What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[Stanfordian]

Ligeti, Lontano - Berliner Philharmoniker/Jonathan Nott. I prefer Hannu Lintu's more recent recording partly because it's more than four minutes longer, but anyway, while it's clear that this piece represented the culmination of a certain tendency in Ligeti's work which he then moved on from, as he did throughout his composing life, I do wish he had spent a little more time in this particular region of his musical universe. I've just been reading (for the first time) Richard Steinitz's book on Ligeti, which is very useful for factual stuff although to my mind it spends too many pages analysing the piano Etudes (which I guess are easier to analyse than a lot of GL's music), and, more annoyingly, repeatedly uses Ligeti's music as a stick with which to beat "serialist dogma", which to me indicates that the author hasn't really absorbed how essential the example of serial thinking was for very many composers not closely associated with it, including Ligeti himself, in - to take an obvious example - the way his orchestral pieces occupy registral and timbral space.

I guess this isn't the place for such discussions, but anyway I need an early night tonight so never mind.

A few days ago at the Kulturpalast, Dresden I heard Ligeti's 'Lontano' the first of a 3 work concert played by the Dresdner Philharmonie conducted by Pablo Gonzalez. I think it's a super work.

[Mandryka]

Feldman Trio, the recording with Josje Ter Haar. I decided to listen to this after enjoying Haar’s recording of Rhim’s Musik Für Drei Streicher so much. This trio is for me much more challenging to enjoy than the Rihm.

Unlike the Rihm, there’s a piano in the Feldman. Different musicians.

[smittims]

Dallapiccola: sex carmina alcaei; piccola musica notturna;preghiere.
Busoni: Bereceuse Elegaique
Wolpe: Piece in two parts for six players.

Fans of 20th-century music will recognise this list as the contents of ASD2388, a Gulbenkian-sponsored disc fromthe 1960s. Wonderful performances from HeatherHarper,Barry McDaniel, and an ensemble led by Wolpe's pianist-daughter Katherina.

[Serial_Apologist]

Dallapiccola: sex carmina alcaei; piccola musica notturna;preghiere.
Busoni: Bereceuse Elegaique
Wolpe: Piece in two parts for six players.

Fans of 20th-century music will recognise this list as the contents of ASD2388, a Gulbenkian-sponsored disc fromthe 1960s. Wonderful performances from HeatherHarper,Barry McDaniel, and an ensemble led by Wolpe's pianist-daughter Katherina.

Fascinating programme there, smittims - the Dallapiccola a fairly early work from his 12-tone period that listeners might be had-put to hear as being serial; the Busoni piece that Mahler conducted, if I'm not mistaken - I often wonder what he made of it! - and a piece by an American composer of the mid-20th century whose music we rarely get to hear, and who was a pupil of Webern.

[ahinton]

Fascinating programme there, smittims - the Dallapiccola a fairly early work from his 12-tone period that listeners might be had-put to hear as being serial; the Busoni piece that Mahler conducted, if I'm not mistaken - I often wonder what he made of it! - and a piece by an American composer of the mid-20th century whose music we rarely get to hear, and who was a pupil of Webern.

Yes; Berceuse Élégiaque was originally written for piano in 1909 and added as the 7th and last piece in his Elegies; the orchestral version that he made the same year was included in the very last concert that Mahler ever conducted. It would indeed have been fascinating to know what Mahler thought of it (although I don't know if there's any kind of documentary evidence of that), just as in turn it would be to know what Busoni made of Elgar's Enigma Variations which he conducted at least once in Germany when the work was relatively new.

[Joseph K]

Bartok - string quartet no. 1 - Alban Berg Quartett

[Pulcinella]

Bartok - string quartet no. 1 - Alban Berg Quartett

Four times?

[smittims]

So there are three versions of the Busoni, including the one made for Schoenberg's Private Musical Performances society, which has appeared on a 1980s Philips LP.

I often wonder what Mahler thought of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto, of which I think he conducted the second peformance, in New York in 1910. There's a letter of Rachmaninov praising Mahler's generous rehearsal, but I've yet to find a remark by Mahler on the occasion.

[Stanfordian]

Mozart
String Quartet in G major, K387 Spring
String Quartet in B flat major, K458 Hunt
Hagen Quartet
Recorded 2014, Sendesaal, Bremen
Myrios Classics SACD

JS Bach – ‘Cantatas with Piccolo Cello’
Cantatas No’s BWV 85, BWV 183, BWV 199 & BWV 175
Andreas Scholl, alto
Barbara Schlick, soprano
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Concerto Vocale de Leipzig,
Ensemble Baroque de Limoges / Christophe Coin (direction / piccolo cello)
Willem Jansen, Silbermann organ (1737)
Recorded 1994 Church of Ponitz, Thüringen
Naïve CD

[Joseph K]

Four times?

Yes, I'm going to listen to it again tonight and the next couple of nights too.

[Bryn]

Yes, I'm going to listen to it again tonight and the next couple of nights too.

Is the ABQ recording of the work all you have access to?

[Joseph K]

Is the ABQ recording of the work all you have access to?

It's the only one I own, but it did cross my mind to check out more on youtube. Any you recommend?

[Pulcinella]

Yes, I'm going to listen to it again tonight and the next couple of nights too.

I'm a bit horrified by the cost of this

https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7461939--bartok-b-the-string-quartets-of-bela-bartok

but it's a handsomely presented hardback, with Matyas Seiber's (unattributed) introductions.
You should splash out on it if you don't already have the scores.
I didn't make a note of the date I bought my copy, but it was on a trip to NYC MANY years ago, and I see it was reduced from $35.00 to $31.50. I think I bought Peter Evans' The Music of Benjamin Britten at the same time, as it has the price in US$ too (29.50), and a card from the seller that I tucked inside: Josep Patelson Music House Ltd, with the handy hint 'Just Back of Carnegie Hall'. I probably lived on lentils for the rest of the year, as we went to Götterdämmerung at The Met too!

PS: I suspect that the wrong image has been associated with this on Amazon, but it might just be worth contacting the seller if you're interested in the full set:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bartók-String-Quartet-Study-Score/dp/0600123030/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SAJTH9UH2BON&keywords=string+quartets+of+bartok&qid=1686488634&s=books&sprefix=string+quartets+of+bartok%2Cstripbooks%2C67&sr=1-1

[Bryn]

It's the only one I own, but it did cross my mind to check out more on youtube. Any you recommend?

Of modern recordings, the Takacs, Emersons, and Belcea are all worth exploring but I have a particular fondness for the old Fine Arts Quartet which also has the advantage of the audio from a television broadcast about the 1st Quartet (the only one surviving from a series of such programmes).

[Pulcinella]

It's the only one I own, but it did cross my mind to check out more on youtube. Any you recommend?

SQ5 was covered in a fairly recent BaL

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?22706-BaL-6-02-21-Bartók-String-Quartet-No-5&highlight=bartok+string+quartet

but I know that there has been lots of discussion elsewhere.
Wasn't BeefO wondering which to take to listen to on holiday once?
I'm sure Bryn will find the threads more quickly than I can.
Like him, I have The Fine Arts set (originally Saga LPs); my first CD set was the Emersons, but I supplemented that with the 1963 Juilliard set (Sony), which again I'd had on LP, and (as a result of this BaL) the Kellers on a very cheap Apex 2CD set.