The Classical Music Guide Forums

Blip

I agree with Joe Barron about Black Angels. I have a recording by the Brodsky quartet which couples Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet with Crumb's "Black Angels". Some time ago I fell asleep during the Schubert and woke up to "Black Angels" and got really scared. I thought that there was so...

Blip

You know, in his day, Mozart was considered a master of terrifying effects --- such as in the final scene of Don Giovanni. Welcome, Joe, and anyone who has seen Amadeus or an equivalent staging will understand exactly what you mean. Actually, I just saw Amadeus again, and that's what I was thinking...

Blip

I would disagree, of course, that there is no great composer alive today.

Blip

You're in luck. I once asked Mr. Perle that same question personally, and at the time, the piece he seemed most proud of was his Concertino for Piano, which is available on this recording. His string quartets are also very fine. He's a lovely man, and a terrific stortyteller. His account of how he b...

Blip

Jazz bassist and noted audio designer Mark Levinson talks about a “disconnect” with music we began to experience with the onslaught of the digital age. He says the human brain has a difficult time trying to reassemble the digitally sampled and chopped smooth waveforms of music, making it impossible...

Blip

Too many audiophiles allow their quest for better-sounding components to displace their ability to just sit back and enjoy the music. In the right context, a lo-fi iPod can hit the mark just as easily as a megabuck speaker can miss it. I bought a Stereo! Wow! With two speakers! But then I heard the...

Blip

I still have a lot of LPs that I have gotten around to replacing. I intend to keep them and maybe get a laser turntable if and when the prices come down. in the meantime, I still play them on my regular diamond needle turntable. LPs may not be very valuable now, but they may come around again, espci...

Blip

I was interested to note Wagner listed as a "small catalog" composer, although I understand the reason. But isn't it paradoxical to include the creator of giant-scale works like Wagner's in this group? Yes, he did write the "Wesendonck" songs as well as a few works for solo piano - but that's hardl...

Blip

Mr. Carter is right on the cusp. Schirmer lists 37 published works, and Boosey lists 75, for a total of 112. Even weeding out redundancies -- for example, counting each of the Three Occasions or Three Illusions for orchestra individually without counting the suites themselves as single works (each m...

Blip

Carl Ruggles has been mentioned. My other favorite very, very small catalogue composer would have to be Edgard Varese. His entire output is available on 2 CDs --- 16 pieces, including two versions of the same piece --- but it's still life changing. I will have to do a catalgue count of Elliott Carte...

Blip

Hi everyone, my name is Kevin and I'm from Hong Kong. I've been surfing the net for classical music stuff and came across this site. I'm only 21 and have been listening to classics for around 10 years, starting when my parents played them to me when I was young, (Well probably some of you have been...

Blip

The music for the Fourth of July is The Fourth of July by Chalres Ives.[/u]

Blip

That, more than any musical description, describes Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, used so memorably in the monolith scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is a factual error. Lux Aeterna was used during the ride of the moon bus from Clavius to Tycho, before we see the monolith in the excavation. The monolith ...

Blip

From The New York Times: Recently, several hundred people attended an early evening "Hear and Now" program in which Mr. Carter discussed his 1996 "Allegro Scorrevole" with the composer Steven Stucky. The gifted young French conductor Ludovic Morlot, who recently made a memorable Philharmonic debut,...

Blip

This article reinforces my lack of interest in composer's personalities and biographical information. Aside from a few figures like Shostakovich and Gesualdo, biographical information adds nothing to the music. The fact that Stravinsky's personalily was who he was adds nothing to the music. Oh, dea...

Blip

I have to say much of Jones' work seems dated to me, but "Cocktails for Two" is still very funny, and the first time I ever heard his version of "Laura," I really fell apart. What makes it hilarious is that he does the first half absolutely straight. Listening to the radio in my car the other day, I...

Blip

OK, for the last time: Elliott Carter's Double Concerto is not "hard-bitten."

Jackass.

Blip

Looking at the Monadnock (NH) Festival schedule for the summer, and found this listing. Ralph should buy his tickets now: Sunday, July 30, 4pm Peterborough Town House Joseph Haydn: Quartet in D, Op. 20, # 4 Karl Dittersdorf: Quintet # 6 with 2 cellos, K. 190 Johann Wanhal: Quartet, Op. 33 W.A. Mozar...

Blip

She sounds like an interesting and accomplished eprson. Pity she's the point guard for a dishonest, incompetent and lawbreaking administration.

Blip

But more than just explaining this (beautiful) word,I'd like to know why Wuorinen uses it and in what way it inspired him . I know Wuorinen is a religious man. I was thinking last night that perhaps he regards the music itself as a theological opinion. It might express something of his ideas about ...

Blip

Theologoumenon A theologoumenon is a theological opinion. This word is often applied to opposing arguments in a theological debate, where both sides are rigorously orthodox. This happens because we possess sufficient knowledge to assure our salvation, but we do not possess all knowledge, and we can...

Blip

When Carl Nielsen died, he had plans for a series of wind concertos, one for each intrument of a wind quintet. He completed two — one for flute and one for clarinet. I'd like to hear another one, either for horn or oboe, but since this is a fantasy, I'll ask for the whole cycle: horn, oboe and basso...

Blip

Hi, all. I attended the big Elliott Carter festival in Minneosota the week of March 7. With six concerts in five days, it was touted as the largest retrospectiv eof Mr. Carter's work ever held, though whether it was more elaborate than the Barbican's Get Carter! fesitvla may be disputed. in any even...

Blip

BWV 1080 wrote:I thought it was already settled that Carter's Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei was THE great American symphony.

I'd go for that, or the Ives 4th.

Blip

The first time I saw Schikele in concert was the funniest— the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, 1974, I think. He did the slide show about PDQ's life (many of the illustrations can be found in the Intimate Biography) and he finished up with "Hansel and Gretal and Ted and Alice." Everything was new,...

Blip

The imminent demise of classical music is perhaps its oldest ongoing tradition. --- Charles Rosen

Asked about the future of music, Elliott Carter replied, "Well, it's always been hopeless."

Someday they'll learn to like it. — Beethoven

Blip

More power to James Levine for his programming choices. He has evidently gerneated a great deal of excitement in Boston, more than Eschenbach hads managed to do here. He may have lost some listeners, but he's probably gained some, too. I have been to Boston a couple times in the past coule of year t...

Blip

I get most of my good ideas from Rosen. The breadth of his knoweldge is daunting. I'll be interested in reading his review of the Taruskin's later volumes, since Taruskin and I don't agree on a lot when it comes to moderism. It always surprises me how people like Taruskin and Maynard Solomon, who ar...

Blip

Odysseus, if you get a keyboard, be sure it's a good one, with a full complement of 88 weighted keys, so that it feels like a piano. Since I rent an apartment, I have an electronic keyboard instead of an acoustic piano, and it's fine for my needs. The big advantage is that I can plug in the headphon...

Blip

The Planets, by Gustav Holst. The perfect combination of quiet and loud. There are many good recordings. I have Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, which is worth getting if it's still in print.

Blip

Corlyss_D wrote:Life's too short to spend it listening to "music" that makes you nervous, impatient, and bored.

Absolutely true, but what's that got to do with Schoenberg?

Blip

Interesting question.

There's Copland' "Music for A Great City" (not to be confused with Quiet City)
And Elliott Carter's Symphony of Three Orchestras, with its opening evocation of New York Harbor.

Blip

I love Gershwin's songs --- I've been working my way through them on the piano for years --- but I often find that the concert music is more impressive in memory than in fact. By this I mean the melodies are so good that I remember them long after the music has stopped, and I forget how creaky the p...

Blip

Thanks for the info. You're very welcome. Music becomes even more interesting, the more we know about it. I've always felt the Leroy Anderson was underrated as a composer. His short orchestral works are among the best of their kind. I only recently learned that, like a lot of other major American c...

Blip

Interesting, because technically Sleigh Ride has nothing to do with Christmas. Well, technically, Messiah is an Easter Oratorio. Sleigh Ride has taken on seasonal dimensions, though, since it's only played at this time of year. it's winter, it's snow, and what the heck, it's Christmas. Thanks for t...

Blip

Christmas just isn't Christmas until I hear LeRoy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride." Any version will do, but it's best when played over a shopping center PA system.

Blip

I have to confess, many of my favorite recordings back in the seventies were Columbia pressings with Bernstein and the NYPO. I also have to confess I have very few CDs with Bernstein, since I kept the LPs for 30 years. So I can't vouch for the digital transfers. But if the CDs are anything like the ...

Blip

Mozart wrote a huge amount of what boils down to Tafelmusik. What's wrong with that? And thank God he did! Only since Beethoven has it been prostitution to write charming elegant background music. I wouldn't call it prostitution. Satie did it. Wagner did it with the Siegfried Idyll. Milhaud also wr...

Blip

I don't buy too many CDs anymore, but for me, the one title conspicuously absent from the list is the Music of Elliott Carter, Vol 7, on Bridge. Four major, recent works, well engineered and superbly performed. And I think it's a little pathetic fro Bernard Holland to recommend Boulez, since he's ne...

Blip

Corlyss_D wrote: BTW, I see you are getting up there in posts! We appreciate your presence and your diligent patronage, Blip. At this rate, you might get into the top 10 ring in the not-too-distant future.

Awww, shucks.

Blip

Corlyss, However, if he's just being boring and repetitive and obsessive on his musical tastes, we don't care. Well, how can someone like yourself even begin to appreciate such an intensely sophisticated and exquisite work as Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande ? Are you at all familiar with this rare m...

Blip

Corlyss, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Plow137 is a spammer. He's trying to get us to log on to that online casino link. I've seen this kind of thing on other discussion boards. Doesn't it bother you that his remarks make absolutely no sense?

Blip

Corlyss_D wrote:However, if he's just being boring and repetitive and obsessive on his musical tastes, we don't care.

Well, of course, if that was a legitimate cause for banishment, none of us would be here ...

Blip

I am extremely fortunate to have the faculties plus the background for loving art music. It is not politically correct to say so, but most people do not, and they literally do not know what they are missing. But I was born to this, and that is not boasting because I can take no credit for that. Any...

Blip

By the way, I'm not "anti" 20/21st century music. I have found a number of composers most appealing. One is Loren Rush[/i] whose "Song and Dance" made a huge impact upon me. Work by John Adams such as Harmonielehre; Chairman Dances; Tromba Lontana; Short Ride in a Fast Machine are mostly outstandin...

Blip

Corlyss_D wrote:
Blip wrote: I thought I left this kind of thing behind when I moved to GMG.
You mean they don't have "this kind of thing" at GMG?

Not since Eric left.

Blip

Volodya wrote:
Blip wrote:Ok, now I remember why I stopped coming back here ...
Did my post drive you away again, Blip?

No, you were perfectly reasonable. It's the persistence and general tenor of these arguments I find unpleasant. I thought I left this kind of thing behind when I moved to GMG.

Blip

Ok, now I remember why I stopped coming back here ...

Blip

It just means that we are dealing with mere art instead of colossal art. Even the term 'art' can be challenged when it turns off so many people. I think a lot of these composers are legends in their own minds and the minds of those who invite them to cocktail parties for their brilliant repartee. W...

Blip

Glad you liked it. For me the highlight of the disk is the Boston Concerto.

Nice article about Mr. C in today's Financial Times:

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/891a0802-65fc- ... e2340.html

The Classical Music Guide Forums

Search found 84 matches

Re: Deep Listening

Re: Deep Listening

Re: Hi evernone.

Re: Ligeti Appraised

Re: Whither the N.Y. Philharmonic-A Time of Challenge

For Ralph

Minnesota Carter Festival

Re: No genius?

Re: Thanks

Re: Thanks