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oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.
Classical music thread! Wall of text incoming.

With regards to the OP:

Mozart's Requiem is a stunning piece of music; but there is some AMAZING chorale work out there. If you like modern stuff--anything by Eric Whitacre is top notch (and there's A LOT of it. He's incredibly prolific.) As far as older chorale music goes, Maurice Durufle is pretty much one of the recognized masters of that sort of thing. I would check out his requiem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWekKdoVOeo (starts here, is five parts, is pretty much one of the greatest pieces of chorale music ever written).

With regards to general classical discussion: I'm a classically trained pianist, so a lot of my listening heads in that direction. There have been plenty of major composers and others already mentioned, so I'll try to post some things that are very different than what has already been put out.

My absolute favorite piano music is by Scriabin :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0lfk2QgPhc -- Scrabin's 5th sonata is an interesting piece of music. It's still accessible and is played often, but still maintains his unique sound. (The big difference is that he gets away from the 3rd relationship in all of his composing. He was a huge theosophic, and he believed that the 4th chord opened the doorway to a mystical realm. I'm not kidding.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0xgfScsVo8 -- This is his 8th, which is not only a fascinating piece of music, but contains some of his most enigmatic melodies. (This is not the greatest recording.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gemRLXoqQj8 -- This is no. 9, which is probably his best sonata. It's also the one that he genuinely refused to play, because he believed that he had crafted something so fundamentally evil.. or something along those lines. (It's entitled the "Black Mass;" no. 7 is the white mass)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKX1Fk6W2wQ -- I'll mention the 3rd, briefly, because I love playing it. It's generally considered the most accessible of his works, but Hamelin likely correctly notes that there's not a lot here that he doesn't do better in his other pieces. The melody isn't interesting for the melody itself, but rather the way he works with it. Very Russian Romantic.

Other Russian Romantics:

Blumenfeld is a lot of fun. His pieces are incredibly virtuosic and are primarily centered around lyrical etudes. He was primarily a teacher, and many of the great pianists coming out of Russia at the turn of the 20th century were trained by him. He was Horowitz's teacher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0El0scKO44 -- This is a selection of his preludes. Pretty much everyone after Bach writing piano music tries to emulate the Well Tempered Clavier (Chopin actually specifically says this in his introduction to his suite of preludes) and crafts 24 preludes in the various keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZTm_ZnMM7g -- This is indicative of his etudes. They are really really really hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxkLthJoGQA&feature=related -- This is for the left hand alone. Live performances of this tend to make me go :aaa: I'll mention Godowsky in a bit, but he also does a bunch of left hand alone stuff which is just mind-bendingly difficult.

Mendtner attempted to be the heir to Rachmaninoff's throne. I really like his Sonata Tragica, but hunting down a good recording can be tough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTsPpKsAwKA&playnext=1&list=PL7BCF88652EFD29B2&index=4

Glazunov , Liadov , and Lyapunov are also all good. Liadov has some beautiful preludes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5awcn3bJ0&feature=related. (the sound quality is crap, but Sofronitsky's interpretations of Russian stuff is absolutely fabulous.)

I'll briefly mention MacDowell , because he's a.) American, and b.) the epitome of :smug:. Most of his music is basically him going "Look what I can do. :smug:" His 4th sonata seems to be the one that's considered the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaQxmZGwVR4

Godowsky is also awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZLx4a_Dss -- This is a wonderful piece of music. Godowsky was said to have some of the greatest technical ability of any pianist ever, but he never really performed, so it's more just hear-say and stories from his students.

The elephant in this thread is definitely contemporary classical. Some of it is very hard to listen to. Some of it is absolutely ridiculous. However, in general, the movement has spawned some brilliant stuff. People should listen to Carter's 2nd Sonata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L1ZB3-Mfv0 (The guy doing this is in one of the better conservatories in the world, so his interpretation is pretty good.)

The 2nd Sonata's spiritual successor is Vine's second Sonata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0ffbvO0rE&feature=related

This is Joyce Yang's interpretation. There is actually a pretty big ongoing debate on how this piece of music is best played, despite Vine's indication that he really really doesn't like romantic expression or rubato in it. This is also a piece that's really in the forefront right now: it's getting tons and tons of exposure in competition. It was played 4(?) times in the last Van Cliburn, which is pretty much -the- piano competition. And it's a piece of music that definitely highlights the comment in this thread about the importance of interpretation in classical music. Vine's apparently been on record redacting his initial instructions in the piece, which can be summed up as "Play exactly what I wrote, dammit," but I've also heard that that apparent redaction is untrue, etc. etc. V :) V

I could go on forever, and would be happy to do so if there is interest. I spend a good portion of most days finding, listening, and trying to play at this sort of stuff. :)

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oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Pfirti86 posted:

This is an absolutely gorgeous piece. Your whole post is amazing and exactly what I wanted from this thread: obscure composers and their awesome work. We all know Beethoven, but I'd never heard of Godowsky (and I liked to think that I was up on my piano composers being an amateur player myself) until tonight. Thanks!

I actually got recommended this piece by my teacher in college. I was interested in trying to do some water music, but wanted to get away from Gaspard de la Nuit (also because Scarbo gives me absolute fits) and Debussy's stuff. Not that they aren't wonderful, and rightly so, but there were about three different people attacking Gaspard for the senior recital, and Debussy etudes and preludes get played everywhere. Godowsky's Java Suite has several pieces with various water themes, and while I'm not sure of the total accuracy of this statement, it probably has something to do with the Javanese culture: Kraton is the Javanese word for palace. The piece itself is also trying to emulate a gamelan, which is a Javanese instrument.

Other interesting water stuff:

Bax's Nereid; which is a 4 minute long tone poem. It's close to impossible to hunt down full recordings on the internet, but its a beautiful piece of music.

MacDowell has a couple of water pieces in his New England.. suite? I can't remember what the group of music is. Idylls or something.

I'm convinced the most haunting of Debussy's preludes is the one that actually doesn't get played a ton (no. 10, and probably for good reason, there's a good argument that its the hardest): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfSBddhFvyA-- "La Cathedrale Engloutie." The notes themselves aren't tremendously difficult, but acquiring the smooth technique and avoiding bumpiness or dynamic changes while maintaining some independence of the notes so it doesn't sound like a mishmash is horrendously difficult.

I actually have access to a unique piece of music that's not in print: Richard Rodney Bennett's Bacarolle only exists in manuscript form. I happen to have a copy. I can try to get a recording up at some point, but it's thoroughly charming. Probably possible to hunt down a professional's interpretation though.

I will also mention another one of Blumenfeld's etudes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VCYPqv9x6s. "Sur Mer" is actually a pretty enjoyable piece of music, and very lyrical and sweeping. His etude op. 25 no. 1 is very similar.

----

In other news, I have been listening to significant amounts of Arvo Part. He's very much a modern minimalist, but his stuff contains a raw emotion that I don't always get from Philip Glass or his ilk. His Fratres for Violin and Piano is a unique and interesting piece of music. Part always talked about how he tried to compose completely "white" or "pure" music (in the sense of color,) where the refraction into actual emotional states was done purely by the listener.

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 19, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

crazyvanman posted:

If anyone is looking for something a little different, I highly recommend Debussy's preludes for piano. They are right on the border between 20th century and impressionist music, Debussy writing as he was at the time impressionism was 'it'.

[snip]

For any pianists among you I highly recommend books I and II of his preludes, as they are great fun to play, with so much scope. They're also quite challenging in parts.

:stare:

This post reminds me of a story I heard about Rachmaninoff once. He sat down and played Scriabin's Sonata-Fantaisie (the second movement is famous for being directly inspired by Chopin's 2nd sonata, which at the time was pretty mind-blowing.) and said, after nailing the piece in 2 hours of light work, "Hm. That's a tricky one."

If your technique is up to snuff to play all of Debussy's preludes to some degree of mastery, you are either a.) a professional, or b.) trying to become a professional. Debussy does NOT write easy music, and some of the preludes are very very difficult. The whole set of 24 presents enough of a spread of virtuosic and technical difficulties to challenge all but the premiere pianist. I'm kind of surprised that you note no. 12 as being the one that you can play, as it's regarded to be one of the most difficult to actually get right.

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jan 26, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

crazyvanman posted:

Really? It's certainly more difficult than some of the others (Danseuses de Delphes or La fille aux chevuex de lin) but it's far from impossible. Once you realise that the chords involved are really quite simple it's not that difficult.

Although, yes, I admit it's taken a fair amount of work to get my fingers round some of the trickier sections. I'll be performing it in a school music festival in a couple of months time, so it should be ready by then.


Playing the notes in no. 12 is rather simple, actually getting the 'feel' (or as Hoffman likes to say, the 'style') of the piece is devilishly difficult. The best relation is probably the 2nd movement of Gaspard. Compared to Ondine or Scarbo, it seems relatively technically straight forward. However, it's probably the most challenging of the three to actually accomplish. (Perlamuter claims that there are 37 different touches that a pianist needs to have mastered. For a single piece! Thats maybe 5 or 6 pages long! Almost each note is played completely different than the one before it.)

This particular prelude is much the same. A lot of it has to do with the way that Debussy uses sonority. It's widely accepted that no one understood the depth and range of the different areas of the piano better than Debussy. The same chord played in different registers is not supposed to sound even vaguely similar to its analogue in another register. Hinson, who wrote the complete pianist repetoire, and is known for his massive habit of understatement (He calls one of the Liszt Transcendental Etudes "tricky") says the following of no. 12: "A vision in sound of the submerged Cathedral of Ys (as you noted)...Spans almost the entire keyboard. Needs precise pedaling, tempo continuity, and wide tonal range."

French Impressionists are very very hard, but cheers to you for undertaking it. No. 12 is almost universally avoided in both competition and recital for the above reasons. (I could go into more specificity of the piece itself, but this doesn't seem like the thread for total piano sperging. :v: )


Can I Phaser You posted:

I was required to take a music/art class in order to graduate from the university I went to, and I randomly picked a class about Bach. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I was (and still am) an ignorant person when it comes to "classical music", but the one thing I can definitively say is that J.S. Bach was a genius. We are truly privileged to be living in a day and age where you can instantly listen to music like this.

Thank Mendelssohn! He was known to a lot of people, but Mendelssohn is probably responsible for the onus that we place on him today. :) (Probably the only nice thing I have to say about Mendelssohn, really. I'm not a big fan.)

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Chinaski posted:

Thanks! And as a follow up question related to classical music in general, how does one learn how to pick out quality recordings of music? Is it just a learned familiarity with a particular set of musicians or is it defined more by the record label?

This is a really interesting question, as it gets to the heart of a lot of the back in forth in classical music. Interpretation is pretty much key, and the exact same piece can be played in a huge number of different ways.

Here's a quick example--the following is three different recordings of the third movement of Beethoven's 14th sonata:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSulR9Fymg -- This is Wilhelm Kempf's playing. Kempf is eminently classical in his approach to the piece, and is more playing a rendition rather than an interpretation--i.e. very little pedal, very strict adherence to dynamics, no romantic liberties with tonality or speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNuw7HC6sBs -- This is probably my favorite, but I'm much more of a romantic pianist. Horowitz uses pedal, interprets dynamics, speed, etc. But the way he plays the piece is completely different from Kempf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVZqAbbkdgw&feature=related -- This is Glenn Gould. This is an absurd feet of technical virtuosity, but I can't really stand it.

What I'm trying to get at is that anyone who's good enough to record a CD with a classical label is going to be a fantastic musician, but there are vast differentiations in interpretation of a single piece of music. Picking out interpretations and where you stand is really important in gaining a critical ear for listening to the music. :)

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Chinaski posted:

Thanks - this is very helpful. I'm not very musically intelligent so I don't grasp the subtle technical nuances of playing but I know what moves me emotionally.

I'll keep digging around, to see what else I like. I live just outside DC, so I might check out a concert at the National Cathedral as well. This stuff must be very impressive live.

Live classical music when its done well is a wonderful experience. Its very hard to capture the full effect and power of an actual symphony in any environment other than a symphony hall. I would suggest it!

breaks posted:

Sibelius

I quite like Sibelius. He takes a long time to say anything, but it's usually pretty great when he finally does make his point. I had the opportunity to see his 2nd symphony at the Jackson Hole music festival a couple years ago, and it was a fabulous piece of music, even if the performance had a couple slight issues. (They got way too loud in the 2nd movement; the end resolution wasn't as powerful as it could be, etc. etc.)

A Jupiter posted:

I'm looking to find what exactly this kind of music is grouped as. I'd like to say it's romantic music, but it seems more adventurous and expressive. It does bear a resemblance to something like Debussy's Arabesque No.1 and Claire de Lune in its almost transcendent, fluid melody.

I think the post-minimalist comparison is apt. This actually sort of reminds me of John Adams' piano work--it's got the same sort of rhythmic left hand work that's so important in most of his compositions.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

The Black Stones posted:

This seems like the place to ask. I know gently caress all about classical music, but I've managed to hear some Chopin in some of my other hobbies and I've gotten really interested in picking up a collection of his works. But I don't know where to start, I'm basically looking for a CD (or CD's) that have a decent collection of them. If anybody can recommend something (If you're going to use Amazon, I'm in Canada, so Amazon.ca is preferred) I would appreciate it.

Chopin wrote ALOT of piano music. I'd suggest staying away from the etudes initially. There are some that are very listenable, but they're primarily technical studies (Mastering the etudes is a good way of surmounting most of the problems with performing Chopin's music. It's not completely the case, but they go a long way. They're required learning in any conservatory worth its salt. This often leads to swearing and frazzled pianists as they are both quite challenging and also typically taken on in a relatively early phase of advanced development :) )

I would say that the pre-eminent Chopin interpreter recently has probably been Rubinstein. (I personally think Agerich is wonderful, but she's criticized, and perhaps rightly so, for taking liberties with the music.) Some good beginning listening for his music is probably more of a mish-mash, rather than a full set of either the etudes, nocturnes, etc.

This is probably your best bet: http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Collection-Box-Set/dp/B000026OW3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297284239&sr=8-1

It's got all of the big pieces. The Polonaise Fantaisie is a personal favorite of mine both to listen and play. (I probably say this with too much gravitas. Any pianist worth his/her salt has likely had a crack at it, even if its not necessarily up to performance standards in their repertoire.) It's an excellent example of the sweeping Romantic epic.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Fid posted:

Yeah let's get some choral music in this bitch.

My favorite modern choral composer is Eric Whitacre. His stuff is approaching overplayed status in choral circles, but that doesn't make it any less brilliant or powerful.

He paints in colors using clusters of notes that clash but in really outstanding and pleasing ways.

This is probably the best example of his work: Lux Arumque (do yourself a favor and listen with headphones)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1sYkJHipvg

The text is pretty simple.

Light,
warm and heavy as pure gold
and the angels sing softly
to the new-born baby


I've probably performed this piece either singing or conducting at least 100 times. Some chords of note, just to illustrate what he does, his two basic chord families are like at 0:43 that are bright and ringing, and then at 2:30 which are dark and really bitey.

The way he works with dynamics and note clusters is just gorgeous, and he's one of the most effective composers at text-painting that I know.

Some other works of note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLiivVgxmM Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine: conducted by the man himself. This is Leonardo inventing and testing a flying machine. The Flight begins at 5:50 where Leonardo steels himself and jumps off a cliff. It's pretty awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zqp0OpzMAI Cloudburst: also directed by Whitacre with over 300 performers here, it's painting a picture of before, during, and after the rainstorm. I think it takes a bit long to get to the storm, so go to 5:25 if you get bored. The chord they start building around 6:00 will give you chills

If anyone has any choral music questions, hit me up

Aarvo Part! (Not to detract from your post; I like Eric Whitacre a lot. His stuff is good. "When David Heard" [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOcXPeSufA ] is absolutely heart-rending.)

His style (Holy Minimalism) is some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard. Ever. Miserere is completely mind blowing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFPMpzJ2cNo

edit: oops! Wrong Miserere!

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Feb 10, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

WhatEvil posted:

Thank you for recommending Blumenfeld. I haven't had time to go through all of the rest of your post yet but I just downloaded Blumenfeld's Preludes for Piano Op. 12 & 17 from iTunes and I really like it so far. I'm just getting into classical music and trying to figure out what I like. If anybody has any recommendations for stuff similar to this then that'd be great. (As I said, haven't been through the rest of the thread yet though!)

Blumenfeld is a member of the Russian romantics, likely the most famous of which is Rachmaninoff. You might also check out the Russian "Big 5", my favorite being Cesar Cui. You might also look into Mendtner and Glazunov, both who don't get much playing the States.

There are also several composers who are influenced by the movement, but go on to making their own. I would take a listen to Scriabin's early stuff, anything before his 5th Sonata is much more in the Romantic style. Afterwords he becomes very much his own composer, and the harmonies he uses are very distinct from the movement. You could also try very early Szymanowski. His opus no. 4 has a very romantic bent. (Late Szymanowski will probably make someone who hasn't done a lot of classical studies go :psyduck: )

As a final selection, try Bortkiewicz. His capriccio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8lnrNpibMw )is great fun, and actually not a terribly difficult piece of music. It's got its tricky parts, but its more flash than true challenge.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Bondage posted:

I'm really digging Baroque. Currently my favorites are Johann S Bach, Locatelli and Corelli. Also have listened to Telemann and Purcell. Can anyone recommend some decent Baroque?

It depends on what kind of music you're really wanting to listen to, I think. If you want to try some of the post-Renaissance choir/vocal stuff, it's really really hard to wrong with anything that Padilla wrote.

I'm not as familiar with a lot of the chamber music of the time period, I must admit.

I also recently purchased a series of recordings of Scriabin by Gordon Fergus-Thompson. His interpretation is superb. For reference, I think most of the Scriabin heard played now-a-days is heavily influenced, if not outright dictated, by Horowitz and Sofronitsky. Fergus-Thompson's interpretation of the 3rd is definitely his own, and probably the best I've heard, but it's very polarizing.

Finally, I see a lot of people in this thread who are just starting to branch into listening to classical music. I have only one suggestion: Go to the symphony, the opera, or sit in on competitions if they're in your area. (I recently had the opportunity to go to the latest Van Cliburn competition.. it was pretty rad.) If you live around a college, go to the college symphony/performances. Even if you're in a smaller city (like I am) the symphonies still put on a pretty good show. The conducting and professional world is so cut throat anymore that anyone who's drawing a salary of any amount is going to be extraordinarily talented. As such, even the 3rd tier semi-pro symphonies will draw in very respectable guest musicians.

It's just like any other sort of music, its much much better live. :) Also, you'll be subjected to things that you wouldn't run into otherwise. Though the things played in symphony and competition tend to be pretty regressive (with some exceptions, but in general, no one is going to play Samuel Barber's sonata in competition despite it's enormous importance), it's an excellent way to start broadening your horizons. There's 300+ years of the stuff to be exposed to.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

DrSunshine posted:

I've been flailing around kind of aimlessly, trying to investigate into the twelve-tone technique and serialism, but all of the stuff I've come across so far just sounds like so much harsh clanking and honking to me. So I come, asking this thread who the best, most listenable twelve-tone composer is. I'd really like to broaden my horizons in this area.

Alban Berg is probably the best in my opinion. His music is really quite something; his sonata op. 1 was a birthday present to Schoenberg, who was not particularly impressed. It has probably come to become one of the four most important 20th century sonatas (the other being Barber's, Carter's and Vine's no. 2... at least in my eyes, there's probably arguments for some others.)

Give it a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxBGG74ztVo

edit: Grammar. :saddowns:

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.
My copy of Hinson's complete piano repertoire arrived today. :)

I generally dislike musical literature--too much of it is vague artistic meanderings about such weighty concepts as "respecting (and/or feeling) the music" (this is actually quite useful for vocal work, though. I remember an opera singer I knew in college describing her mental preparations before performance. As I recall they were quite lengthy and involved.) or vacuous suggestions on general technique. In general though, Hinson is incredibly useful simply as a reference. It's not so necessary for the publishing notes anymore -- the vast majority of music is public domain and can be downloaded for free at imslp, but his punctual notes on difficulty and general requirements for pieces have often been more useful to me than the aforementioned airy recommendations that most musical literature falls into. (There are significant exceptions, though. I don't really undertake beethoven sonatas anymore without Tobb's guide.)

the Bunt posted:

Thanks! Prokofiev is one of the most interesting composers to me. Such heaviness.

The first really really nasty plateau I hit in my piano training was Prokofiev's toccata in D minor. I can't recall the op. of the top of my head, 10 or 11, I think. It ended up being a pretty nasty battle of wills with my piano teacher at the time and almost ruined piano for me.

I still can't bring myself to work on any of his stuff, I probably should.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

CreedyKillZ posted:

^Love Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #1, and particularly the 2nd movement;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggITzFz2d-E

Oh, I love his stuff. I think Prokofiev is absolutely wonderful, but I seem to have a pretty bad mental block in trying to play any of it. I'm sure it's all in my head. :)

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Apr 5, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.
This was something that was brought up in an off topic soccer/football (depending on your location) thread in this very forum.

But, effectively, if you have not heard the following pieces of music, you need too, right now:

Vine's 1st Piano Sonata:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0ffbvO0rE

Remain with Joyce Yang. Spencer Meyer does an admirable job, but comes off as a bit too academic.


--------------------

Fratres:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FukUz9z9HkY

This feels like it's dubbed. It's not. Jesus Christ. You can see his hands shaking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOcXPeSufA

------------

Choral Music is important; and Eric Whitacre, regardless of what you think of his religious beliefs, is THE choral composer right now. When David Heard is a brilliant combination of Arvo Part and something else. Heart-breaking, stunning, world changing. This is that one piece of music that changes everything.

Listen to it. All of it; there are two parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOcXPeSufA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZeU7okc6HQ&feature=related

I will not spare the religious impacts simply because the piece relates to David-- a biblical figure. He is not lamenting the loyal son. He is lamenting the prodigal son; the child who has treated him, effectively, like poo poo. This is the mourning of a father who has lost everything. And goddamn.


----------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV0JFg0xlF0

Contemporary classical is not just dissonant and atonal and angry. Just listen a bit more.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Hawkgirl posted:

Sorry - what about Eric Whitacre's religious beliefs? I wasn't aware that that was a controversy. I googled it and I still have no idea why someone would be turned off his music because of his religion.

Nothing at all, it turns out. :v: I was under the impression he was at the faculty at BYU, but it looks like he just works closely with their choir director alot.

e: that said, there are a ton of postmodernist critiques of religion/politics/institutions of power coming from younger musicologists floating around right now, but I think that's more pertinent in academic circles than in popular perceptions of music. Taruskin [who admittedly seems only to be concerned with politics, but has gone so far to call Charles Rosen's entire literary output a "response to the cold war"] and Rosen have been publicly feuding for awhile now.

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Apr 13, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.
For anyone in the Western United States; tickets have gone on sale (and have been for a little while) for the Aspen and Jackson Hole Music Festivals. Both of them are pretty good; the Jackson Hole one has a Mauler Symphony and a few other interesting shows, and the Aspen festival has top notch stuff like they always do.

The one in Aspen is probably better, but is also more expensive.

Edit: In actual music-chat; I have been listening to Charles Griffes a lot in the last few days. He died very young, so his body of work is very small. He's an American from the early 20th century, before Ives/Copeland etc., and the music is very much indicative of that time. I would call it schizophrenic: on one hand strangely evocative of a country that is unsure of itself and its place in the world, and on the other, very imitative of the impressionistic and romantic traditions of France and Russia.

His Sonata is very much his magnum opus-- a very disturbing and evocative work, but I would suggest listening to part of his roman suites here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSwuhO9eCzQ&feature=related, and his scherzo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BmQGzYG34 to get a small handle on his music before taking it on.

Sonata pt 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbLA6nwjeJY
pt 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHIfX6euhvA&feature=related

oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 22:22 on May 5, 2011

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Dr. Witherbone posted:

I think there's multiple pieces being played. Here's one of them, anyways:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXU7I_Yyi2Y&list=PL2D48FE1849775F5A

Yeah, Rachmaninov and Schumann I think.

As a side note: that guy's hair is absolutely hilarious. He's like that in every single video I've seen of him.

I'd listen to this instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CLYvsX88gU

Horowitz's interpretation (wrong notes aside in the middle) is pretty much perfect. His ability to keep the left hand to a subtle ripple while bringing out the bell-like qualities of the melody is amazing.

Also, as Rubenstein liked to say "Horowitz wins the octave contest." Those runs. :psyduck:

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Smoove J posted:

I've been listening to Richter's interpretation, but Gilels and Horowitz seem to play with more feeling (on this particular prelude, at least).

Richter's interpretations of Rachmaninov tend to draw vehement reactions in one direction or the other. He's arguably the best interpreter of Debussy to have ever recorded or performed, but the sort of fire that you find in the Russian romantics seems to be slightly out of his purview. [As an interesting side note, the only other person with an argument, Walter Gieseking, had much the same problem. He did a recording of some Rachmaninov that was definitely met with mixed reviews. When he was asked why he decided to record it, he replied "I just got tired of playing soft all the time."]

If you want to hear Richter in his chosen element, youtube has pretty good recordings of him playing the complete Debussy preludes. Start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFVSI7SLH4k

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

KrzysztofKomeda posted:

Incidentally, my favourite Richter moment is his interpretation of the Scriabin 6th Sonata. I really thought I'd heard that piece before; and then I heard Richter's.

Richter's Scriabin interpretations are very very good. I'm unsure if he did the 8th or not (by far the most difficult, and, incidentally, the last Scriabin actually completed) but it and no. 7 seem to be the one that would lend themselves best to his incredible talent.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Lorcrimes posted:

I have another ID request if anyone would be kind enough to help me out - in a clip from an old Brazilian movie. The song is a Waltz, maybe Chopin (but doesn't seem to be any of his most famous as I checked). It might also be in A-flat major but I really don't know what I am talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toqTRkeQRCc&feature=youtu.be&t=6m19s

I am absolutely positive I have heard this elsewhere before but I'm stumped...

Sounds a lot like Chopin's A-flat major one, but it's not a Chopin Valse that I'm aware of. Don't think its Brahms either.

oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

Lorcrimes posted:

Thanks, that's the closest I've been able to get as well. Maybe it's some sort of obscure variation on Chopin's, certain parts are verbatim.

Yeah; might just be a variation. They did that often for movies.

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oilcheck my ass
Mar 8, 2006

Well, hello ladies.

KrzysztofKomeda posted:

Here's a good few starters for Rachmaninoff:

Piano Concerto 2 in C minor
Piano Concerto 3 In D minor - Martha Argerich soloist
Symphony No. 2 in E minor
The Isle of the Dead
Cello Sonata in G minor
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini - Vladimir Ashkenazy soloist
Preludes (Piano) op23 and op32

I couldn't find the best interpretations on youtube so I gave them a skip. I stuck in names where particularly important. The Argerich Rach 3 in particular is as good as unparalleled.

Hope this helps. Oh, and if you're getting into Stravinsky be sure not to ignore Prokofiev, without even mentioning his ballets or symphonys; his 2nd and 3rd piano concertos are incredible and don't get me started talking about his violin sonatas - I'd be here all day.

Also: all of his etudes tableaux. As far as interpretation goes: look for anything by Ashkenazy, Horowitz, or Agerich. They tend to be among the best interpretations and are relatively easy to find on youtube. For any of his real virtuosic piano stuff [some of the preludes, couple of the etudes, the completely loving awesome moment musicaux no. 4, etc. etc.], I would also suggest Marc-Andre Hamelin.

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