What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[oliver sudden]

Indeed, oliver, I think we should celebrate Max more as an outstanding British composer. Considering how intense and complex his music is (the opposite of minimalist, it's hard to resist the pun : 'maximalist') he was remarkably prolific : all those symphonies and quartets, and many works which appeared and disappeared, such as Vesalii Icones , the Piano Sonata, that lovely cello concerto (all major works): then there's the operas...

Many years ago I was treated to a lecture by John C Waterhouse, a dyed-in-the -wool Max fan , who claimed , in his characteristically eloquent way, that Max was the first Briritsh composer since Dunstable to be a world leader in new music. Elgar , Vaughan Williams and Tippett (and some would add Britten) , for all their profound qualities , were surely followers rather than pioneers.

My home ground with Max is definitely the Fires of London music (partly because Alan Hacker is such an important figure for me as a clarinettist) and Vesalii Icones is a big favourite—a very neglected piece I think (as do you if I understand you correctly).

I played Ave Maris Stella recently with my Köln colleagues. I’ve always been struck by the fact that the official Fires recording of that has almost none of the players that premiered the piece—there was a big changing of the guard between the two events. I had always wanted to hear the ‘original cast’, then I found out relatively recently that a recording of the premiere exists, and I managed to hear it. I was astonished at how badly it seemed to fit the original players, even allowing for how terrifying it must have been to play that piece new. I got the impression Max’s music had moved on from his performers, even slightly before those performers moved on from his music…

It must be tricky to be a pioneer. You have to think up a new path, then you need to make it properly yours, then people eventually have to follow you down it (without overtaking you of course) because if that doesn’t happen eventually you’re just a misfit

[CallMePaul]

Anton Webern. Lieder.

Christiane Oelze, soprano and Eric Schneider, piano.

DG (1995)

Very interesting music.

I have this CD but have not played it for a while. None of the music is well-known, but the late settings of Hildegard Jone are never performed these days. Not sure why, but they will not be easy for either singer or pianist (or the chorus in Webern's cantatas). I know no more about Jone except that she and her husband (Josef Humplick) were friends of the Weberns, and have no idea whether her poetry is easily available either in the original or in translation. I must look her up on Wikipedia or elsewhere!

[smittims]

Quite right, Oliver. Stravinsky had a big problem just getting people to play his music accurately. And Tippett's music was quite wrongly called 'unplayable'.

Hildegarde Jone is interesting because Webern, after meeting her, and after setting verse by a wide range of high-quality writers of various centuries, deliberately limited his vocal music to her verse for the rest of his life. Her writing isn't , I think, of high quality in itself, but maybe it had just what his music needed. I often think second-rate verse (Housman, Whitman,etc.) is more suited to music than 'great' poetry. Look how few really successful settings there are of Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth or Eliot.

[richardfinegold]

Having enjoyed the Haitink/RCO Debussy I played a disc of Ravel from the same collection. There is a complete Daphnis from Boston and La Valse and Alborado with the RCO. I have to say this was a disappointment. They are all well played and recorded but don’t even belong on the same shelf with Monteux, Martinon, Paray, Boulez…. Haitink didn’t revisit the French repertoire as he did Bruckner and Mahler in later years so at the moment I don’t know if alternative versions exist

[smittims]

Sibelius, Fifth symphony: John Storgards , BBC Philharmonic. Just as good as the performances of the earlier symphonies. This is turning out to be a really good complete set.

Stockhausen : Adieu. Much more enjoyeble and rewarding than I'd expected. I sometimes think the mere name of a composer puts people off trying their music. If we take the plunge it can be a pleasant surprise.

[oliver sudden]

Quite right, Oliver. Stravinsky had a big problem just getting people to play his music accurately. And Tippett's music was quite wrongly called 'unplayable'.

If I remember right (not having much of a taste for his writings, but having given them a fairly good try over the years), Taruskin ascribes quite a bit about the very nature of what we now call ‘accuracy’ to Stravinsky, in particular to the ‘objective’ nature of his rhythmic writing. This Taruskin sometimes uses as a stick to beat HIPP performers. I don’t actually agree with this (I would certainly agree that the idea of ‘accuracy’ changed across Stravinsky’s lifetime but I would think that has a lot more to do with the development of recording…) but I find the argumentation fascinating.

[Stanfordian]

Aigul Akhmetshina – 'Aigul'
Arias by Bizet, Massenet, Bellini, Rossini & Traditional Bashkir
Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano)
Apollo Voices,
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Daniele Rustioni
Recorded 2023-24, St Jude on-the-Hill, London
Decca, CD new release

Mozart – Hagen Quartet
String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat major, K428
String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, K458 'The Hunt'
String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K575 'Prussian No. 1'
Hagen Quartet
Recorded: K428 (Palatin, Minnesängersaal, Wiesloch, 1999);
K458 (Kirche St. Konrad, Abersee, 1998); K575 (Mozarteum, Grosser Saal, Salzburg, 1995)
Deutsche Grammophon
(CD 5 of 7 from Complete Mozart String Quartets)

[richardfinegold]

Ives, Second Symphony, Ormandy/Philadelphia

What a pleasant surprise! Last week I had played Bernstein and Litton in this week but Ormandy is simply superb. Ironically he is to my ears the most American sounding of the three.

[smittims]

I like the Ormandy, and another fine Ives 2 is the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Decca recording from 1975.

My last listening was Gareth Walters' Divertimento for strings. As hs name sugggests , he was a Welsh composer (died 2012) but this is a Canadian radio recording, from TTN.

[Pulcinella]

Just went to play the Bernstein DG Ives 2 and found the CD case empty!
A complete mystery.
It's not as though there are other players in the house that it could have been left in: just the main system in the living room and a small Denon unit in the dining room.

Resorted to the Double Decca set instead (LAPO/Mehta).

[smittims]

You remind me of when I bought the Naxos reissue of the Knappertsbusch Meistersinger, and took it home to find only three CDs in the case instead of four. Who would believe me? Fortunately I was a regular customer and they did.

I've been catching up on Barenboim's third series of the Beethoven sonatas, recorded (originally on DVD) in recitals at the Berlin opera in 2006, reissued on Decca CDs. I'm finding them very rewarding. Just up to the op. 27s .

[Stanfordian]

Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón – ‘Duets’
Opera duets from Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky & Moreno Torroba
Anna Netrebko (soprano) & Rolando Villazón (tenor)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Nicola Luisotti
Recorded 2006 Lukaskirche, Dresden
Deutsche Grammophon, CD

Mozart & Beethoven – Quintets for Winds & Piano
Mozart
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat, K452
Mozart / arranged Bernd Schober
Slow movement from Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 'Elvira Madigan'
(arranged for Quintet for Winds & Piano)
Beethoven
Quintet in E flat major for piano and winds, Op.16
Margarita Höhenrieder (piano)
Bläsersolisten der Dresden Staatskapelle
Recorded 2015
Hänssler Classic, CD

[richardfinegold]

Just went to play the Bernstein DG Ives 2 and found the CD case empty!
A complete mystery.
It's not as though there are other players in the house that it could have been left in: just the main system in the living room and a small Denon unit in the dining room.

Resorted to the Double Decca set instead (LAPO/Mehta).

I had the same problem when I went to play the Litton! I reordered it. Is there a cat burglar breaking into the homes of forumites and stealing their CDs of Ives Second Symphonies?
Too bad Agatha Christie isn’t with us. Surely she could make something of the material

[richardfinegold]

Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón – ‘Duets’
Opera duets from Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky & Moreno Torroba
Anna Netrebko (soprano) & Rolando Villazón (tenor)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Nicola Luisotti
Recorded 2006 Lukaskirche, Dresden
Deutsche Grammophon, CD

Mozart & Beethoven – Quintets for Winds & Piano
Mozart
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat, K452
Mozart / arranged Bernd Schober
Slow movement from Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 'Elvira Madigan'
(arranged for Quintet for Winds & Piano)
Beethoven
Quintet in E flat major for piano and winds, Op.16
Margarita Höhenrieder (piano)
Bläsersolisten der Dresden Staatskapelle
Recorded 2015
Hänssler Classic, CD

What did you make of the slow movement of K. 467?

[smittims]

Maybe the clue to the Ives burglaries lies in Conan Doyle's story 'The Six Napoleons' . One copy of the CD includes a priceless treasure .

I'm catching up on the Donohoe Busoni Concerto from 1988 on YouTube. My goodness, what a performance. They really give it their all, don't they? I don't remember hearing it at the time, though I did listen to that year's Proms, which included a fine Verdi Requiem under Andrew Davis and the premiere of Ross Edwards' Piano concerto, which I enjoyed.