:

Mar 24 17:24 UTC 1992

Comparing Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov: 

It's true that Rimsky-Korsakov's music sparkles, glitters, whirls, 
dances, laughs, etc.  But for some reason, I always hear the 
academy in it.  It's as if he somehow managed to make his music 
sound "by the book," despite the fact that he himself wrote the 
book and took second place to no one for originality.  I don't know 
why I react that way or how to explain my reaction.  

On the other hand, Rachmaninov's most characteristic orchestral 
effect is likely to be a string passage that descends suddenly to a 
dark minor chord in the brass (the musical equivalent of a man 
slumping down at a table and burying his face in his hands).  But 
his music sounds as fresh to me today as Rimsky-Korsakov's music 
sounds stale.

response 85 of 203:

Mar 24 21:38 UTC 1992

Oh shit.  Major embarrassment.  Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima
culpa.  Of course, I've been really, really sick for the last
six days or so, and I guess I should avoid saying anything on
the computer when I'm sick, for fear of making such gross
errors.

response 87 of 203:

Jun 27 03:30 UTC 1992

norrington and the london classical players have a nice cd with rossini
overtures, too, though it's not all of them. a particularly clever one
is "il signore bruscini" (i'm sure i got that a bit wrong, it's just 
that i'm nowhere near where i can check it...), in which the orchestra
was initially instructed to tap on their music stands as a percussive
effect. naturally, innovations in percussion for modern performance have
robbed us of that wonderful, entertaining touch. the group, when they 
played hill last year, did it the original way. not only does it sound
neat and entertain the audience, but at that performance, a gentleman
in the stalls happened to sneeze quite loudly--and in perfect time with
the music. it darn near brought the orchestra down, let alone the house.
even without the sneeze, i highly recommend this disk for rossini fiends.
rossini does indeed suffer from underexposure because he's an opera 
composer and therefore not suited to a brief play on the local classical
station.

response 89 of 203:

Aug 25 21:58 UTC 1992

i'm currently listening to the gothenburg s.o. version (with jarvi) of
tchaikovsky's _1812_ overture. as davis did, jarvi uses a chorus at
the opening and before the final sequence of cannon discharges. this re-
cording is especially pleasant for several reasons. one is that, as 
wqrs noted this morning, it features "just about everybody in gothenburg."
the symphony is accompanied by the gothenburg chorus, the brass band,
the artilery division, and the church bells. it's rather a community 
project. second, and not insignificantly, is that it is marvellously 
played and insightfully conducted. yet another reason to purchase this
disk is that it is one of several excellent features on a disk that runs
over 76 minutes. the other selections include the marche slave, borodin's
_in the steppes of central asia_ and polovtsian dances (sung in russian),
and rimsky-korsakov's russian easter festival and capriccio espagnol (both
of which jarvi also recorded with the scottish national orchestra, making
for an interesting comparison). 

does anybody have a copy of marriner/the academy's version of beethoven's
_wellington's victory_? how does it compare with von karajan's? i heard the
former on the radio two nights ago and loved it--the battlefield noises were
seamlessly integrated and wonderfully amusing. i wonder if beethoven foresaw
the almost comic character this piece would assume as he wrote it (and thought
back to almost calling his third symphony the napoleonic)? anyway, i have that
version on order, but i'd heard mutterings that von karajan's is good, too.
that doesn't surprise me, but marriner's excellent in the classical period
(of course) and this recording is very digital. could anybody offer me a 
comparison?

response 91 of 203:

Aug 26 13:36 UTC 1992

yeah, it's a terrific disc. i don't recommend throwing away your "standard"
1812, as the addition of a chorus is a deviation from tchaikovsky's score,
but that one and all the selections are really quite nicely played.

it's on the philips label, btw.

response 93 of 203:

Sep 5 02:28 UTC 1992

As a novelty item: Garrison Keillor's _Songs of the Cat_, from PHC days,
is now on CD.  (Yes, I know, quite a few of them aren't classical, at that.)
If you don't know them: these were part of fake ads for "Bertha's Kitty
Boutique", and will the example of "Cats May Safely Sleep" be clear enough
for this group?  (I think my favorite is "Rossini Follows Beethoven" (or
maybe it's the other way around), in which William Tell meets the Ode to Joy
(a dog & a cat, respectively) - it's not typical.)  My memory is that what
you got on the show was often better-done than this recording, though.

response 95 of 203:

Sep 10 19:41 UTC 1992

There are some composers I know only by a few of their 
compositions.  For example, Benjamin Britten:  I know his much-
recorded Purcell Variations (the "Young Person's Guide to the 
Orchestra") and Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, his War Requiem, 
his suites for solo 'cello, and his Variations on a Theme of Frank 
Bridge, and I love all of them.  I think the solo 'cello suites and 
the Bridge variations are wonderful beyond wonderful - they come as 
close to being precisely "my" kind of music as anything I know.  
But despite all this, I have recordings of only a couple of other 
compositions of his, and I've never been inclined to listen to more 
of his music.  Maybe it's fear of disappointment, maybe it's 
because the bulk of his output was opera and I'm not a big opera 
buff.  I dunno.  Does anyone else like Britten's music?

response 97 of 203:

Sep 11 20:18 UTC 1992

Re #94, I know you're not knocking Beethoven's 7th Symphony, keats, 
just "another Beethoven symphony recording" (God knows there are 
enough of them in the catalogs), but your remark still set me back 
a bit.  

In #61, gerund said "The Seventh Symphony is something I could die 
to."  I know how he feels.  I can't imagine ever reaching the point 
where I'm even a little jaded over Beethoven's 7th, much less so 
jaded I preferred Wellington's Victory to it.  The 7th was the 
first Beethoven symphony I ever "learned."  It was the first piece 
of music I ever heard that gave me the feeling that the composer 
loved me, which I know sounds weird but there it is.

response 99 of 203:

Sep 21 05:04 UTC 1992

Re 95,  JUST TYPE THE DAMN WORD!  violincello!  violincello!