Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Mar 23, 2023 14:48:36 GMT
Proper Debussy playlist to read Madame Bovary to. Oh the beauty, oh the desperation ...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Mar 26, 2023 5:36:58 GMT
This piece is essential to see played live because (for me at least) it’s hard to separate viewing the performance of it from simply listening... you actually hear it differently from watching how it’s played. Not only does it require a lot of physical movement (crossing of hands), but it also becomes a very sensual piece of music through performance – the way the hands move across the keys looks almost like caressing love-making, and the pacing of the music itself feels like breathing (Un Sospiro means “sigh”).
The piece’s process of thematic transformation is also quite breathtaking – it’s akin to watching a sunset where there's many different layers of beautiful color, but it proceeds in distinct palettes: sort of like a soft golden hour followed by brilliant oranges, reds, and pinks of the clouds, and then the soft twilight of purples and blues, etc. It’s still the same scene throughout, but every time you see it in a new palette... and then the ending is like when night finally falls and you’re gazing at the sky and the vastness of its celestial beauty.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Apr 1, 2023 10:36:32 GMT
To be listened more carefully, later ...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Apr 4, 2023 8:32:53 GMT
Shostakovich’s string quartets are my personal favorite pieces of his, but the Fifth Symphony is probably his best-known work. Fascinating not just as music, but also for its political context - it was written in response to the withdrawal of his radical Fourth Symphony, and was received warmly by the Soviet Party for its supposed adherence to their template of what was considered acceptable music at the time. Part of what makes the symphony great though is how you can read it in a very different way than how it appears expressively on the surface.
The finale is one of my favorite endings to a symphony ever because on the surface it appears to follow the Soviet-approved model of triumph and optimism, but underneath there is a lingering darkness, an unsettled feeling that something is not quite right during the piece’s final moments. Combined with brief but sharp dissonances, the music becomes labored and almost plodding at the very end, perhaps suggesting a deeper truth behind this forced rejoicing.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Apr 23, 2023 10:24:13 GMT
Another watershed fifth symphony by a 20th-century Russian... it even bears a structural and stylistic resemblance to Shostakovich’s Fifth, though it’s still its own distinct work, and it's the most mature symphonic work Prokofiev had written up until this point.
The longest of all Prokofiev’s symphonies, it has a surprising sense of unity and continuity, whereas his earlier symphonies can sometimes feel like fragmented episodes with underdeveloped ideas. Here, he also tones down the grotesque and ironic features found in his earlier works, and instead embraces a stronger sense of lyricism that at times feels reminiscent of Brahms or Tchaikovsky.
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VERITAS
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Post by VERITAS on Apr 26, 2023 1:20:04 GMT
But can we discuss Faure's Pavane...
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Apr 26, 2023 7:15:57 GMT
But can we discuss Faure's Pavane... 1:27 -  C'est Lindor, c'est Tircis et c'est tous nos vainqueurs!
C'est Myrtille, c'est Lydé! Les reines de nos coeurs!
Comme ils sont provocants! Comme ils sont fiers toujours!
Comme on ose régner sur nos sorts et nos jours!
(...)
It's Lindor! it's Tircis! and all our conquerors!
It's Myrtil! it's Lydé! the queens of our hearts!
How provocative they are, how proud they are always!
How they dare reign over our fates and our days! |
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Apr 30, 2023 0:18:02 GMT
Maybe my favorite piece ever... how it survives millions of listens is beyond my comprehension.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 13, 2023 4:21:57 GMT
Sounds a lot like Richard Strauss at times... can't believe this is the same stuffy old Elgar behind Salut D'Amour and Pomp & Circumstance...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 22, 2023 5:42:38 GMT
There aren't a lot of ride-or-die Charles Villiers Stanford fans out there... but with melodies like this, maybe he deserves more love. Breathtaking secondary theme at 1:23, particularly the harmonic progression at 1:30-1:35, and the way he redoes it in a different key in the next phrase at 1:46 is just *chef's kiss*
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 30, 2023 7:44:11 GMT
Shattering stuff.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 7, 2023 1:21:46 GMT
RIP Kaija Saariaho, who just passed away a few days ago at the age of 70. In 2019, she was ranked the greatest living composer by BBC Music Magazine.
Also, about time we had a female composer featured in this thread, which has become quite the sausage fest...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 20, 2023 3:33:41 GMT
First African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and also the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.
This is a monumental, massive work. Features some neat allusions to Dvořák 9 as well...
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jun 20, 2023 8:44:49 GMT
No words...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 24, 2023 5:59:12 GMT
Pretty cool piece with a final movement that works as a complete palindrome – the second half of it is a reversal of the first half, but transposed. At the beginning, the first violin plays one note, then two, then three, and so on until 21 notes, while gradually getting softer. Meanwhile, the other instruments interject phrases of 20 notes, then 19, then 18, etc. while gradually getting louder.
The entire movement is built around oppositions like this, and is actually unique within Crawford’s output since no other piece of hers works quite like this one does.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jun 24, 2023 10:13:12 GMT
Pretty cool piece with a final movement that works as a complete palindrome – the second half of it is a reversal of the first half, but transposed. At the beginning, the first violin plays one note, then two, then three, and so on until 21 notes, while gradually getting softer. Meanwhile, the other instruments interject phrases of 20 notes, then 19, then 18, etc. while gradually getting louder. The entire movement is built around oppositions like this, and is actually unique within Crawford’s output since no other piece of hers works quite like this one does.  |
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 4, 2023 8:31:35 GMT
Clara Schumann — wife of Robert Schumann — was an active composer and performer in her own right, and her Piano Trio is typically regarded as her best work.
Here’s the slow movement, which features a melody dripping with Romantic yearning and melancholy that probably made Brahms’s heart flutter.
Side note: This recording features violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who is responsible for my favorite performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, and is also a soloist on the soundtrack for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (the fantastic Helena’s Theme)!
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jul 7, 2023 19:12:26 GMT
It's Serenade time Which version is your favorite? and Why? ( The_Cake_of_Roth thanks in advance for your insight!) |
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jul 8, 2023 16:35:51 GMT
Great pick to play going through the pages of Moby Dick. 16:15 is where they begin to see the running whales...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 9, 2023 8:43:35 GMT
Great pick to play going through the pages of Moby Dick. 16:15 is where they begin to see the running whales... That piece you mention at 16:15 (Die Moldau) is used to great effect in one of my favorite sequences from Malick’s The Tree of Life – the montage of the boys growing up shortly after the creation sequence. You probably already know this, but for those who don’t, the piece on its own is intended to musically evoke the Bohemian river and its movement through different landscapes, depicting the gradually changing character of the river (starting as a small spring and eventually transforming into rapids). In the film, I love how the musical metaphor of the flowing river is reinterpreted as the flow of time, which correlates to the transformation of the three brothers as they as mature. Malick is not only thematizing temporality visually, but also musically… it’s a spectacular fusion of preexisting music and image to create new meaning. I was familiar with the piece before seeing the film (and even had the privilege of performing it with an orchestra), but now it’s inextricably linked to the movie for me, and it’s all I think of whenever I hear it. Sorry I haven’t responded yet to your last post… I’ll try to listen to it soon! |
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jul 12, 2023 13:29:21 GMT
Have we ever applauded this genre of hilariously-and-correctly-titled playlists here? Not only they keep the youngsters in touch with the music that their grandparents listened to but they also save our asses in times of need lol
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 13, 2023 3:47:25 GMT
Have we ever applauded this genre of hilariously-and-correctly-titled playlists here? Not only they keep the youngsters in touch with the music that their grandparents listened to but they also save our asses in times of need lol Never heard the "Le Grand Cahier” Suite for Strings by Litvinovsky before... sounds like it was inspired by James Bond! Also, I’d sooner include the Boccherini piece in a “Classical music used in movies to represent high society and/or rich villains” playlist along with Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and "Spring" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. |
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 30, 2023 5:13:52 GMT
It's Serenade time Which version is your favorite? and Why? ( The_Cake_of_Roth thanks in advance for your insight!) Sorry, forgot about this! Just got around to listening to all of them, and I think I actually might like the first one (Engerer) the most – just has my preferred tempo, articulations, and phrasing... Hastings is too fast for my taste, Malikova too slow, the rubato in the Pennario and Jonas is too much imo, and I’m not as much a fan of the shorter articulations used in the Horowitz and Lahusen. I like the others though! |
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Javi
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Post by Javi on Jul 30, 2023 22:04:27 GMT
My favorite "find" of 2023... any medium  |
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Sept 18, 2023 7:07:36 GMT
Amy Beach is best known for her “Gaelic” Symphony, which was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman... but here is a movement from her very fine Piano Quintet, heavily influenced by Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, which I adore (in fact, the main theme is even borrowed from the last movement of the Brahms quintet, but reworked).
A lot of rich harmony, with piano writing reminiscent of Chopin and Liszt, but this movement in particular features her own individual voice most clearly.
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