Off The Beaten Track

[Tapiola]

MrGG

[teamsaint]

I have hovered more than once over this installment of the Avant Garde Project. With testimonials of the calibre of TS and S_A I shall hover no longer.

The most recent electronica I have auditioned on the AGP is "Voile d'Orphee" by Pierre Henry. Disturbing, haunting, achingly sad and very beautiful.

Ah, sounds great Taps. I'll pop that up the top of my AGP list.
I tried to do the thing in order, but failed dismally !
perhaps if a few of us are listening to music from this site, it might be helpful to comment on music that we struggled with.
I usually hesitate on this, but of course pointers from others might help the process.

Other music I have returned to quickly is that of Ramon Zupko.
Today, Noosphere for string Quartet. Unusual, but very enjoyable piece, with apparently something for everybody .......!!!
( its no longer available online I think, though there are some works on youtube).

[Tapiola]

Ah, sounds great Taps. I'll pop that up the top of my AGP list.
I tried to do the thing in order, but failed dismally !
perhaps if a few of us are listening to music from this site, it might be helpful to comment on music that we struggled with.
I usually hesitate on this, but of course pointers from others might help the process.

Other music I have returned to quickly is that of Ramon Zupko.
Today, Noosphere for string Quartet. Unusual, but very enjoyable piece, with apparently something for everybody .......!!!
( its no longer available online I think, though there are some works on youtube).

I hope you enjoy the Henry, teamsaint; I have not investigated the Zupko, but will now.

I tend to dip in and out of this site, listening to whatever catches my eye (ear?) at a particular moment - nothing more systematic than that.

And a good idea about making reference to works that one struggles with - one work easily springs to mind here: Ivo Malec's "Triola" (AGP 148), in particular the first movement. Whilst I am not averse to rebarbative and "ugly" () sounds (I get a kick out of Xenakis' electronic works, for example), I cannot get on with Triola at all. Nausea-inducing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Triola ... Nausea-inducing.

Sounds like a cobbled up brand name for some new legal high.

[Tapiola]

Sounds like a cobbled up brand name for some new legal high.

Yes indeed, S_A, with a label disclaimer: "not for aural [sic] use".

[MrGongGong]

Not at all up to date
BUT this

http://120years.net

is getting the geek wizards very excited at the moment

[Beef Oven!]

Wow, what an amazing resource - this will keep me amused for hours!!! Many thanks MrGG, you're a star!

Funny enough, on next month's reading list for me is Joanna Demmers' Listening through the Noise: The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music
Thom Holmes' "Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture.

I bought them both two years ago, but I've only dipped in and out. Decided to read them properly.

Not at all up to date
BUT this

http://120years.net

is getting the geek wizards very excited at the moment

[Beef Oven!]

Edgard Varèse - 'Arcana'
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Naxos.


Sadly, Varèse very much qualifies as 'off the beaten track' these days. A state of affairs not helped by Proms-planners and 'Proms-apologists'.

The stimulating psychoacoustic effects of his music had a profound effect on, for example, the young Frank Zappa. I think the last time I attended a concert containing a major Varèse orchestral work was 2006 at the Barbican in London. Not sure there has that many since then, anyway (Deserts in a 2008 Prom and a 6 and 7 minute work somewhere along the line)

I've had this Naxos set a little while now, previously relying on the New York Philharmonic/Ensemble Intercontemporain Sony/Boulez set from what now seems the dim and distant past.

I remember when the Chailly set on Decca came out to rave reviews. I didn't buy it then - I may check it out on Apple Music, if it's on there.

[Bryn]

Edgard Varèse - 'Arcana'
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Naxos.


Sadly, Varèse very much qualifies as 'off the beaten track' these days. A state of affairs not helped by Proms-planners and 'Proms-apologists'.

The stimulating psychoacoustic effects of his music had a profound effect on, for example, the young Frank Zappa. I think the last time I attended a concert containing a major Varèse orchestral work was 2006 at the Barbican in London. Not sure there has that many since then, anyway (Deserts in a 2008 Prom and a 6 and 7 minute work somewhere along the line)

I've had this Naxos set a little while now, previously relying on the New York Philharmonic/Ensemble Intercontemporain Sony/Boulez set from what now seems the dim and distant past.

I remember when the Chailly set on Decca came out to rave reviews. I didn't buy it then - I may check it out on Apple Music, if it's on there.

It's only 5 to 6 years since Varèse 360° (including a reconstruction of Étude pour Espace) toured its way round Amsterdam, Paris, London ... , (the Dutch and French concerts used to be available online, but they seem harder to find these days). Wounded Bird Records also released the old Columbia/Craft recordings on CD around 8 years ago (silly prices these days). Volkov and the BBCSSO did Intégrales and Amériques at the EIF a couple of years ago. Salonen also conducted Amériques at the RFH in 2013. Then there's http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9pp9 and recent CDs of Amériques. There was yet another broadcast of Amériques on Afternoon on 3 in February this year.

We could do with a lot more though.

[Beef Oven!]

It's only 5 to 6 years since Varèse 360° (including a reconstruction of Étude pour Espace) toured its way round Amsterdam, Paris, London ... , (the Dutch and French concerts used to be available online, but they seem harder to find these days). Wounded Bird Records also released the old Columbia/Craft recordings on CD around 8 years ago (silly prices these days). Volkov and the BBCSSO did Intégrales and Amériques at the EIF a couple of years ago. Salonen also conducted Amériques at the RFH in 2013. Then there's http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9pp9 and recent CDs of Amériques. There was yet another broadcast of Amériques on Afternoon on 3 in February this year.

We could do with a lot more though.

Many thanks Bryn, for an excellent summary of activity.

Indeed, we could do with a lot more!

[Bryn]

Many thanks Bryn, for an excellent summary of activity.

Indeed, we could do with a lot more!

Purely to gloat, when I bought the Wounded Bird release of the Craft Varèse Album, new, in 2008, it cost me around £10.50 ($16.48) including p&p from amazon.com. Today ...

[Beef Oven!]

Purely to gloat, when I bought the Wounded Bird release of the Craft Varèse Album, new, in 2008, it cost me around £10.50 including p&p from amazon.com. Today ...

Hopefully it will be rereleased at some point not too far off.

What year are the recordings from?

[Bryn]

Hopefully it will be rereleased at some point not too far off.

What year are the recordings from?

I do not have recording dates but the two original LPs were released in 1960 and 1962. The CDs are no longer listed in the Wounded Bird catalogue, so maybe Sony are indeed thinking of re-releasing them, perhaps in a Robert Craft box.

The recordings which inspired FVZ are also available on CD:



Very much of 'historical'/Zappa anorak interest only.

[I, of course, 'pre-ordered' the CD shortly prior to its release.]

[Daniel]

Sadly, Varèse very much qualifies as 'off the beaten track' these days [...] Deserts in a 2008 Prom

I must have missed (or forgotten) the Deserts, there was a pretty good performance of Ameriques in that year's Proms with the NYO and Pappano*. But I agree, I wish there was more.

*Just found it on youtube, and in the first few seconds of the video there's already been a clip of David Soul conducting Barber's Adagio for Strings. <deafening sound of FOR3 forumistas stampeding towards youtube>

[Beef Oven!]

I do not have recording dates but the two original LPs were released in 1960 and 1962. The CDs are no longer listed in the Wounded Bird catalogue, so maybe Sony are indeed thinking of re-releasing them, perhaps in a Robert Craft box.

The recordings which inspired FVZ are also available on CD:



Very much of 'historical'/Zappa anorak interest only.

[I, of course, 'pre-ordered' the CD shortly prior to its release.]

Ok. Fingers crossed for a rerelease.

Funny enough, although I've been a FVZ fan since the mid early-1970s, and enjoyed Varese's music for over 25 years, it is only in the last 5 years that I read that the latter was a formative influence on the former. Shame, if I'd known before, I'd have got to Varese's music sooner!