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david crosby posted:The feeling I get when listening to late Beethoven is something I've been chasing for years. I've only found a few pieces that hit on that extraordinary level. Late Beethoven, for me, is the absolute best sustained artistic achievement in any medium in history. Thanks for these recommendations. You mention the St.Mathew Passion. To be honest I've never listened completely to a large scale work by Bach -- I'm simply intimidated. I'm familiar with sections from those works though. Are you familiar with the St.John Passion? Pianist Andres Schiff, in his lecture series on the LvB sonatas, draws a couple of connections between the number "es is volbracht" from the St. John Passion and the finale of the Opus 110 sonata. There's an identical musical phrase in both of them and LvB composed the sonata when he was working on the Missa Solemnis and researching older composer's church music. Here's an English version of "Es is Volbracht" sung by Maria Anderson. This is one of my fave classical music vids on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuzYE3E0Nfk Aging Millenial fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2017 10:08
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Going to see Mahler 2 this weekend
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Feb 23, 2017 08:08
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Money Bags posted:Going to see Mahler 2 this weekend Going to see Walton 1 TONIGHT
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Feb 23, 2017 22:50
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Mahler posted:Going to see Walton 1 TONIGHT  I'm unfamiliar with Walton's stuff so I'll have to check out the 1st tonight while you're at the show. We'll compare notes later.
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Feb 24, 2017 00:32
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Money Bags posted:
i'm not really familiar with Walton, BUT i can recommend two really cool pieces: Five Bagatelles for guitar, this performance is ridiculously virtuosic. Cello Concerto
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Feb 24, 2017 02:42
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Hey what's up Classical music thread the amateur orchestra I'm in picked out its new repertoire for this season and it owns- Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"- Schubert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWnKMzAedK4 Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)- Mendelssohn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcogD-hHEYs Radzetsky Marsch- J. Strauss Sr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eab_eFtTKFs Fun stuff. The first movement of the Schubert is amazing and I'm sad that I had never heard it until now.
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Feb 24, 2017 06:16
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I don't think this has ever been posted here and I don't know how well known it is, so let me tell you about All of Bach: The Netherlands Bach Society, in celebration of their 100 year anniversary in 2022, is performing all (known) works of J.S. Bach and putting them on this website in video form. One piece per week for 1080 weeks. All very good performances in beautiful locations. All for free. Great video and audio quality too. And usually some sort of interview with background informations. It's really loving amazing.
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Feb 24, 2017 12:42
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Oh that's awesome thanks!
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Feb 24, 2017 14:27
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C-Euro posted:Hey what's up Classical music thread the amateur orchestra I'm in picked out its new repertoire for this season and it owns- Amateur orchestras can play symphonies? I thought only small ensembles can be amateur. How do you get together 70+ people on enough rehearsals to be good? Or maybe I have a wrong idea of what Amateur means in classical music. That Schubert's theme reminds me of Smetana's Vltava for some reason.
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Feb 24, 2017 17:45
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Doctor Malaver posted:Amateur orchestras can play symphonies? I thought only small ensembles can be amateur. How do you get together 70+ people on enough rehearsals to be good? Or maybe I have a wrong idea of what Amateur means in classical music. "Amateur" as in "none of us are professionals and are just doing this for fun", it's actually a bunch of students/faculty from the medical school in my city who wanted to play some music. It's fun but horribly imbalanced- we have more flutes on our roster than cellos (though we rotate the flute cast each rehearsal so only two or three are there) and I had to conscript a goon's wife to be our only bass player  Small instruments are easier to justify hanging on to for years without playing I guess! For context I play French Horn, though last season we had four of us (which is perfect IMO) and this season we have three which is almost as good.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:46
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Nice. Do you have any recordings? I'd like to compare them against pro orchestras.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:58
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Doctor Malaver posted:Nice. Do you have any recordings? I'd like to compare them against pro orchestras. No because we only have one concert under our belts and also we are not that good. I think my high school orchestra was on the level of this group if not maybe slightly better, but TBF the music program at my alma mater as a whole received national recognition for being really drat good while I was there. We were playing poo poo like Dvorak and Schostakovich while I was there, I remember having to do excerpts from Mahler 5 for my audition.
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Feb 24, 2017 22:16
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C-Euro posted:No because we only have one concert under our belts and also we are not that good. I think my high school orchestra was on the level of this group if not maybe slightly better, but TBF the music program at my alma mater as a whole received national recognition for being really drat good while I was there. We were playing poo poo like Dvorak and Schostakovich while I was there, I remember having to do excerpts from Mahler 5 for my audition. I was in marching band because high school orchestras are not a thing where I come from. I'm kinda jealous in fact.
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Feb 24, 2017 23:07
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Money Bags posted:I was in marching band because high school orchestras are not a thing where I come from. I'm kinda jealous in fact. I was in marching band, symphonic band, AND orchestra in HS (orchestra only my senior year), it was the best and if you could actually make money as a musician without working 24/7 I'd be doing it. I'm not actually part of the med school here and only heard about this orchestra trying to come together through my wife who is in said school, when she told me about I legit cried because I hadn't played in so long and was just happy to get a chance to play again. I've been lugging this drat horn around without using it for six years, I gotta get some use out of it!
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Feb 25, 2017 06:35
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C-Euro posted:I was in marching band, symphonic band, AND orchestra in HS (orchestra only my senior year), it was the best and if you could actually make money as a musician without working 24/7 I'd be doing it. Sadly, I don't have my trumpet any more and if I did it's been so long I wouldn't know how to play it. I've been thinking about joining the community choir because they get to do cool stuff like singing in the Mahler symphony I just saw. They don't require you to have any training and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. The symphony was sublime btw. Fourth row. My ears are still ringing and my palms hurt from clapping.
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Feb 26, 2017 05:35
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cebrail posted:I don't think this has ever been posted here and I don't know how well known it is, so let me tell you about All of Bach: Man I have been binging on this is really incredible, thanks again for posting it. The organ stuff in particular is amazing.
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Feb 26, 2017 10:25
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Itching for an absolutely awesome rendition of Mahler's 6th symphony? Check this great performance by Mariss Jansons and the London symphony orchestra. Blows me away errytime. They even repeat the exposition in the first movement! Most recordings of it I've heard they don't bother with the repeat, but it really makes a difference with the amount of themes and interesting motives Mahler loves to play with. https://open.spotify.com/album/4YbXWJkll5hAhN9Rzk3eKl
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Feb 26, 2017 18:50
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So I hate to admit this, but I finally got around to going to a Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert for the first time even though I've lived in this city for 26 of 32 years of my life. I heard a radio advert on Wednesday that they were doing Holst's The Planets, which I've loved ever since playing it in marching band back in junior year of HS. I'm so glad I did. I've listened to recordings countess times but hearing it live was so much more gratifying. I know it's been said a bunch, but go out and see your local symphony, folks. Infidel Castro fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Feb 27, 2017 |
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Feb 27, 2017 05:12
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Infidel Castro posted:
I love going to the concerts put on by my local symphony orchestra. The only drawback is that the majority of people who go to the concerts are elderly and insist on giving a five minute long standing ovation after every single performance. It's still a worthwhile experience but it gets old after the first few times and kind of waters down the meaning behind a standing ovation.
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Mar 2, 2017 01:15
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I love going to my local SO (Queensland Symphony Orchestra) because they have amazing student prices. $50 for any seat in the hall, even box seats which are normally $120! It's a good thing too considering the rising average concert age that people always go on about. I try and do my bit by taking friends who don't normally listen to classical but I think they just like getting to dress up and see the big hall.
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Mar 2, 2017 12:19
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krampster2 posted:I love going to my local SO (Queensland Symphony Orchestra) because they have amazing student prices. $50 for any seat in the hall, even box seats which are normally $120! It's a good thing too considering the rising average concert age that people always go on about. I try and do my bit by taking friends who don't normally listen to classical but I think they just like getting to dress up and see the big hall. I force my friends to go sometimes and they also use it as an excuse to play dress up. Which is embarrassing, but I let it slide because they're putting up with my poo poo.
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Mar 2, 2017 16:28
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krampster2 posted:I love going to my local SO (Queensland Symphony Orchestra) because they have amazing student prices. $50 for any seat in the hall, even box seats which are normally $120! It's a good thing too considering the rising average concert age that people always go on about. I try and do my bit by taking friends who don't normally listen to classical but I think they just like getting to dress up and see the big hall. Student prices at my local full-sized professional philharmonic orchestra: mostly 0€, sometimes 5€ 
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Mar 2, 2017 16:47
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I've been shamelessly sitting in ~$70 seats for  with my student discount and loving it. Last concert I could literally spit on the stage if i wanted to not that I would. I graduate in May so even though the student discount is basically on the honor system I need to prepare to pay a hefty fine for the seats I've been getting or it's off to the third level balcony.
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Mar 2, 2017 16:51
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Doctor Malaver posted:Amateur orchestras can play symphonies? I thought only small ensembles can be amateur. How do you get together 70+ people on enough rehearsals to be good? Or maybe I have a wrong idea of what Amateur means in classical music. I played in a couple of amateur orchestras before I moved, as well. Frankly, the first thing is that we don't get 70+ people on stage, but closer to 50. 10 violins, 6 violas, 8 cellos, 5 basses, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 2 clarinets, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 3 flutes. Another one had a much smaller string section, with maybe 6 violins, 1 viola (if we were lucky that concert) 4 cellos and one bass, plus a mostly complete winds/brass section. Really, though, symphonies, even those that are fully orchestrated (there are a lot of symphonies orchestrated for smaller or string-only ensembles, like Mozart) vary widely in difficulty level, and may or may not have difficulties in different sections or different stands on any given part. Typically, in my experience, the principal players are "not professional" but are music teachers with at least bachelors' degrees in music, and are good enough to make their way through the limited rep that the group is willing to play, which helps with a lot of the exposed solo parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQT6Gt6I8Rw This is one average community orchestra doing Dvorak's New World- is it perfect? No, far from it. But everyone in the group had a lot of fun playing through one of the major warhorses.
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Mar 2, 2017 17:11
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Honj Steak posted:Student prices at my local full-sized professional philharmonic orchestra: mostly 0€, sometimes 5€ Do you need an EU passport to reap the benefits of cheap tickets? I have an Austrian citizenship and would consider getting a passport if it means I can see professional orchestras for low prices whenever I got to Europe next.
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Mar 3, 2017 09:01
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krampster2 posted:Do you need an EU passport to reap the benefits of cheap tickets? You need to have a student card, nationality doesn't matter. But even without one most orchestras in Germany and Austria are comparably cheap and most places have tickets around 20€ available and it rarely gets more expensive than 70€. Even the Berlin Philharmonics, who sell >95% of their tickets, get most of their income from public funding.
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Mar 3, 2017 10:01
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Kytrarewn posted:I played in a couple of amateur orchestras before I moved, as well. Frankly, the first thing is that we don't get 70+ people on stage, but closer to 50. 10 violins, 6 violas, 8 cellos, 5 basses, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 2 clarinets, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 3 flutes. So how does that work out if you miss some instruments? If the composition has a viola part different from other string instruments and you don't have violas, do you just not play it? Or does a violin play it? And if you have 3 cellos instead of 6 do they play louder to compensate?
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Mar 6, 2017 12:23
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Doctor Malaver posted:So how does that work out if you miss some instruments? If the composition has a viola part different from other string instruments and you don't have violas, do you just not play it? Or does a violin play it? And if you have 3 cellos instead of 6 do they play louder to compensate? Depending on how important it is, either we won't play it or the conductor will pick and choose the important bits and give it to another strings player. It's not just a case of "doesn't show up at the concert" as "the group never seems to have a permanent one"(the group from the video has a healthy viola section, and I'm discussing another one with whom I played). Of course, viola jokes are somewhat true and typically their parts don't stand out overmuch, so from the perspective of the average slob in the audience you're not missing much if you just tear up the part. Of course, that's also part of the reason that violists are relatively rare. If we have 3, 6, 9 cellos they do what the conductor tells them to in rehearsal and use their best judgement to balance with each other and the other sections. Keep this in mind- the strings are the only "scaleable" portion of an orchestra. With the exception of fifth horn, you'll never have multiple people playing the same part (they may be playing unison, but from different parts) in any of the brasses or winds. As such, they're the ones that really need to modulate their volume in relation to string density. The strings amongst themselves form a kind of choir that acts as one voice in itself (with occasional escapes by solo players here or there).
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Mar 6, 2017 16:50
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The development section of the final movement of the Lvb opus 101 piano sonata is a fugue, and it's one of those Beethovenian sequences where he just keeps laying on the intensity and doesn't let up. (lasting until 18:04) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsItzA34B1I&t=970s
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Mar 9, 2017 06:55
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I recently finished Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet, a biography focusing more on the person rather than the composer, and it was pretty good and interesting. It's fun reading about the possible love interests in LVB's life as a bunch of women who dodged a huge bullet since being in a relationship with Beethoven would be miserable. It's sad to think that he might have died a virgin but apparently there's a case to be made that he might not only have gotten laid by an actual woman, but could have had a child with that same woman. Crazy stuff. I for one think he went down to the Viennese red light district at least once to get his weiner wet. If Brahms can do it so can LVB.
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Mar 16, 2017 16:21
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Has anyone read the Beethoven biography by Jan Swafford? I've heard it's the best Beethoven bio.
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Mar 16, 2017 20:09
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My college Beethoven course used this as the reference: https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Maynard-Solomon-ebook/dp/B007IKKKS2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489691992&sr=8-1&keywords=beethoven+revised It may have been because it was fairly new in 2004 and the professor was just grabbing the book that had most recently impressed him, but I liked it.
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Mar 16, 2017 20:21
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Money Bags posted:I recently finished Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet, a biography focusing more on the person rather than the composer, and it was pretty good and interesting. It's fun reading about the possible love interests in LVB's life as a bunch of women who dodged a huge bullet since being in a relationship with Beethoven would be miserable. It's sad to think that he might have died a virgin but apparently there's a case to be made that he might not only have gotten laid by an actual woman, but could have had a child with that same woman. Crazy stuff. I for one think he went down to the Viennese red light district at least once to get his weiner wet. If Brahms can do it so can LVB. My sister was insisting the other night that LvB had congenital syphilis and that was a factor in his deafness. I'd never heard, or forgot this
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Mar 20, 2017 16:55
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Beethoven having syphilis is a disputed idea. It comes from him having received mercury treatments, but no solid evidence of whether or not those treatments were for syphilis or other ailments they'd use mercury to "treat" at the time. It's been brought up in a couple of classes I've taken but it's always 
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Mar 20, 2017 17:47
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david crosby posted:Has anyone read the Beethoven biography by Jan Swafford? I've heard it's the best Beethoven bio. It's excellent. I read it in the summer of 2015 and I'm now just finishing up listening to the audiobook version of it. I'll probably read it a third time if/when I learn a little more music theory but the book IS accessible to people who are merely interested in learning about the composer and his music without having too much interest in academic technical details. It's an epic read too but Swafford's prose is a breeze and he's never boring. The biography by Lewis Lockwood that came out in 2003 is also good -- a shorter read but Lockwood is an academic authority on the composer. Lockwood's book is more focused on the composer and his music whereas the Swafford tome is interested in those things as well as the general society and politics of Vienna/Europe during that era. You'll get an earful about Napolean's campaigns and the Congress of Vienna in Swafford's book. I enjoyed every bit of it. Both these books are good and complementary IMO but hey i'm monomaniacal about this subject Kytrarewn posted:My college Beethoven course used this as the reference: https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Maynard-Solomon-ebook/dp/B007IKKKS2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489691992&sr=8-1&keywords=beethoven+revised That book is 40 years old. It's well regarded though and sits unread on my bookshelf. Aging Millenial fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 02:39
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Money Bags posted:I recently finished Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet, a biography focusing more on the person rather than the composer, and it was pretty good and interesting. It's fun reading about the possible love interests in LVB's life as a bunch of women who dodged a huge bullet since being in a relationship with Beethoven would be miserable. It's sad to think that he might have died a virgin but apparently there's a case to be made that he might not only have gotten laid by an actual woman, but could have had a child with that same woman. Crazy stuff. I for one think he went down to the Viennese red light district at least once to get his weiner wet. If Brahms can do it so can LVB. Swafford insists that in the late 1810s Beethoven was habitually visiting brothels. But in his earlier years in Vienna he was quite puritan, and didn't speak to violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, his devotee and championer, for weeks (Ignaz had to avoid Beethoven's wrath) when Ignaz, probably thinking that his friend could use a little action, dragged an unknowing Beethoven to a brothel. Lockwood flatly states that Beethoven may never have known the touch of a woman though. Beethoven longed for intimacy but was fearful of it and the same time. Hmm, kind of like me, actually. I'm so lonely. 
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Mar 21, 2017 07:19
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Aging Millenial posted:It's excellent. I read it in the summer of 2015 and I'm now just finishing up listening to the audiobook version of it. I'll probably read it a third time if/when I learn a little more music theory but the book IS accessible to people who are merely interested in learning about the composer and his music without having too much interest in academic technical details. It's an epic read too but Swafford's prose is a breeze and he's never boring. Cool, I'll also try and check out the Lockwood bio. I think I read his book on Beethoven's string quartets a few years ago, but it was way over my head. I just listened to the 'new' Grigory Sokolov album. It's older recordings (like 90s and 00s, iirc) of a Mozart and a Rachmaninov piano concerto. They're loving sick, and I think Sokolov might be the greatest living pianist.
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Mar 21, 2017 15:38
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Has anyone tried to make a spotify playlist from the suggestions itt? I started work on one so I could listen to recommendations at leisure but it occurred to me someone might have already made one. If no such playlist exists I will continue working on it and share when I finish but jfc two pages in and already 40 gott dam hours of music and 17 pages to go. Please help. Aging Millenial posted:
Get thee to a brothel!
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Mar 23, 2017 15:59
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What do you guys think of Mahler? To this day I have a love-hate relationship with Mahler. I sometimes suspect that he used the grandeur of the symphony orchestra (and he was excellent at orchestration) to give weight to weak musical ideas -- I would often think that, at best, his music only manages to hang together. And like Bruckner and Wagner, he was someone who could go on. But I saw the 2nd and 3rd symphonies in live performance, and both were fantastic experiences. Seeing the 2nd symphony live was a revelation and I had a skip in my step for two weeks afterwards. I know the symphonies 1 through 5, but he loses me starting with the 6th. My fave Mahler movement? The final movement of the 4th symphony, which is a song. This movement might've been my gateway to Mahler -- I recall listening to it incessantly in the summer of 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_w5Mholo4M edit: And oh yea, the final 8 minutes of the 2nd symphony = among top most uplifting and epic moments of classical music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf5fM1i3MGQ Aging Millenial fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 08:57
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Brass player bias, I think Mahler is the poo poo. This being said, it took me a long time to appreciate his music to a wider extent. Back when I was in my undergrad I would listen to sections and love them but would have a really hard time staying attentive for an entire symphony of his. Highly recommend checking out San Fran's Keeping Score if you haven't already.
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Mar 29, 2017 22:42
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