Composers whose music means more to you as the years go by

[amateur51]

The composers whose music I have loved for many years, have in many cases meant even more to me, composers such as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Harris, Copland, and I don't think I will ever tire of their music. Certain composers whose music I have always enjoyed have also grown on me still further, Bax, Martinu, Piston, Sibelius, Diamond, Moeran & W Schuman for example. I have also learnt to admire and appreciate composers I've always like but taken for granted, such as Haydn, Puccini, Bartok & Mendelssohn, and my appreciation of Brahms's chamber music and Schubert's piano music has grown appreciably. There is so much music to appreciate and we are so very lucky to have the opportunity to hear it all.
I'm still recovering from a shock last evening when listening to Richard Rodney Bennett's rather astringent 1st Symphony as part of my symphonic journey on my headphones, and my partner, whose musical appreciation is mainly dance/chart music orientated could hear it as my headphones must have been up quite high, and said that he wanted to hear it properly. Imagine my shock when he liked this quite demanding and dissonant music, so I played him Copland's serial Inscape and he really like that too. Peoples musical appreciation and taste can surprise us all even when we think we know them really well!

That's a great story, Sc - presumably his interest was piqued by what he could discern through your headphones & so he was 'coming to it' with totally fresh ears. It's great when that happens. Serendipity is a wonderful thing ... and a rather wonderful word too

[amateur51]

Schumann. Year on year he grows on me.

Great thread!

In a recital a few weeks ago, Dame Mitsuko Uchida played some late Schumann piano pieces Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn), Op. 133, very strange intimate music but also very beautiful, pieces I had not heard before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ges%C3%A4nge_der_Fr%C3%BChe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETytv75g_Do Eric Le Sage

[Bax-of-Delights]

Despite my forum name I never tire of Gerald Finzi who I discovered in the mid 70's. Coming unexpectedly into any of his works I will always stop what I am doing, settle back and let my imagination wander off into that land of lost content.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Thanks am51. On reflection perhaps I should have remembered that my partner was also taken with one of more demanding Beethoven Piano Sonatas a couple of years ago that I was listening to, though I can't remember excatly which one it was. My brothers and a couple of friends, who aren't really classical fans, also tend to respond to the tougher 20th century and more complex scores, I think its the exposure to the more 'way-out' film scores that possibly accounts for this. Just shows that it doesn't need endless Hungarian Dances and Strauss Waltzes to spark an interest in classical music (RW and politburo please note).

I would like to add Tippett to the list of composers who have grown on me in recent years, though I still have a problem with a handful of works.

[salymap]

Although I mentioned Mozart and Haydn earlier much other music means a lot to me. Most of the Czech composers, [although I still miss Chris Newman enthusing about them,] also Sibelius and Schubert. particularly his later Piano Sonatas. I shall never catch up with it all, so much.

[Serial_Apologist]

That's a great story, Sc - presumably his interest was piqued by what he could discern through your headphones & so he was 'coming to it' with totally fresh ears. It's great when that happens. Serendipity is a wondferful thing ... and a rather wonderful word too

Indeed, SC bears out my own experience in my mid-20s, as I described on the old BBC boards, when a girl friend (platonic) of mine caught me one day listening to Roberto Gerhard's very advanced Concerto for Orchestra - having never previously tried her out on my "strange" musical tastes; and her response was to want to know where she could hear similar such music. She had no previous listening experience to go on, and subsequently learned how to operate the reel-to-reel, and on returning from work one day I found her listening in rapt attention to Stockhausen's "Gruppen"!

[Beef Oven]

In a recital a few weeks ago, Dame Mitsuko Uchida played some late Schumann piano pieces Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn), Op. 133, very strange initmate music but also very beautiful, pieces I had not heard before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ges%C3%A4nge_der_Fr%C3%BChe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETytv75g_Do Eric Le Sage

played earlier, most agreeable, cheers Amsy

[teamsaint]

played earlier, most agreeable, cheers Amsy

I recently bought the Demus 13 CD complete piano music.
What a treasure trove it is.
just loving it.
and oP 133 is indeed something special.

[ahinton]

Indeed, SC bears out my own experience in my mid-20s, as I described on the old BBC boards, when a girl friend (platonic) of mine caught me one day listening to Roberto Gerhard's very advanced Concerto for Orchestra - having never previously tried her out on my "strange" musical tastes; and her response was to want to know where she could hear similar such music. She had no previous listening experience to go on, and subsequently learned how to operate the reel-to-reel, and on returning from work one day I found her listening in rapt attention to Stockhausen's "Gruppen"!

Ah, Gerhard's Concerto for Orchestra! What a wonderful piece it is! I remember it many years ago conducted by Norman del Mar.

[ahinton]

played earlier, most agreeable, cheers Amsy

I've known Gesänge der Frühe for many years; strange, largely restrained and reticent yet astonishingly refined expressions of Schumann's prematurely late years - but what of his presumably curious prescient decision therein (in one of them) as to how the Valkyries were to ride?(!)...

[Serial_Apologist]

Ah, Gerhard's Concerto for Orchestra! What a wonderful piece it is! I remember it many years ago conducted by Norman del Mar.

Several years ago, I was at a party, and was telling someone to whom I had not been introduced this very same story. The person turned out to be Edwin Roxburgh, and he told me that he had been a participant in that very 1967 performance that was on the abovementioned tape of mine in the role of an instrumentalist, as I remember. I think Del Mar was actually the conductor. Talk about coincidences!!!

[Roehre]

I recently bought the Demus 13 CD complete piano music.
What a treasure trove it is.
just loving it.
and oP 133 is indeed something special.

I told you so

[Pianoman]

Ah, Gerhard's Concerto for Orchestra! What a wonderful piece it is! I remember it many years ago conducted by Norman del Mar.

I'm listening to that very BBCSO recording now - still the best, regardless of the Chandos/ Bamert disc.

[teamsaint]

I told you so

I am obliged for the excellent advice from the panel as ever!!

Only complaint is I am struggling to find time for all the other stuff ATM...but a good problem, as the bosses say.