The Emerson String Quartet is on my short list---I like Smetana & Janacek a lot. Salerno-Sonnenberg is not on my list; I saw her perform before and totally agree that she's sort of stiff. I have a friend who studied under Cho-Liang Lin, so I'd be interested in that show. Also, I have no explanation for this, but years and years ago, before I knew what a pipa was, I had a dream about an old Chinese man playing one, and in the dream I asked him what it was and he said it was a pipa. The next day I called a friend and asked, "Is there a musical instrument called a pipa?" I have been intrigued by them ever since! What is an erhu?
an erhu is a two string Chinese violin of unthinkable beauty. The pipa is an instrument of great range. Powerful and delicate too. Wu Man is one of the world wide recognized masters of the instrument.
After going through that website, I'm glad I don't live out there or I'd be broke. The only way I could do it is if I worked there. I'm friends with the classical music critic at the Birmingham News and he goes to Aspen Festival sometimes. He makes a trip out to Aspen and to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and then he treks back across the country and goes to Spoleto.
I've been listening to Ligeti's Aventures album today. Man, it's a far cry from easy listening too. The first two pieces are avante-garde organ music. Think the soundtrack to Mars Attacks, but ominous instead of funny. I've only made it through the pieces for two piano and those are pretty good. Should be interesting to hear the vocal pieces.
Actually, events held in the outdoor music tent are free if you don't sit inside the open-sided tent. Sure, acoustics are better *in* the tent, but if three of us can save $160 by sitting right next to the tent instead, well then, three of us still have money to spend the night in Glenwood Springs and soak in the hot springs the next a.m. before heading back to Denver.
Time to bring this back to the surface. I've been in a hardcore Brahms chamber music phase for a while, having just performed his Piano Quintet and his first Piano Quartet, both on viola, and his Horn Trio, on violin, in the last year or so. Possibly because of the reputation as a symphonist that Brahms has, his chamber music isn't heard nearly as often as it should be. That's a shame; I'm not exaggerating when I claim he's the greatest composer of chamber music who ever lived. The Horn Trio is now my favorite chamber work, hands down: one rarely finds such a counterintuitive combination of timbres in chamber music, and Brahms uses each instrument to the fullest. Current Brahms favorites: Horn Trio, Piano Quartet No. 1, Piano Quartet No. 2 Also highly underrated: Double Concerto for violin and cello There's also my usual off-the-beaten-track listening selections: Bloch, Concerti Grossi #1 and #2 for string orchestra - the best recording is probably the one by the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra under the baton of Howard Hanson. Herbert, Irish Rhapsody Walton, Viola Concerto - William Walton's best-known work, and probably also the most frequently performed viola concerto. The fugue in the 3rd movement is exquisite. Shostakovich, Preludes and Fugues for piano - the Russian master proves a worthy successor to Bach's legacy. Not quite off the beaten track, but still a favorite of mine. I'm not sure if I get to shamelessly promote my own compositions yet. Perhaps another time.
I agree. I really dig what chamber music of his I've heard. I went to go see Tashi a few years ago and they were doing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in the 2nd half, but my friend didn't want to stay, so we left. The first have was uber-modern with stuff by Takemitusu, Messiaen, etc. It was awesome, and the Birmingham, AL audience was quite receptive to it. I really wish we'd stayed though for the Brahms in the 2nd half. I dont' know these pieces, I'll have to check them out. Last year, I saw Nokuthula Ngwenyama perform that with the Alabama Symphony. She's half Zimbabwean/half-Japanese, and quite a player. The performance was so good, I went and saw it again the second night. (Granted, I didn't have to pay for either night or I would've only seen it once.) They had it coupled with Vaughn Williams' 5th symphony and it was a great night of music. Those are indeed awesome works. I might have to listen to those right now. Hey, put some stuff up, I'd love to hear it. My "off the beaten path" classical listening as of late: Alban Berg's Lyric Suite performed by Kronos & Dawn Upshaw Isabel Bayrakdarian's (soprano) performances of Armenian liturgical music and another CD of hers doing 20th century Spanish songs/arias. Arvo Part's Te Deum Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Articus Steve Reich's Sextet and Six Marimbas I heard Smetana's Ma Vlast on NPR this morning and will probably be playing that a lot soon too.
Gotta love Ma Vlast. Especially having played the insanely difficult viola part. Of the pieces you listed, I've heard only Berg's Lyric Suite. I really should listen to more recent music. Would it be too much to hope for a Naxos or similar budget recording of any of these? Incidentally, another piece I'd like to recommend is Qunihico Hashimoto's 2nd symphony. Hashimoto gets a bad reputation for being Japan's state composer during WWII, but a lot of his work from before the war is very interesting. He seems to have been most heavily influenced by Debussy, though his music has a distinctly Asian bent, and is generally written on a larger scale.
Only thing is, I have yet to actually finish a composition. I started out thinking far too big, so my current oeuvre (sp?) consists of 3 1/2 movements of a 4-movement horn concerto, and one movement of a piano quartet (and fragments of other movements). Hope you don't mind MIDI... Horn Concerto: 1. Adagio - Allegro con spirito; 2. Andante sostenuto 4. Moderato - Allegro vivace Piano Quartet: 4. Finale: Molto vivace Note: MIDI file for 4th mvmt of horn concerto is a bit glitchy in places.
I've been lazy and haven't listened to your clips yet, I will tomorrow though. Current classical listen: Before that it was Boulez's piano sonatas.
I sold a bunch of stuff on eBay recently, so I naturally did the responsible thing with the money. I ordered a trainload of Naxos CDs.
The website is horrible, but the shows look to be great. Just got season tickets to this..... http://www.festivaloforchestras.com/index.shtml I'm disappointed by how ridiculously conservative the programming is, but I can't pass up the opportunity to see these amazing orchestras in person. Only the Kirov is doing stuff you don't see everyday...and even then, it's pretty tame in terms of major composers. Birmingham was way more progressive with their programming of the local orchestra, not to mention the touring stuff that came through. I remember visiting orchestras playing Elliot Carter, Terry Riley, Arvo Part, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Mark O'Connor, etc. I've worked in classical music promotion so I know these promoters have anywhere from 2-5 choices of programs offered by the orchestra on a tour. It's obvious the locals are choosing uber-conservatively, which may pander the the older retiree crowd down here. I may drop them a letter and tell them to liven it up a bit, even if just for one show. Let's see some Messiaen or Penderecki or Schnittke or something.
Hmm. I may prefer late Romantic and early 20th century, but I wouldn't exactly classify myself as a conservative listener. I actually find that there's a lot of the standard repertoire I haven't heard, because I'm so busy trying to find more obscure music. Music from earlier in history, but obscure music nonetheless. Latest recommendations: Josef Rheinberger, Piano Concerto - the composer was known mainly for his organ music, but his virtuoso Piano Concerto was fairly popular in the late 19th century. I can only wonder why it was all but forgotten - only two recordings of it exist, and the score itself was only recently republished after literally being out of print for a whole century. The piece itself follows a slightly unconventional form: the piano introduces most of the themes, taking over almost completely after the first few bars. Symphonies by Georg Wagenseil - this would be the state of the symphony immediately before Haydn showed up. A very interesting listen, because of the Baroque elements in Wagenseil's writing. Wagenseil probably represents the mostly-forgotten transition to the Classical style. Maria Newman, Violin Concerto "Lux Aeterna" - this piece, composed in 2000, is being performed by the Occidental/Caltech Symphony this weekend. A short (~10 minute), one-movement work for violin and string orchestra, featuring a lot of interesting rhythmic development. Not sure if recordings exist, but it's likely given that the piece has been performed all over the West Coast.
I think I tend to be a lot like you, sometimes, I'm so busy looking for the rarities that I miss out on the more "mainstream" stuff. I've really been getting into the Naxos American classics series...Hanson, Ives, Piston, Beach, etc. But, here's what I've been listening to lately:
Switching into extreme modernism mode... Normally Part's work is really chill, but this is a disc mainly of his early, avante-garde serialist works. Perpetuum Mobile is one of the coolest, heaviest pieces of orchestral music out there.